In the mornings, Nuala calls out from her crib not so we can pick her up out of it, but so we can bring her stacks of books that she can then peruse at her leisure. We thought it would be nice if she could wake up, retrieve her own books, and spend that first half hour of the day doing something else besides depositing books into her crib. Maybe sleeping a little longer. So I went on over to Ana White’s site, searched for toddler bed plans (I am very lucky that she has a preschooler of her own), and came up with this one.
I’m learning an awful lot about building stuff.
First, it is possible to fit a 3×4″ panel of plywood beadboard into the trunk of a Toyota Corolla, along with several 8′ boards (1×3 and 2×2) and a couple 6′ boards (1×6). The key is that the 8′ boards must be narrow.
Second, carpentry requires blood sacrifice. Okay, to be totally accurate, there wasn’t much blood, but there was quite a bit of pain. A splinter that punctures 3/4 the length of the nail bed of your thumb isn’t messing around, people. I had to grip the little bit under my nail with tweezers as tightly as I could, remind myself how terrible the pains of labor were, and say out loud, “This doesn’t hurt. This doesn’t hurt. This doesn’t hurt.” It hurt. Thank God it came out without a trip to the ER. And if I can’t really use my thumb for a day or two, so what? Look at that bed!
Third, whenever I build something, it is going to rock my daughter’s world. Do your kids ever just tell you, totally unprompted, things like, “Good job, Mom! I like my new bed! Dad, Mommy built this for me!” Is this something that kids do? I have known a lot of incredible, wonderful 2-year-olds, but this one knocks my socks off, people.
The good news about the bed is that she loves it. The bad thing is that she is so very mobile for 11 hours, most of which we would like to spend sleeping. I don’t know what we were thinking.
I don’t know if it’s because she’s anxious that Spouse was starting his new job today and would no longer be home with her during the day, because we had thunderstorms last night, because she had the beginnings of a cold yesterday, or because when she woke up in the middle of the night, she didn’t see what she normally sees from the inside of her crib and got disoriented. Long story short, we were up several times last night with a little girl who said, “I’m too nervous. I sleep with Mommy and Daddy and will feel better.” It took a couple trips back and forth between her bed and ours, but she finally settled down. We are hoping for a better night tonight, because she’s supposed to start daycare tomorrow.
Nicely done! How are you going to finish it? Went to Ana’s site then onto the Knock Off link. Wow! There are some seiously talented folk out there! Could spend hours checking it out. Thanks for sharing!
I’ll eventually paint it, I think, but I can’t imagine when I’ll have the time!
Ana White is a national treasure, man. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of women are now building serious furniture for their households. Beats the heck out of buying pre-fab or ridiculously expensive solid-wood pieces!
Gosh M, it looks great. I can see you spent a good amount of time cutting the curves for the headboard. I am truly impressed!
dad
Jigsaw magic! I made my template with paper, traced it onto the wood, and started cutting. It was less of a big deal than I thought it might be. Thanks for the tools!!