Found it: Affordable Bunk Beds

by Natalie

My house is around 800 square feet. I think it's maybe 840 square feet if you're counting the front and back porch (which I mostly don't, as it's usually too hot to hang out on it). In keeping with that small footprint, the rooms are pretty small as well. My husband's and my bedroom is a little larger than our kids' room; hey, we're the grownups! Their room is fine for two kids; it holds a bookshelf, a dresser and used to hold both a single twin bed AND a crib. (It was a teeny bit crowded.) When our younger daughter, who is now two and a half, moved to a big girl bed, we realized that we couldn't actually FIT two twin beds in their room; we decided to look for bunk beds.

So we looked. And looked. And looked. I went to stores; I searched every kid design blog; I found the end of the internet looking for affordable bunk beds that weren't hideous. And I found next to NOTHING.

I liked these:

Um, they cost $1,490.00. NO, THANKS.

I also liked this one:

$2,475.00. Again ... NO.

All I wanted was a decent looking white bunk bed without too many details that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I was about to design one and have my husband build it. (He loved that idea, as you can imagine.)

I kept running across bunk beds that were either too expensive, too tall (we have ceiling fans) or just not my taste (there are a shocking number of metal bunk beds for sale that are straight out of the 80's.)

And then one day, I found them. The perfect bunk beds, at a decent price, on the website of the last place I would have expected to find them. Ladies and gentlemen: the Elise bunk bed from Wal-Mart.

Which costs a whopping $199 on sale (usually priced at $220).

The price was right, the reviews were good, the design was clean and simple ... I ordered that sucker and I've never looked back. Plus they unstack into two regular size beds if we ever live in a house where the rooms are big enough to do so. Here's what it looks like in their room:

(Disclaimer: I asked them to clean up a little so I could take a picture, so they decorated their beds with every blanket in their room, apparently.)

Yahoo!

{top two bunkbed photos via babygeared.com; Elise photo via walmart.com; bottom photo is mine}

 

 

 

Comments

[Lisa]

I sooooo needed this post. I've been looking online and pinning away trying to find a nice white bunkbed for my girls. Our house is small too and with the economy in the tank it doesn't look like anyone will be buying it anytime soon so we could move into a bigger one.

I needed white, safe for an uncoordinated 5yr old on top and unbunkable for the future house (and seperate rooms).

I was stuck on a $1,200 pottery barn kids model (and that was the sale price). Now I can afford mattresses!

THANK YOU!

[Elsha]

Very cute! Maybe I can actually afford to replace the ones my husband had as a kid that we've been hanging on to. (For a long time he used them side by side as a frame for a king bed.)

[Manda]

Looks super cute! How old is Georgia again? I'm curious about when a kid is "big enough" for a top bunk (we'd like to eventually sleep the kids in the same room too, but have the same space issue. Also I am scared of bunk beds).

[Elizabeth]

These are so nice! And not from IKEA! Thank ou so much for this!

[Natalie]

Manda, Georgia has been on the top bunk since a little before she turned 5... we have only a mattress up there (and on the bottom too) and so the possibility of her falling out or rolling out is pretty much impossible since the mattress is so far below the actual bed railings. We do have a few rules, too: if you can't get down on your own, you can't get on the top bunk. Also, only one kid at a time on the ladder, and NO HORSEPLAY on the ladder. We're really strict about these rules, so we haven't had any issues so far!

[elz]

I looked EVERYWHERE for bunk beds (I needed a twin over a full). I finally found them at a local kids boutique, which had some from Ginger at a ridiculous price. But, yeah, shopping for bunk beds is not fun.