I have built my own cot! (with pics)

Makubird

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Wanting to sleep in a cot or crib for quite a while I decided to build one.

I bought two cheap IKEA SNIGLAR cribs (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50248541/; I now see they cost about twice as much in the US as in Europe unfortunately) :sad:.

I combined the two cribs into a large one measuring 36x85 inches. The side rails are 25 inches. It rests on a frame under the mattress and I can bolt it in place with butterfly nuts. I made a door on one of the sides.

The whole thing stands on the mattress of my double bed. I put a thin mattress topper inside the cot to give the surface a little rise so I can't peek under the side rails :smile1:.

Total costs are about 180 euro ($200) including the mattress topper, epoxy glue, hinges etc. It took me approximately 10-15 hours to build but I am not very much of a handyman.

I am extremely pleased with the result and have slept very well! If you need help building your own feel free to PM me.

Next I am going to make a baby blanket and pillow cover :eek:

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Good job. Really looks good.
 
That's cool - you should post it on Ikea Hackers, wonder what they'd make of it! :D
 
Nice work.
 
RubberJin said:
That's cool - you should post it on Ikea Hackers, wonder what they'd make of it! :D

Haha...yeah, I'd like to see that. Anyway, clever way to make it all work. Kudos.
 
Looks really nice
 
Very cute :eek:

I love posts like these because they give me creative and cost effective ideas for having my own AB crib in the future.

I think you might be the first AB I heard of that used Ikea brand cribs in this way. I have an AB friend who made his crib by putting two of the same baby cribs together along with his twin bed.

All you need to do now is get some crib bumpers, crib bedding and a mobile going and then you'll have a little piece of AB heaven :)

Out of curiosity, can you disassemble the crib for stowing away if company comes over?
 
RubberJin said:
That's cool - you should post it on Ikea Hackers, wonder what they'd make of it! :D

Haha! Eh...no thanks. Although I am curious too :smile1:


Poofybutt said:
...
I think you might be the first AB I heard of that used Ikea brand cribs in this way. I have an AB friend who made his crib by putting two of the same baby cribs together along with his twin bed.
...
Out of curiosity, can you disassemble the crib for stowing away if company comes over?

I have considered putting two baby cribs together but I couldn't quite figure out how to do that. And IKEA was the cheaper solution. But there are many baby cribs that look far better than IKEA's. Oh I wish they made them in adult sizes!

I can assemble or disassemble in about 15 minutes. The bed is fixed to the frame under the mattress with butterfly nuts. The frame can stay there. Then there are 8 screws holding the 4 sides of the bed together. I still have to figure out how to hide the 2.1 meter long side rails though...

I am still thinking about modifications making disassembly easier and quicker. Like using a rastex connection.
 
I like it :thumbsup:
 
Very clever! Might go this route for mine.
 
Awesome! I built myself a crib once but lost it when I split with my partner at the time.
 
Cool idea! I guess I’ll share mine as well. I built it modularly so that the sides and end panels come off, and I built a different headboard so the base frame can be used as a guest bed when we have family in town. The side is a drop side to make entry and exit a little easier but a step stool is still required. I can post better pictures when the room is complete, but I’m curious what others think.

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I think it is awesome! This is more or less what I have in mind to build sometime later when I have room for an extra bed.
Could you explain in more detail how you built your cot? What components is it made of? Where did you get the sides?
 
Makubird said:
I think it is awesome! This is more or less what I have in mind to build sometime later when I have room for an extra bed.
Could you explain in more detail how you built your cot? What components is it made of? Where did you get the sides?


Sure. I built it from scratch from a design of my own creation. I used pine for all the materials to keep costs down and for ease of work, but a hardwood would have been beautiful stained. The base frame is 1x10 pine iirc and utilizes a slat support for the mattress so I didn’t need a box spring. There are removable feet on each corner so that when it’s used as a bed it sits higher.

Everything is made from scratch include the sides. They were raw 1x3 that I routered and cut. The sides use glued mortise and tenon joints. The end panels use a dado joint. The side are held in place using bolts and barrel nuts.

If you have any other specific questions I’d be happy to answer them.
 
That is an excellent cot/crib. Just an observation, if it were on longer legs the drop side would be more realistic. I must say from what I can see in the pictures you are a very good craftsman.
 
sissybaby34 said:
That is an excellent cot/crib. Just an observation, if it were on longer legs the drop side would be more realistic. I must say from what I can see in the pictures you are a very good craftsman.

Thanks so much. There are legs that go on it. I don’t have them on in the picture as the paint was still drying on them. But there is enough travel in the slide mechanism to go further down when the legs are on :)
 
A bit late to the party here, but I've wanted to either make myself or have someone custom make make for me a floor level futon style crib.
 
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