High Beds

[Lizzer]

Hi everyone, was wondering if any of you have any experience of high beds (like bunk beds but with furniture underneath instead of a bed)? My Mum is thinking of buying one for my 8yr old sister and putting a sofa bed underneath that can be pulled out when guests are staying. I was wondering if you thought they were a good buy etc. Also, does anyone know where we could get one from, fairly sturdy (ie not Argos!),in pine and around the £400 mark? Thanks in advance...

LIzzer we have one for our 7 year old son, but it has a metal frame. The top bunk is a single bed and the bottom a double, that can be converted into a sofa. It is really useful, son loves it, and it was, at £370, definitely a good buy.

My son soon got over the novelty of sleeping on the top bunk and adopted the double bed. He liked the space - and most importantly, he wanted to be close to his bedside table and nightlight.

This is one problem with high bunks especially metal ones. How do you attach a safe, child-proof light to the upper bunk, apart from fitting a wall light? Clip-on lights are rather dangerous, I think. A young child could easilty pull one off and then the hot light bulb accidently lying against bedding could become a fire hazard. Other mumsnetters may have a good answer to that.

That problem apart, a great advantage of having a convertable double bunk below, is that it becomes a spare bed for my husband and I when we have our in-laws to visit. MIL and FIL can have our 'posher' bedroom, while we can easily fit into our son's room. We have also used the sofa bed for putting up guests. It all depends whether our son and the guest make happy room mates.

I can't recommend a good source of pine beds, but there are lots out there, so I'm sure you'll get lots of responses.

Stompa and Flexa both do really lovely versions of these beds with all kinds of different choices about what goes underneath (double beds, single beds, sofa beds, desks...)

lizzer, we have one from an ordinary bedding store - they didn't stock it but it was in a supplier's brochure. ours is pine and just has the top bunk - no furniture came with it - i think the bed plus mattress cost under £200 but this was 9 years ago. we put a variety of different things under it at different times!

ikea do one that is REALLY high - an adult can walk under it easily. (ours was just the height of a normal pair of bunks, so a child could walk under it but we couldn't.)

for a light we had one of ikea's basic plug-in wall lights - the one with a flat back and a rounded lamp part, half-open - you keep the open side against the wall. ikea do lots of kids' plug-in wall lights too.

the ones who have slept in it think it's great!

Lizzer, don't know if you've got the bed yet, but we DID buy ours from Argos. It was actually from a Scandinavian company,in pine and is brilliantly sturdy and cost between £200 and £300.

Thanks everyone for the input. Sadly, the plans are now on hold as other decorating is needing doing (by yours truly - I don't know how I got lumbered with this, my Mum is claiming that she's forgotten how to paint walls, a likely story...! But I'll use this page for future reference, cheers.....!

TIGERMOTH, the bed you have for your son, where did it come from and is the sofa bit comfy to sleep on? I've been looking at the Flexa and another make today but they work out v. expensive.

P.S We went to Robot Wars, excellent although I was a little hoarse when I came out.

Rhiannon, the bed came from a now defunct stall at Greenwich Market. However, I have seen them (or similar ones), in lots of bed and general furniture shops.

The matress top and bottom are futons - and extremely comfortable. I have a slight reservation, though. What happens if my son wets the bed or spills his drink? The futons seem so heavy, and being pure cotton, I worry that they may take ages to dry out - and then stain. Luckily everything has been fine so far - we've had the bed nearly two years and it looks as good as new.

Oh yes, and the other thing is that the futon covers are not detachable, so you can't wash them. Rather annoying if you were using the bottom futon as a sofa. Ours are mostly used as beds, so they are always covered by sheets.

I must get a waterproof mattress cover sometime. Another thing to add to the 'to do'list.

Any more you need to know, Rhiannon? - just post here.

Thank you!

Well I've bought one, went for Argos in the end for only £250 the Flexa and another company were coming out at about £800. I went for the one that has a 3ft on top and a 4ft underneath so we can have friends/Nana/DS and DD together. When it arrives I shall report on it's quality!!

Just wondered if anybody knew where I could buy a single fold-up bed that would be suitable for occassional use?.

Bells2 I know I've seen them in the argos catalogue, they do a double & a single one. They're a bit pricey just for occassional use. My sister-in-law recently bought an inflatable mattress type bed from the betterware catalogue (it inflates by using a hairdryer!) It was part of a duo set, by the double & get the single free. I've personnally slept on the double at her place & it is quite comfortable.

The ones with futon mattresses are okay, but my son has had his for 4 months now and I have just had to go and buy a new mattress. He finds the futon very uncomfortable as there is no 'give'

It is alright for occasional guest use, but I wouldn't recommend it for long term. He is so pleased with the new mattress and sleeps much better. It is also easier to make the bed, as the futon was sooooo heavy, my au pair refused to change the sheets!!

Cheers Dixie - looked at the Argos web site and they have exactly what I am looking for.

Glad to have helped!

Bells2 I just had to add....

Just been flicking through the catalogue trying to get xmas ideas myself & saw the price of the single fold up bed.....you must have thought me such a cheap skate when I said it was pricey for occassional use!! (I was orginally looking at the price of the double!) Just wanted to clear that up...

How sad am I adding that, just so bored at the moment with little 'un asleep (peace at last)

Actually Dixie, I had assumed you were referring to the "deluxe" version which at £60 IS relatively pricey for a fold up bed!!.

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask what age your children went in high beds. Ideally we'd like our two to share the tiny bedroom that dd is in at the moment, to keep our spare room, but it would mean putting dd (aged 3.5) in a very high platform bed in order to get a cot underneath. The ones I've seen in Ikea appear to have a barrier along one side, and she's never fallen out of a bed, but I'd appreciate other views/experience. Thanks.

i bought bunk beds middle of last weekd for my daughters. my eldest is 3 1/2, and she currently has that room to herself. she can climb up and down the ladder easily, is very comfortable about sleeping up high, tho so far she has mainly slept on the button bunk, just climbing on the top bunk to escape her little sister. not too sure how high up the high sleepers are, the bunk neds are just 5ft high. how old is your baby? could she sleep on a button bunk with bed guards? i know mine cant, she is 10months old and very mischievious. she is still in a cot in my room. dont really plan on moving her till she is around the age of 2 really.

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