Monday, December 06, 2010

Loft bed

This is the loft bed/desk I've been building for the past few days.

The room I use as an office is  8' by 10', with a 3x3' corner of that used by the attic stairs--plus it has 2 large windows and a total of 3 doors.   Most of the time we've lived here, we have blocked off one or the other of the doors--otherwise there isn't much useful space in the room.  That is why the picture is different colors-I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole thing in the picture at one time, so I took 3 and spliced them together.

I re-used a lot of stuff, including some lumber from a previous loft bed.  The back of the rear shelf rests on a 2x4 strung across the bed legs, the front hangs from 1/4 threaded rod inserted into T nuts in the mattress support.   The rail is 1/2" electrical conduit inserted into holes drilled into the wood.  The first and last bar are screwed in place to hold the entire assembly together.

I'm very happy with the result so far.  More desk space in the same basic area, as much storage, the lights work better with less glare--and there's now a guest bed, at least for a reasonably agile single guest.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Cat O'clock

Our apartment is fairly small--big enough for the two of us, but fairly small for extra people.  I would call it a 1 1/2 bedroom, with the tiny bedroom used as the office.   There is not room for a regular bed without giving up one of the desks, and since we have rented the downstairs apartment there's no room for an overnight guest.  I decided to build a loft bed,  with my desk under it.    This meant moving most of the contents of the office into a pile in the living room, including an old sweep-second clock.

Cat was fascinated by the seconds hand, and tried to attack it...