The Big Girl Bed

Luckily, in all of her two years, my daughter has never tried to escape from her crib. She was content to play in there for hours. I never knew exactly how long Jane would nap because upon waking she would play or read until I finally went to get her. And that meant much more crafting time, so why rock the boat? Unfortunately, her little brother, Jimmy is an escape artist. Within a few months he could clear the edge of his cradle meaning it was time for him to take over the crib. My first baby was going to need a Big Girl Bed.

Twin bed frames and head boards are stupidly expensive and/or pieces of crap. I wanted a bed my kids could jump and play in without spending $750 at Pottery Barn Kids. I love my kids, but $750 can buy a lot of fabric, shoes and bags. Heck, if we're burning that kind of money I'll take a new sewing machine!

Instead, I found Ana White's blog and downloaded the free plans for her Simple Twin Bed. For less than $100 in lumber, supplies and paint, Jane's Big Girl Bed was born. Special thanks to my husband and father for helping me build it. Using power tool isn't easy with a two year old and an infant. Plus, everyone wanted to help build the princess's bed.

Warning if you are going to build your own bed or anything else from Ana's blog: read through the directions first. Ana is a homemaker and a DIYer, not a carpenter or an engineer. Her methods of making aren't "by the book." You may not be bothered by this, but your woodworker husband or jack-of-all-trades dad may be. They may re-engineer things. In any case, the bed is together (finally) and it is awesome, and her royal highness loves it.

The toy box at the foot of Jane's bed was built for her by my father. It is an exact replica of the wood chest that was my childhood toy box as well as my father's when he was a kid. Once I was older, my dad took mine ours apart to refinish it and lined it with cedar for me. He and my mother made this one for Jane's first birthday.

Next up: curtains for Jane's room.

The Big Girl Bed:
Bed design: Ana White's Simple Bed
Lumber: Pine from Home Depot (never Lowes; they don't like gay people and I'm not cool with that.)
Paint: Behr Caribe, as chosen by the Big Girl herself.


If you are looking for the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway, it is right here.

Attention fellow bloggers
I must say something about all the bloggers posting about how so many entrants are no-reply bloggers and they don't know it so we can't contact them thus they can't win. Yes, it is sad and frustrating. But as long as we're getting up on soap boxes here, I would like to say for the record: I am not a robot! And robots don't care to spam your giveaway or blog. Robots don't care about winning your Mendochino fabrics or learning how you make your super cute zippy pouches. But I do! Most all of our blogs aren't even big enough for anyone to want to spam them. So please, remove your comment captchas. They drive me nuts and I can not be the only one. I've not left comments blogs or entered giveaways because of captchas.

Here is a great tutorial on how to remove your comment captcha.