Who would be crazy enough to cram four boys into one bedroom? Guilty. Yes, all four of our boys share a bedroom. It sounds like a big mess and a lot of fighting waiting to happen, but they actually don’t spend much time in their room. And so far, only our oldest has expressed a desire to have a room of his own.

It’s also a really big room, and it happens to be one of the most organized rooms in the entire house. It’s even bigger than the master bedroom, so we easily fit four beds into the room, with plenty of space to spare.

About those beds…we have two loft beds and each one comes with a lower bunk. Years ago, we actually decided to build one set ourselves (the other we bought used). What were we thinking, right?

Well, our third child was on the way and we were still in our first home, which was only 1280 sq. ft. It had three bedrooms but one of them was my office. Plus, our daughter needed a bed because our new baby was going to be taking over the crib.

We started shopping around for bunk beds but quickly discovered if we wanted something good and sturdy, that would last, we were going to have to fork over a lot of green; green we didn’t really have.

So we decided that building a set from scratch would be better. We had never taken on any kind of project like this before and we didn’t have any of the necessary tools to even build a towel rack, let alone bunk beds. But we forged ahead with our plan, undaunted.

My dad had all kinds of tools so we figured we’d just use his. Our first step was to search the web for the right plans. We found them on bunkbedsunlimited.com. This site was great. It had dozens of plans and styles to choose from at affordable prices.

We found the one we wanted then paid a minimal fee for the plans and the corresponding hardware kit. I don’t remember if we paid for shipping but right now, all kits ship free. The plans walk you through the entire process, step-by-step, from start to finish.

With the plans in hand, it was off to the lumberyard to buy all the wood. We bought ours at Jerry’s in Eugene, OR, where my parents lived at the time.

My dad and I spent the better part of two days cutting, edging and drilling all the lumber to the exact specifications.

We somehow fit everything into our van for the ride home with just enough space left for our kids. Carol and I did all the sanding and finishing when we got home with tools we borrowed from my dad, of course!

We worked on the beds in our spare time so it took us a few weeks to finally get them done and put together.

Carol was VERY pregnant on the day we finished setting the beds up. In fact, it was a Saturday and she went into labor the following Monday at about 1:30 in the morning.

The beds are still just as sturdy as they were the day we put them together and the total cost for the plans, the hardware, the lumber, and the finish was just under $200.

This turned out to be a great DIY project for us. It was a lot of work but totally worth the savings and it’s a memory we still enjoy today. Plus, we still have the plans so if we ever get the urge to build another set, we’re good to go. (This post contains affiliate links as noted in our Disclosure Policy.)