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    maestramommy's Avatar
    maestramommy is offline Pink Diamond level (15,000+ posts)
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    Default Questions about Ikea's Kura loft bed

    You know, the one that is pretty low, and has a tent you can buy separately. We are thinking of getting it for Dora. My first question is, can you use a regular twin mattress with it, or does it have to be an Ikea mattress? Second question, has anyone every put a toddler bed or mattress under it? Right now Arwyn sleeps in a huge crib/toddlerbed with attached dresser, and it takes up so much room. I'm thinking it's not the greatest use of space, because we are moving Laurel in with them. OTOH, I don't want to use a regular bunkbed because they are much higher and I have safety concerns. So my thought was to just put Arwyn's crib mattress on the floor under the loft bed. That way I could easily pull it out to vacuum the carpet. Or if I really wanted her off the floor I could get a cheap toddler bed. Then we'd have room for Laurel's crib or a pnp, which is what she uses now when she sleeps with them.
    Melinda
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    We don't have one, but we've looked at it pretty closely at Ikea. It does use a twin size mattress, but it has to be less than 5 1/8" thick for the safety rails. I've also seen it set up in the store with a mattress underneath, so you could definitely use it that way. I think that it would be a good space saver in your situation.
    Daniele
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    Melinda, we're using the Kura like that in the boys' room. I'm pretty sure I have a pic of the setup somewhere. Let me check. We love it!
    Kelli
    Mom to 5 amazing kids (5 to 17 years)
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    Yes we use it as a bunk with one kid on the floor. The top rails are not high so depending on your mattress you may want to put the one you have on the bottom. I love our simple thin foam ikea mattress for ease in moving around. I have often taken them outside to air out after the kids have been sick or had acidents. Also we have moved them to the living room for sleepovers.

    Sierra
    2 boys 2 girls

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    maestramommy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kep View Post
    Melinda, we're using the Kura like that in the boys' room. I'm pretty sure I have a pic of the setup somewhere. Let me check. We love it!

    Kelli, do you have the tent for it? I assume it's low enough to keep a 34 inch kid from standing up on the top?
    Melinda
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    "Sunset to Twilight, Our Family's Journey with Alzheimer's." http://maestramommi.blogspot.com/




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    liz is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    We have the Kura and we use the bottom for DS2. We have a twin mattress in the top and bottom. We bought the mattresses from BJ's (standard mattress, not pillowtop etc), and I feel they are fine. We also have the tent on top and I suppose it "stops" DS1 from standing, at least I haven't seen our kids do it, LOL. I am not a huge fan of bunk beds, but this was a good compromise because it is so low to the ground. The kids love it, and it really opens up the space. hth

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    Joshua has it in his room, with a thinner twin mattress in it as well. And yes, the tent would keep a child from standing up in it.
    Mama to "The Fantastic Four":
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    kep's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by maestramommy View Post
    Kelli, do you have the tent for it? I assume it's low enough to keep a 34 inch kid from standing up on the top?
    Quote Originally Posted by jjjo1112 View Post
    We use this bed for my older 2 ( 9/05 and 12/06) and it has been working great. We use a regular twin mattress on the bottom but we used an Ikea mattress for the top. None of the regular mattresses that we own were thin enough to use on the top. We also have the tent on the top and it discourages them from standing. We actually took a shower curtain rod and made 2 curtains to hang underneath for the bottom bunk. The kids love it and play in there as a fort. As far as climbing- the top bunk really isn't that high- I'm 5'5 and it is at chest level. When DS falls asleep elsewhere-I can put him on his bed while standing on the floor pretty easily. This has been the perfect setup for us. We have a small room and the kids were not ready for a full on bunk setup.
    This is almost exactly what we do, minus the cool sounding curtains. J can climb up there with L, and the bed is short enough that I just don't worry about it. And the canopy does help to prevent standing, but it certainly would not hold a child in. We found that even the thinnest, cheapest traditional mattress was too thick for the top. It left NO rail remaining around the bed, and even with L being 6 at the time, I still wasn't comfortable with it.

    The boys are 7 and 3.5 now, and they still fit great. We will hand it down to G when we feel the boys need more room. It would not work well for teenagers.

    We bought one of the higher end foam Ikea mattresses for the top, and it is SO nice. I wish we had one for the bottom, too. It was around $300 if I remember correctly. I think they were out of the cheaper twin mattress or something. Either way, we are very happy with it.

    As one of the PP's mentioned, the only big downside IMO is that I cannot lie next to the oldest child at bedtime. We all sit on the floor and read stories together instead. And L has gotten over it. For the most part. LOL

    I can't upload pictures of ours right now, but here are some inspirational bedrooms I had found online when I was researching this last year:



    Our bottom mattress height looks most like this one:


    And holy moley, look at this one!


    And here's the thread I started last year.
    Kelli
    Mom to 5 amazing kids (5 to 17 years)
    Mom of a cleft lip & palate warrior

  9. #9
    maestramommy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by daniele_ut View Post
    We don't have one, but we've looked at it pretty closely at Ikea. It does use a twin size mattress, but it has to be less than 5 1/8" thick for the safety rails. I've also seen it set up in the store with a mattress underneath, so you could definitely use it that way. I think that it would be a good space saver in your situation.

    Oh, I didn't know that. I'll have to measure Dora's mattress, although I am pretty sure it is thicker. She doesn't actually need the safety rails, but up there I think having them would be better for my piece of mind.
    Melinda
    Mommy to
    The Gift 10/01/05
    Elfgirl 5/25/07
    Sparky 6/27/09

    "Sunset to Twilight, Our Family's Journey with Alzheimer's." http://maestramommi.blogspot.com/




  10. #10
    deborah_r is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    We have it and have it set up that way. Regarding the tent, I will say it discourages standing, but it by no means would keep a child from falling out, because it only attaches at 3 points on each side.

    I am not too ecstatic with the setup, to be honest. I would like to switch to a twin-over-full arrangement. But with my oldest being 7, I would not be worried with him being up higher in a real bunk bed.

    My problem is the boys want me to lay with them and I can't do that comfortably, so YMMV if this is not an issue in your house!
    Deb
    Mama to my guys, K (May '03) and Q (June '07)

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