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Loft Beds

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > What/Where to Buy > Beds & Bedding > Loft Beds



Toddler and 5-year-old's loft bed

May 2004

Our twenty-month old toddler has always slept with us, but we're getting to the stage where we'd like him to sleep in his own bed. (Technically speaking, my husband is way past this stage and I'm grudgingly going along because I can see it's important to the health of our marriage that I compromise on this issue, but I digress.) In our small house, that means our two kids will share a bedroom. Currently, our five-year old sleeps in a low loft bed, about four feet off the ground, and the other twin bed abuts that at a right angle. Our toddler loves to climb up to the loft bed and hang out there. He can climb the ladder as well as pull himself up by standing on the end of the other bed, so just moving the bed won't work, and it's difficult to change the furniture arrangement in that small room. I always insist that 1) an adult be in the room when he's up there and 2)he stay seated on the bed. Of course, he doesn't always stay seated and so is very often removed to the ground.

My concern is that he'll try and climb up there at night, if he wakes up - which he always does, to nurse - and that he'll fall. Our five year old often comes into our bed around 4 or 5 and is a heavy sleeper anyway, so wouldn't necessarily wake up if his brother did climb up. I can't think of a way to make this a safe situation. Has anyone else solved the problem of a billy-goat toddler and a loft-bed set-up? If anyone has any ideas, I'd really love to hear them.

[no replies received]


Student family in 1BR - should we get a loft bed?

April 2004

My husband, 4 month old and I live in a small one bedroom appartment and I am worried about what we will do for space when my son starts crawling. We are students, and can't afford anything much bigger unless we move far away from campus, which is also undesirable. (We have applied for UC housing, but that's not so cheap either) Recently I had the thought of replacing our bed with a loft bed. We have pretty high ceilings (8'8'') in our appartment so it seems like a good way to create more space... but I worry that it's not safe, esp. given the earthquake issue. Does anyone out there have experience with loft beds? How safe are they? Are they sturdy enough that I could safely make the area under the loft baby's play area? Does anyone have a reccommendation of a good place to get a sturdy loft? Feel free to respond here or email me in person. Thanks for any advice you might have, Agnes


Our family had the same problem when my husband was at school at Berkeley. We lived in the tiniest little one bedroom apartment (everything was mini -- mini fridge, mini stove, mini shower) but it was walking distance to campus. The apartment was only two rooms (living room/kitchen and bedroom) and an itsy-bitsy bathroom..

When our daughter was about 1 1/2, we knew we needed to get her into her own bed so we looked at lofts and bunk beds. Not being from around here, we were especially scared of earthquakes so we wanted a really sturdy bed. We wanted something where we could have a double bed on top for my husband and I to sleep in, and a twin or a toddler bed underneath. Most of the lofts we looked at seemed *really* flimsy (especially the ones at Ikea) ..

We finally found what we were looking for at the Berkeley Kids room. They had a lot of beds on display, and it turned out that they would also custom build lofts to meet the height and mattress size that we needed (you could even get a kingsize bed lofted... crazy!).

We bought the lowest loft (I think its 6 ft, but i'm not sure), and its low enough that we can fit a box spring and full mattress and still have room to (almost) sit up without hitting the ceiling :) . The loft is VERY sturdy. We thought about putting a toddler bed under it but instead, my husband built a twin bed frame into the bottom so our little girl would be able to sleep in it for many years... and even with the twin bed built in we still had room to put our dresser under there. I know its probably hard to visualize but email me and I can send you a photo.. :)

The lofts at berkeley kids room are a little expensive, but we figured that we were actually saving a lot of money by not moving into a place that had two bedrooms or to a place where we couldn't walk to campus anymore.

Anyways, now we've graduated and moved into a two bedroom, but the bunkbeds are up in our daughters room. Whenever we have visitors, we always have a bed for them to sleep on! And people are always amused when we tell them about the ''dorm room'' set up we had in Berkeley -- my husband and I on the top bunk and our kid on the bottom bunk :)

Well, thats our story.


Do you like your kid's loft bed?

Has anyone tried out the loft bed advertised by Scandanavian Design? It's not as high as a true bunk bed, has a barrier except where the ladder comes up, and is usually shown with a slide (which will not fit in our small room). Any comments would be appreciated; but if anyone loved it and has now "outgrown" it & is prepared to sell, I may be interested. Or -- if you've seen this type of thing from another vendor... I don't want bunk beds, though, or anything that is high enough and/or without bars such that age 6 is the minimum age for safety. Letitia
About the Scandinavian Designs loft bed: We purchased one 2 years ago for our 2 daughters who were 2 and 3 at the time. They have loved it. The younger one sleeps on a mattress underneath the loft bed. Our girls are fairly cautious, so we haven't had any bumps or falls. We recommend getting one if you have limited bedroom space. However, be sure to set aside an afternoon to assemble it. John & Panda
I bought 2 of the beds two years ago, when my twin boys had just turned four. They have worked out very well. I've found them to be sturdy (my kids jump on them sometimes) and safe (my kids have fallen once or twice when they have been fooling around, not in the course of getting in and out of bed. The result has been a bruise or scrape but nothing serious.) The only drawback is that the sides make it difficult to make the bed. However, given my kids young age when we bought the beds, the safety advantages outweighed the inconvenience. We didn't get the slides either, just the stairs.

By the way, we didn't buy the mattresses that come with the bed. Instead, we bought high grade foam mattresses at one of the foam shops in Berkeley, which have also held up well. Kim


The Kids' Room, Berkeley, has a loft-type bed without the tent and slide. The side barrier is extra but well worth it. Their model does not require a ladder, although it is available. The salesperson, in fact, advised against the ladder because kids are more careful climbing up the end of the bed. My son loves having the space under the bed for make-believe forts, spaceships, etc. Nori
We got a loft bed at Gorman & Sons on Telegraph (just past Dwight). They have all kids of bunk and loft beds, and are really helpful. We paid around $240 for ours, I think - it was a couple of years ago. Molly
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