Castle Bed - Help Please!

[7doughnuts]

Hi All,

First of all I'm new to this forum but can see me learning a lot from being here. I'm a competant DIY'er who has completely renovated a property over the past couple of years (hip to gable loft conversion, new roof, ground floor extension, gutted, rewire, re plumb etc), and undertaken much of the work myself with the assistance of tradesmen. Now I'm nearing completion I want to reward my daughter for all of her patience and for having to live on a building site by building her dream bed.

I've attached an example and it's pretty much what I want to aim for in terms of layout and finish. My initial thoughts are to design the bed using CAD and get a CNC workshop to cut the materials which will save a lot of time and material, but I'm unsure of the costs of this. Does anyone have any ideas if this is possible and cost effective?

My second problem is that I want the turrets to be shelves like shown, but I also like the octagonal shape of them and can't see how I could make that! Would I have to router an angle on the edges to get them to butt together and how would I join them? Am I missing a trick?!

I'm sure there will be MANY other questions but I'm falling at the first hurdle here and can't design something I don't know how to make!

Any help will be greatly appreciated and I will be able to tell my little princess that I've started building her castle!

Cheers,
7d

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Well you could handsaw out all the parts clean up the parts with a plane, and do the angles for the edges of the turrets with the same plane.
So you only need a couple of tools, but it would take a long time!

The inside of the turrets are square so the octagnal shape is just applyed to the outside so it should be easy to do.

I bet if you looked closly at it you would be suprised just how cheaply its been made.

Pete

 

[7doughnuts]

I did wonder if it was a square turret with angles added but not sure you can really see inside the front to be sure? The back will be square as that's where it joins the bed but I think the front is constructed like that.

I'm thinking that the CNC route would be better as I really don't want it to look cheap and there are so many cuts there it would be a nightmare with a hand saw surely!?

 

[Steve Maskery]

The back is square but the fronts are mitred. That's my guess.
You would need to be able to cut 22.5 deg accurately, but that is easy on a tablesaw or with a circular saw and track. You can get bevel router bits for 22.5 deg, too. Jigsaw for the windows. It's then a case of biscuiting it all together.
Clamping would be the hardest part, I reckon.
Nice idea for a princess!

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Look at the top two shelves they have straight sides.

I think it will be made in sections otherwise you wouldn't get it through the door.
So all you need to do is break it down in to usable chunks small enough to fit through a door.

If you had fixed shelves you can clad the sides and fix into the shelves its probbaly only octagnal from the front, I bet the back is flat.

Can you have a close look at one, take a camera tape measure etc?

Pete

 

[RogerBoyle]

Would i be correct in thinking that the bed would be on the floor behind one of the turetts
And the staircase is simply going to an Elevated platform with a simple slide on the other side ????

If you have a table saw then this is actually quite a simple Project to make just a bit time consuming
In fact I'd even go so far as to say that the hardest part of this project is getting a quality finish on
it as per the Photo

Roger

 

[mailee]

Ah, I think I see now, the bed is up the stairs to the left so is elevated. Is that correct? Those turrets should be pretty easy to make as they are square at the back and only the front corners are mitred. As has been said if you can cut 22.5 degrees it should present no problem. The bottoms of the turrets are just pieces of skirting wrapped around. It would be an ideal job for a router and template with all the repetitive work. HTH. :wink:

 

[marcros]

could you vinyl wrap the ply rather than try and paint it?

 

[Hitch]

Looks like a great project to use yours and your daughters imagination on!
Id love to build something like that, just dont have the space..... to build it, or use it!

The stone pattern could be quite easily routed?
A biscuit cutter and a kreg jig would be ideal for assembly.

The edge of the turret corners would need to be 22.5 a bit of careful circular sawing and light planing would probably do it? As its painted, you have the advantage of being able to put screws anywhere you like, simply fill them with some 2part filler and sand smooth.



Turrets must be seperate from the front fascia.

Looks pretty simply made, nice detail with the quadrant on the top of the turret (inside)

 

[7doughnuts]

Thanks for all of the replies, I'm feeling remarkably confident now which may now be a great thing! I bought a kreg jig when I first planned on making it and have everything else mentioned apart from a table saw which I'm sure I could either borrow or invest in.

Is MDF the best option or should ply be considered? If I'm to give the slide a curve then I'll need to use ply there won't I?

The drawers in the stairs are a nice touch too. I was thinking of having the tops hinged and lift up to reveal toy storage as I thought that would be easier than drawers but may go for that.

It does seem that the devil is in the detail and I'll be spending a lot of time with fiddly little bits but I don't want it to look like a bodge job, she tells everyone who comes in the house that daddy is making her a castle so there is a lot of anticipation!

If I'm jigsawing all of the turrets and windows etc how to you stop the blade angle changing? Especially on a long cut. Do I need a new jigsaw?! My one is cheap but I have definitely noticed the cut not being square and it can be noticeable over a long distance.

 

[thick_mike]

Looks like there are two separate projects. First building a high riser bed which will need to be pretty structurally robust for safety. Then you can build the castle facade which needn't be so chunky (just like building a fancy set of shelves). You could always cheat and get a bed from Ik*a and then add the Disney touches to that.

 

[Sawyer]

With your experience on the roof, &c., I think you'll find this job pretty easy, 7d. I'd go for the 22.5 degree bevel and biscuit joint them. You could make a router template for the shaped bits, but wouldn't be hard to cut freehand anyway.
Getting the bits CNC'd might be costly, I suspect. The money saved would probably pay for the biscuit jointer!

 

[BelgianPhil]

i would also put some time in thinking how you're going to change the sheets on a bed that size :S

 

[7doughnuts]

i would also put some time in thinking how you're going to change the sheets on a bed that size :S

C'mon, now's not the time to be thinking of practical things like that :wink:

I am slightly torn between building a bed frame first and cladding it or building it as one piece as the plans that I've come across for this type of bed generally use 18mm MDF with no frame, see http://ana-white.com/2011/10/plans/castle-loft-bed and http://ana-white.com/2010/09/playhouse-loft-bed

What do people think?