Bunk Bed Q, hope this is the right place

[bluedotsmom]

We will be getting bunk beds for our dd's and a loft bed for our son. Our house's bedrooms are just too tiny!!!

I'm looking at Ikea for the beds themselves (and craigslist :giggle)

My question, are bunk beds the same size as twin beds? Cause twin bed size will work for a few years, anything smaller won't.

Also, any suggestions for good bunkbed mattresses? looking for firm support with soft padding on top.

TIA!

[abh5e8]

i think most bunk beds are twins...some are twin over full. you may be able to get XL twin bunk beds as well. i dont' think they have special mattresses...just whatever you would normally buy, yk.

[Sweet Life]

pretty sure the standard is a twin size
anything else would be labeled as such
btw we have a twin over full and we love it
i guess they also do make full over fulls and one of those might be in our future :)

[mamaKristin]

We have bunks from IKEA, and we have their mattresses for them. They are foam and quite comfy (I've slept on the bottom a couple of times for illness and such). They are twin sized. :)

[abh5e8]

pretty sure the standard is a twin size
anything else would be labeled as such
btw we have a twin over full and we love it
i guess they also do make full over fulls and one of those might be in our future :)

so with a full - over - full, would you put your boys on top and girls on bottom? or is it just to give each dc more space?

right now we have trundled twin beds for the dc...but i expect they will be sharing a room for quite some time, so i am always interested in how others do this.

[MamaPepper]

Just chiming in that we love our Ikea bunkbeds and mattresses. Super comfy. They are twin and both the boys share the bottom one now since the one we have doesn't recommend anyone under 6 on the top bunk. They both have plenty of space and it should last. Actually dh sleeps there most nights and is comfy :yes

[scrappyknits]

This dosen't answer your question AT ALL, but bunk beds have been a big topic around my house lately, too - the boys will be getting one to share.

my 8 year old found a picture of a bunk that he wants:

http://www.treehugger.com/italian-loft-bed.jpg


no, he's not getting it, but WOW, what a great idea!

[MomtoJGJ]

we have bunkbeds for our girls. The mattresses are just regular twin mattresses. The actual bunkbeds you get will recommend what kind of mattress to use with them... foam, innerspring, whatever.

We have two sets of bunkbeds in one room for our 4. Ours also doesn't recommend anyone under 6 in the top bunk, but our 5yo is in one. Hers is against one wall and the other ones are against the other wall pushed up against that one. So in an "L" shape. They have rails all around exept for where the ladder goes out, and with the one pushed up against it there's extra rails and nowhere for her to fall out. DD3 (3yo) has the area that's like a cave, and the baby is on the open bottom bunk so that I can lay down with her. We still have space in their room for a couple more toddler beds, but that would be a tight space.

and that may be the coolest bunk beds I've ever seen.

[2sunshines]

They do make special mattresses for bunk beds. They are thinner than regular mattresses. You really would just have to do a measurement on the specific model that you end up buying to know if you can use a regular mattress. Most regular mattresses are too thick and come up too high which makes the rail inneffective, but of course that will vary from bunk bed to bunk bed. The other thing to look for is how the bottom of the bunk is. For example, many of the lower end ones I looked at don't even have wood slats to support the mattress, they only have wires. That would dig into a regular mattress. IN that case, either a bunkboard is required, or you could probably make your own easy enough with plywood. I dont' know if IKEA beds are like this or not. :think

Our bunkbeds came with the mattresses and they are thinner than standard twin mattresses.

[MamaPepper]

scrappyknits. . . I WANT that whole room!!!!! :drool

[Sweet Life]

so with a full - over - full, would you put your boys on top and girls on bottom? or is it just to give each dc more space?

right now we have trundled twin beds for the dc...but i expect they will be sharing a room for quite some time, so i am always interested in how others do this.

We have a boy room and a girl room. The girl room already has a twin over full. They both sleep on the full, and only use the twin when they have a cousin stay the night.

The boys currently have a twin over twin. We'd probably put a full over full in the boys room with two boys on top and one on bottom or vice versa. Assuming that they still enjoy co-sleeping and that we haven't found a way for them to have a bigger room by then. :heart