What I've built for my 12 yo niece

hemdale

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Sep 17, 2013
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109
Hi guys,

I'm starting to like it here so I thought it would be a good opportunity to show you what I've been up to lately.

My 12 yo nephew said she didn't like her metallic (bunk) bed structure anymore and wanted something "cooler". I'm guessing that a 12 yo teen wanted something closer to what she's seen on Instagram or Pinterest.  [cool]
I said "leave it with me and I'll see what I can do".  [wink]

400€ worth of 22mm thick plywood, a bunch of 2x2's and 2x4's later, here's what I've managed to built.
I'm not a carpenter and I've learnt pretty much everything I know so far....watching YouTube videos.  [embarassed] [crying]
This is my very first project, and I humbly submit it here.

The story

Several things I had to work with were:

- to keep the chest with drawers (seems it had a sentimental value) and find a way to integrate it seemlessly.
- to keep the white (ikea-ish ?) cubic shelves as well.
- making sure they can easily have access to what underneath the bed structure.
- having enough desk space.
- building a small shelve

The building process

The 22mm plywood was way to heavy and a bit too thick. It was perfect for the bed surface but the rest should have been thinner (probably 18 or 15mm would have been perfect). Lesson learnt.

Because of the tiny apartment, I decided to make ALL the cuts in the main lobby of the building.  [sad]  [embarassed]
There was no way I could have cut inside the flat.

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Spent 2 days on my knees and started to do dangerous things with the TS55:

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And then, brought everything upstairs and started to assemble things.











Oops...  [crying]





The rest went rather well with tiny adjustments.





















For the tech lovers (ahem), this is for you

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For those of you who wondered if the TS55 could make clean cuts, the answer is yes.

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And if you wanted to know if the 45° cut is accurate, well it is.

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The door which was probably the most difficult step of the entire building process. If someone knows how to install a door when working alone, I'm all ears !  [wink]

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Not too bad:
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The shelve. Thinking about it, the plywood agains the wall is way to tall, I should have made it 50% smaller but you don't really see it once you've put books on the shelve. Lesson learnt, again.  [embarassed]





This is how the bed structure looks like when finished (still have to put some mat varnish on it)



The right door panel is perfectly flat...and it shows.  [sad]




The desk



And once the 12yo nephew brings back her stuff...  [scared] [blink] [eek]





Hmmm, I should have avoided this unnecessary row of holes  [unsure]


While some of you may say that the left door won't open, I didn't know there was another shelve next to the bed.
Ahhhh last minute plans modifications.

While I understand that things have been slightly over-engineered, I didn't want the structure to break / bend / fall.
If I had proper knowledge of carpentry / joints basics, I would have done things differently and that would have save me some time / hassle but hey, that was my very first project...and as the wise man said once "Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions".  [big grin]

Whatever, the girl is happy and her mom too. The rest doesn't really matter.
Thanks for watchin'  [thumbs up] [thumbs up]
 
I like it. What's more, my eleven-year old daughter likes it. And she's the prissy one..
 
Nice job, I'm sure she loves it, well done. That's a big project for any beginner so for you to attempt it and make it first go is impressive.
Is there a small ladder for her to climb up and into bed?
 
Am I the only one who tried to come up with a reason why a 12 year old nephew would like a large MFT in her room? ;)

Nice work!
 
badtastex said:
Am I the only one who tried to come up with a reason why a 12 year old nephew would like a large MFT in her room? ;)

Nice work!

Well if a 12yo teen wants to have an MFT in her bedroom, that means:

- she has good taste
- she has expensive tastes
- she will join the FOG when she turns 18.

PS: she might ask me for a stuffed fluffy Kapex for xmas.  [big grin]
 
Acrobat said:
Is there a small ladder for her to climb up and into bed?

Sure, I was working on it lately otherwise she had to literally jump into her bed...ahahaha.

So here we go...

Whoaaa, look at the size of my shop, isn't it amazing ? Yeah right, it's a 1,5m x 1,5 entrance.  [crying]
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And that was too small, so I decided to work in the living room.  [sad]
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Getting there:
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Worked with previous plywood "left overs" and did my best with what I had left.
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The back:
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The front with a bit of storage space (slippers probably)
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Looks nice, would like to see it all finished and painted. But I think you should make some more holes in the top to adequately remove moisture from the mattress. They seem a bit sparse. It is better to make lots of small ones (8 mm) all over the area than just a few big ones.
 
You're right Alex but I know that the mattress will be regularly flipped so I'm not too worried.

I was thinking of drilling many small holes rather than fewer bigger holes but my lack of experience shows.  [embarassed]
It will be not painted, just a coat or two of mat finish varnish.
 
Nice job and even better that you documented it!  A lot of folks wouldn't take the time nor be comfortable showing a first project.

In the US we call a "girl nephew" a niece. Pronounced like you fine city if Nice. Is that not a worldly name for them?  Curious here...

Cheers. Bryan.

 
Hi Bryan,

Just corrected nephew to niece which makes a lot more sense.  [big grin]

Just wondered if there was something I could have done to make the right door more flat ? Beside planning the plywood to death, I'm guessing a 22mm thick plywood (approx 0,86") would be super hard to "unwarp"
 
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