A Bit About The Bunk Bed

I have had a fondness for the Bunk Bed as a solution for space problems ever since I was in the army.  There for six months, at Ft Lewis and Ft Ord, I lived with a platoon of men where we spent hours in the evening polishing our gear and arranging our foot lockers for inspection.  We smoked and laughed, played cards and told stories about our girls back home. Every morning we made our beds so tight that our drill sergeant could bounce a quarter on the army blanket that encased our mattress.

Again a Bunk Bed came to mind as Bev and I watched HGTV’s “House Hunter International.”  Sometimes a family moving to Milan or Puerto Vallerta or New Zealand needs more bedrooms than fits their budget and a solution is to double up the kids in a room using bunk beds. It’s an elegant solution.

According to our friends at BunkbedsAtoZ, these great beds are manufactured in metal and wood; in a variety of finishes and can be twin over twin, twin over full, full over full and even futon bunk beds.

There are some safety items to keep in mind:

1.     The upper bunk should have guardrails and should be close to the wall.  The army violated both of these rules, yet I never saw a tipped over bunk bed and no one ever fell out of bed in their sleep.

2.     The top bunk should be for the older child.

3.   There should be cross ties under the mattress of each bed.  Again, the army violated this rule.  I went to sleep at night with those coil springs of the top bunk sagging in my face.

4.     There should be a ladder and the children should be taught to use it.

5.     No roughhousing or jumping on the beds!

6.     Use a night light so the ladder can be seen for use in the night.

Call us if you have a particular need for Bev to research.