Materials: Kura Bed, 3x2 Wood
Description: Please note, make sure you use strong enough fixings to secure the bed to the wall, if you are fixing to a plasterboard/drywall wall you will need to secure it to the studs, DO NOT SECURE IT TO THE PLASTERBOARD!!!!!!
I did this hack with the bed fully built and on my own, but you could modify it in pieces if you find it easier, and a second person would help make it easier, this took me about 3 hours but would be quicker if I had a second pair of hands. This need to be done in a corner of the room as you need 2 sides supported.
You will need.
1 x Kura Bed
1 x 3m length of wood (about 3" x 2"€)
Some suitable wall fixings and screws, and some basic tools.
1. Saw through the 5 upright supports just below the main bed section to leave the top part of the bed with the slats in place, if you're careful and use a hand saw you can saw all the legs and the bed just rests on top of the frame, the cuts should be flush with the bottom of the main bed section.
2. Lift off the top part of the bed and put to one side.
3. Take apart the remainder of the lower frame and ladder and put all the pieces to one side, making sure you know which parts are the original ladder treads.
4. Decide how tall you want the bed to be, I made the bottom of the bed 1.7m from the ground, (we have high ceilings) this is about as tall as you want to go, but you can go lower if you want, using a long level mark a straight level line along the wall at the height you decide the base of the bed to be (mark the longest side)
5. Cut a piece of your 3x2 wood to the same length as the bed (about 2.1m) I cut a slight angle on the exposed end so it looked nicer and less chance of hitting the corner with you head.
6. Pre drill about 6 pilot holes in the wood at regular intervals.
7. Hold the wood up to your line on the wall (this is where a second person would be helpful) and then using the pilot drill, drill through each hole so it marks the wall behind.
8. Now depending on the wall type either drill and fix wall plugs or if it'€™s a stud wall just pre drill a pilot hole. (An SDS Plus drill will give a nice accurate hole in solid walls, a hammer drill is rubbish and normally makes an oval hole, and takes 5 times a long to drill it)
9. Screw 6 screws part way into the wood so they just stick out the other side this will help line up the wood on the wall, offer it up to the wall and screw it on, check it'€™s nice and strong by hanging from it, if it moves you need to brush up on your DIY skills, ask your wife for some tips.
10. Repeat above steps for the shorter piece of wood to go along the other side, the left over piece of 3x2 should be the correct length already and has the correct angle on it as well.
11. Next you need to lift the bed up to the new wood supports and prop up the other side near where the ladder will be, I used an adjustable plasterboard prop to hold it up but a piece of wood will do, using a level get the bed nice and level and then prop it up.
12. Next take the two long pieces of wood from the base of the bed you disassembled earlier, this will form the new sides of the ladder, these will have a dowel in each end, find a small piece of the base which you can use to make the first run of the ladder, this goes flat on the floor so will be wider than the rest of the steps, you need to fit this piece temporarily to get the correct height (see photos of the ladder to see what I mean) once you have this in place offer it up to the bed and using a level check it is vertical and then measure and mark the height and cut it, repeat for the other side. (The ladder goes from the floor to the very top edge of the bed, its screwed to the front edge in order the make the bed more secure, and not fitted flush like it was originally, if you don't do this the side of the bed that stops you falling out will be too flimsy)
13. Once you have both sides cut you need to make the steps, you will have two steps from the old ladder to use as a guide to get the correct length, but you will need 2 or 3 more depending on the height you made the bed. Try to keep even spacing between the steps and keep the gap the same as the original ones to make climbing the ladder safe, this gap size was set by IKEA for a reason, best not to alter it.
14. Next is probably the hardest part, I cut the steps to length using the two originals as a guide, and then drilled holes in each for the dowels, if your careful you can re use some of the original holes and therefore use the original bolts and fixings for most of the steps, if you can’t use the original fixings just secure each step with 2 screws each side to stop it twisting, pre drill holes to avoid splitting the wood. I only had a few that I needed to screw.
15. To mark the step gaps out on the 2 uprights lay them side by side and then using a tape measure and square mark both pieces at the same time, then they will all line up.
16. Secure the steps to the ladder.
17. Once the ladder is built offer it up to the bed, check its still level then clamp the ladder to the bed and secure with 6 screws (3 on each side) you can also add some L brackets to the back of the ladder where it joins the bed if you want, I didn't but may do so in the future for peace of mind.
18. Now make sure the bed if fully pressed into the walls on both sides and secure it to the wooden wall supports by drilling some angled pilot holes from below, then you screw through the 3x2 at an angle so it also screws in the bed frame, do this about every 30cms on both edges.
19. All done, make sure it's sturdy, mine doesn'€™t move at all, even with me climbing the ladder, it's much stronger that it was originally, now settle to down to a nice dinner of meatballs and gravy, with added horse for flavour.
The desk below is all Ikea as well, Vika Amon tops secured to Besta shelf units on legs and a few Lack shelves.
Top tips for wood working and fixing screws is buy a cordless Impact driver, one you have used one of these you will never want to use a cordless drill again for putting in screws.
~ Mark, Essex, UK
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