DIY Storage Bed

It's actually been over a year since I built this bed for my 7 year old but it's held up beautifully. I initially built the bed with the intention of my grandmother moving in with us and sharing a room with our daughter. Sadly, we were unable to make that happen. In the mean time, though, my daughter has gotten a lot of use out of this very practical bed and its a great space saver for any room!

I already had a Closet Maid 6 cube organizer  so I only had to purchase 1 more along with (2) 8 cube organizers to accommodate a twin sized mattress.  I was also fortunate to be able to sell her prior bed frame, Ikea cube organizer, and other items. So I highly recommend selling what you can from the room during your revamp to help pay for your project. It allowed me to spend very little out of pocket. 

The 4 cube organizers are not perfectly lined up, as you can see above. This is because a 8 cube organizer on each end is too wide, but the 6 cube organizer is too small. So since mine would be against a wall I off set my 8 cube organizer by 4-6 inches and made sure that the part of the bed that would be showing was flush. 

An advantage to this bed is that you don't just get the cube storage but under the bed storage. This bed allows me to store her baby items, her small 4 ft Christmas tree, artwork, baby blankets, etc. 

Another plus is that long board games can also fit! Closet Maid only gives you 3 cube backings so some of your cubes are open in the back. This allows us to store longer board games. 

Okay, back to the construction. I made sure to connect the cube storage at each corner. You'll want to pre-drill your holes because these split very easily. 

I covered the bed opening with a 1/8" hardboard but depending on your child's age, weight, etc., you may want to use plywood. 

I then fit each cabinet with 1" x 1" brackets from Walmart, using foam mounting tape from the Dollar Tree, which fit perfectly. You can click the links to see exactly what i'm talking about at each store. 

Or you can use the included hard wear and screw them in but I wanted to be able to sell the cubes down the road so I didn't want to make the brackets permanent. 

I used my tape measure to center them and then recessed them about an inch into the cabinet. 

Again the backless cubes are great for games and books that are too long for the typical cube size.

Next I cut 1/8" hardboard (the same board they make pegboards out of) into 11" squares. I actually had Sutherlands cut the sheet into strips so they would fit into my vehicle better, then I cut them to size using a utility knife. I secured a 3/8" screwhole plug in the center of each square with wood glue. Once dry I primed and painted half of the doors purple and the other half blue using spray paint. 

Once the doors were dry I attached round magnets using E6000. I was using very thin magnets that I found at Walmart (shown here), however, I found that they were too thin and I need to replace the magnets with a standard size round craft magnet. 

And that's it! I found it was a much cheaper way to make a storage bed with doors like this rather than doing hinges. 

For storage bins I went to the Dollar Tree and they have these 9x9x8" bins that fit perfectly. You standard Closet Maid bins will not longer fit since we recessed our 1" corner brackets. 

To get into the bed I found this tall foot stool at TJ Maxx but she doesn't even use it anymore and just climbs in. 

I decorated the wall with some cheap items I found in the clearance isles at TJ Maxx and Target. 

Then we invested in and Ikea desk which is much cheaper in store if you can get to one. The stool is an Ikea NILSERIK which I tried in store and absolutely love. 

For her closet I found sheer material at Walmart and made a curtain that matched the wall. 

For her windows I went with these cut to size paper type blinds for only $9 each. 

And that completes the look! Like I said, I did this project over a year ago and this is a current picture, so it has held up really well! It holds her books, board games, toys, etc. It has really left her room mess free and she loves it. 

* This post is not sponsored and I paid for all the materials myself. All Amazon links are affiliate links which means if you use the link to purchase that item I will get a small percentage from Amazon through their affiliate program.