Turning 2 SVARTA loft beds into one big double loft bed

One double loft bed coming up!

I felt like I had too little living space. I wanted a loft bed, but still loved my ‘old’ 160 x 200cm IKEA mattress.

There seemed to be no IKEA or even other affordable 160 x 200 double loft bed options.

Then, my boyfriend suggested getting two second hand IKEA loft beds and making it into one.

I set out to find whether someone did this hack. I found many people asking if it could be done, but to my surprise, nobody seems to have documented trying it.

So I decided to be the one to just do it and share it for anyone that wants to do it too.

IKEA items used:

• SVARTA loft bed x 2 (and in my case, my old IKEA wooden slatted bed bases at 200 x 80cm x 2 and my well loved IKEA 160 x 200cm mattress).

Photo: IKEA.com

Of course, you can buy everything new. You have the option to choose the 2 wooden slatted bed bases like I did with a 180 x 200cm mattress. Or stick with the metal bed base provided and use two 90 x 200cm mattresses. (Though you might have a gap in between them).

Other materials: 

• One sheet stick-on felt which can be cut to size
• 1 bolt (I used a 55 mm long, 6m head one, see picture for the type)
• 2 adjustable metal hose clamps (mine were 50-165 mm)

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Related: IKEA SVÄRTA Loft bed improvements for the 21st Century

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Optional but recommended wall attachment:

• 2 pipe strap clamps and 4 x 10 cm long wall plugs and matching screws.(optional 2 blocks of wood in case of space between the wall and the bed)

Tools:

• Drill (metal drill bit for bedframe, I used a 4mm one, but it depends in the thickness of your bolt, and a 6mm stone drill for the wall attachment)
• Screwdriver with interchangeable bits (used IKEA bit, Phillips head bit, and flat bit.)

SVARTA double loft bed instructions: 

First, you take two of the four support beams (these will become the middle beams for your bed), and one long beam with the guard rail.

I used the beam with the guard to figure out where to drill the middle hole in the other beams. Drill a hole size according to the bolt you have. 

Now, build your first bed.

Attach the sides to the two support beams and add the guardrail without the opening for the ladder, all as instructed.

Next, take one of the beams you’ve drilled a hole in. Instead of following instructions and putting the beam with the guardrail (the one with a ladder opening) you put the beam with the hole.

Now, you are ready to do pretty much the same with the other bed. But the difference is that this time you put in the side with the guardrail that had the opening for the ladder.

Next, this is the moment you put your two frames where they will go.

Line up the two holes you drilled earlier and attach the two middle supports for the bed supports. Your one bolt should go through both supports and both beams.

Fasten it until there is a slight tension on the beams and they are kind of being pulled together. (See picture taken from the underside of the bed.)

Next up, put some of the felt in the inside of the adjustable metal hose clamps and put them around the two middle poles on each side.

Put in your metal bed bases and ladder as per the original instructions.

Add the wooden bed base of you choose that option. Just lay them on top of the metal ones. Add your mattress now or if you want to attach it to the wall for extra support, do that first.

I added a picture of how I did it, there is more of the stick-on felt inside of the clamps.

That’s it, put in your bedding and dream away on your giant loft! 

How long did it take you and what’s the cost?

Setting up the SVARTA double loft bed took me about an afternoon, together with my boyfriend. And it cost about 30 euros in hardware. I already had the mattress and the bed bases, and we picked up the SVARTA bed frames second hand. 

What to pay special attention to?

Pay attention to the bolt in the middle being strong enough. It literally holds everything together.

Other things to note:

The height under the double loft bed is just 145 cm so you can not stand, but you can sit or store stuff under it. And check the height of your ceiling, it stands at almost 190 cm at the highest point but you would not want to have too little space to sit up. 

You could also add two ladders by using the other guard rail.

Also this beast of a bed takes 198×208 cm floor space excluding the ladder. So it takes up quite a bit of space.

Big plus about using my way of doing it is that it is non destructive. Meaning, you can always turn them back into two regular IKEA SVARTA loft beds.

Also only a few tools and pieces of hardware are needed this way.

I absolutely love the bed and with it being attached to the wall it is verry sturdy. And it can sleep two people, no problem.

Hope this helps others looking for the answer to the question, ‘Can you attach two IKEA loft beds to make one big loft’?

~ by Malou Rutten

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