Hi friends! I can’t tell you how excited I am to share my latest project with you! I’d even venture to say I’m almost as excited as my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Evie. Almost. We’ve reached a new milestone. Evie is ready for her “big girl” bed and she is over the moon about it! I mean, look at this adorable face. She couldn’t even wait long enough for me to put her mattress on before climbing in!
Once again, I teamed up with my lovely and talented friend, Ana White, to create this knockoff Restoration Hardware toddler bed. Be sure to visit Ana’s site for the full step-by-step plans. Isn’t it super cute? I’m in love with it, but my heart is breaking a little because my baby girl is growing up. *Sniff.
This project was a labor of love for me and Ana took such great care in drawing up the plans, which include some table saw work in creating the head and foot boards. I recently got a table saw and though I’m still a little intimidated by it, it was good experience to finally work with it. Also, because the head and foot board panels are made of plywood, I chose to use Purebond Plywood because it’s non-toxic and formaldehyde-free. Home Depot sells the PureBond brand. Since this bed is for my little girl, I want to build with the safest materials.
Here are my cut pieces:
And here’s where I employed the help of my dear, obliging husband to show me how to use the table saw. See how he’s turned the board up? We’re making grooves in it so that the head and foot board panels will be inset.
And here’s our groove. Shake your groove thang, shake your groove thang, yeah, yeah!
I drew the curve for the head and foot boards on some brown kraft paper and used it as a template so that the boards would be identical, then I used my jigsaw to cut them out:
I squeezed a thin line of wood glue into the grooves and clamped the plywood in between. Clamps are your friends.
Then after screwing the legs on with pocket hole screws, the head and foot boards are complete!
Then I drilled pocket holes on the side rails like so:
And used the same technique to make a template for the curves for the four small side rails:
Next I put all the pieces together, attaching the head and foot boards to the side rails. Then I screwed the mattress slats on and attached the feet. After sanding everything down until all the surfaces were smooth like butter, I painted it with Benjamin Moore’s low VOC semi-gloss interior paint called “kitten whiskers.” It’s the sweetest, most neutral pink with soft beige grey undertones. It looks more pink in these photos, but in reality it’s reeeeeally close to Restoration Hardware’s “dove grey” finish. Ooh… ahh… so pretty and sweet.
You can build your own knockoff Restoration Hardware toddler bed by downloading Ana’s plans. They are so easy to follow. Be sure to drop by her site, get the plans, and start building! Thank you so much, Ana! I had such a blast building this project and Evie absolutely loves her new “big girl” bed!
wow! this is beautiful! i kinda wanna sleep in it 😉
Such a beautiful bed Jen! Makes me wish I still needed a toddler bed! Great work!
The bed is so cute! I think she likes it!
This looks amazing! How awesome, I almost wish I had a cute bed like that. But I think my legs would go numb from hanging over the end 😉 What a lucky little girl!
So gorgeous! Both the baby and the bed 🙂
Love this idea and it turned out really nice. Stopping by from the party at Somewhat Simple.
Lovely bed! Nice job. She sure looks happy!
I can’t help but comment on this (saw it via Ana White’s blog) because my daughter is Evelyn, nicknamed Evie, too! She insisted that she was Evie and NOT Evelyn for years and would get really mad it someone called her the “wrong” name. Now she is a very grown-up kindergartener and she decided, the night before school started, that she would prefer being known as “Evelyn” at school. Now she is only Evie at home, which I think is really funny. 🙂
We love the name Evelyn because it’s so classic and elegant! She’s “Evie” until she grows into “Evelyn.”
I would love to make one if these beds for my soon to be toddler. I was wondering if you could give me an estimate of the cost for the bed?
Thanks, Whitney! Paint/stain/finishing products will vary with whatever finish you choose, but the cost of the lumber was $50! Hope that helps!
Awesome! Thanks so much!
I’m so jealous that you have the tools to make your own stuff! I would love to do something like this. I’ve been wanting to take on by own build it yourself project since you posted your headboard way back when but I’ve been too chicken to start.
Do it! Do it! Do it! It’s not hard. Just do it! 🙂
Love it! Jim and I were talking recently about Ben’s next big-boy-bed and I said that we should visit you and make one. Whaddaya think???
Let’s do it!
Beautiful little girl 🙂
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Vintage Inspired Girls
Thanks, Catherine! And I just checked out your site… adorable clothes! I’m always on the lookout for cute clothes for my little ones. Thanks for sharing!
Just now seeing this, but HOW do you make your curved cuts so nice?! Mine are never that smooth and perfect looking!
Thanks! Just go slowly, and cut on the outside of your outline. You can always cut closer and sand it down.
Adorable design! It turned out great. I wish my son was still little enough to need a bed that cute. Although it is funny to picture him trying to fit….he is now my little giant, 5’7″ at 12 years old. I still call him “my little guy”.
Beautiful bed!! I was wondering if you noticed that some of the measurements on Ana’s plans are slightly different than yours, is there a reason? I’m at the cutting stage and just wonder which numbers to follow. Thanks so much!
Thank you! The different measurements could be due to the varying widths of lumber. For example, a 1×4 board isn’t actually 1″ thick and 4″ wide. Sometimes it can be 3/4″ thick and 3.5″ wide. Also, it might be helpful to make your cuts as you go along, to ensure there is no wasted lumber from incorrect measurements. Hope that helped. Good luck!
Love this bed!! What size mattress did you use? Thanks!
Thank you! I used her crib mattress. Fit perfectly into her toddler bed.
Your baby girl is ADORABLE, and her big girl bed suits her. Good job mama and daddy. Thank you once again!!