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I cut up my twin bed and turned it into a pull-out bed

I needed to hack a trundle/ pull-out bed to allow for more space in this room. Currently, all three of my sons share a room, and while IKEA is great for accommodating smaller spaces, we needed to bring in additional storage for clothing/ fun area.

We were not only lacking major space in this room, but we were also working around two awkwardly placed windows and a floor vent. This made it difficult when it came to room arrangement.

I knew that hacking our IKEA twin bed into a pull-out bed would make all those things happen. My favorite part of realising this hack is that I now have an entire wall to utilize and maximize this space.

IKEA items used:
IKEA FJELLSE twin bed

FJELLSE twin bed | IKEA.com

Materials + tools:

Hack instructions for twin bed to pull-out bed:

The first step to my hack was to measure the available space from the bottom of my IKEA MYDAL bunk beds to the floor. Once I had this measurement I was able to measure and make cuts to my FJELLSE twin bed.

I took notice of the fact that the twin bed couldn’t slide underneath the bunk bed without shortening the side slats, so I laid the mattress support slats on the frame and marked a line on the outside of the slats (the slat that is secured by the peg), and cut roughly 2×5-3 inches off the side slats.

Once the side slats were cut to size, and now able to easily slide underneath the bunk bed with a little room to spare, I made cuts to all four legs, headboard, and footboard.

Pull-out bed from IKEA twin bed hack

Pull-out bed from IKEA twin bed hack

When all the cuts were made I was able to secure the bed back together as if I was assembling it right out of the box (just a little shorter now). I used additional screws for added support, along with the bolts that came with the original bed (those were placed back in the original holes).

Lastly, we stained the bunk bed and pull-out bed with this dark walnut stain, which is my all-time favourite.

What was the hardest part of this project?

Not necessarily hardest part, but I’m not the best at measurements, so I really made sure I measured…five times (ha!) to make sure I was making the right cuts before actually cutting the bed.

Pull-out bed from IKEA twin bed hack
Pull-out bed from IKEA twin bed hack

Pull-out bed from IKEA twin bed hack
What to pay special attention to?

If you’re going to attempt this hack, definitely pay attention to the amount of room you are working with on the insides of the bunk bed legs. There isn’t much wiggle room, so measurements and cuts are imperative to make this IKEA hack a success.

See the full tutorial of the trundle pull-out bed on my blog.

~ by Bridgett

The post I cut up my twin bed and turned it into a pull-out bed appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

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