Originally Posted by
maestramommy
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?
Originally Posted by
jjjo1112
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