Bring imagination to life with our step-by-step guide on building an adorable DIY toddler bed house, featuring a colorful slate roof that will spark joy in every child.

Colorful Little Girls Bedroom Idea for girls room painting ideas by Sugar & Cloth for Behr

Transform your child’s bedroom into a whimsical wonderland with our colorful DIY toddler bed tutorial. This easy project combines creativity and functionality to create a playful sleep space.

And don’t worry, this DIY furniture project is more like a furniture hack. We simply added a few customizations to a prefabricated kids house bed that we installed in Gwen’s bedroom makeover.

With its colorful slate roof, this toddler house bed not only provides a cozy sanctuary for your little one but also adds a vibrant touch to their room decor, whether it’s for a girl’s bedroom or boy’s bedroom.

So follow along for step-by-step instructions and watch their eyes light up with joy!

Materials and Tools Needed

Little Seeds Rowan Forest Loft Bed — You can use any kids house bed frame with a roof. We liked this particular bed because it features a metal frame with guardrails (that don’t look like your typical rails). Keep in mind that a mattress is not included.

Plywood sheets or wood boards — The Little Seeds bed features a fabric awning. Because the furniture plans don’t include an actual roof, you’ll need 2 wood boards measuring about 80″ x 24″ to construct a roof. You’ll also need additional wood panels to create a slated roof. We had 23 slates on each side.

Drill

Metal pocket hole screws

Cable zip ties — Optional to further secure the wood roof in place. Kids can be rough on furniture and love to climb so we wanted that extra security of knowing that the roof would be secure.

Wood glue

Paint in your desired colors — We chose Behr’s paint colors in Fruit Salad, Blue Moon Bay, Jade Mountain, Coral Cloud, and Saffron Strand for our roof and windows to match the bedroom walls.

Paint brush

Painter’s tape

Baskets — Optional to create window box planters since the playhouse bed plans did not feature any.

Our Design Plan

We originally decided to keep the bed in its original white color. But we wanted to paint the grey windows in a hue that was cohesive with the roof.

We ended up scaling back on painting any more of the frame as originally intended. The great thing about this bed is that it’s a white blank slate for you to customize it however you want! It’s also available in grey and navy.

How to Hack a DIY Toddler House Bed

1 — Using plywood sheets, cut out the 2 panels for the roof and the roof slates for the toddler bed to your desired lengths.

2 — Paint the bed’s windows and slate shingles in your desired color of choice. Allow to dry.

3 — While the slates are drying, assemble the Little Seeds Rowan Forest Loft Bed and its accessories (except for the fabric roof covering) according to the manual.

4 — Attach the plywood panels to the pitched roof frame to create the wood base. We drilled in screws at each corner of the roof on each side.

5 — To secure the 2 panels together at the top of the roof ridge, drill pocket holes to zip tie the 2 pieces together.

6 — With the wood glue, arrange and apply the colorful slate shingles to the roof base. Use painter’s tape or clamps to hold the down slates while drying.

7 — Fasten a basket to each of the painted windows with a zip tie, and fill with faux flowers or greenery. Remove the painter’s tape. And now you’ve got your own custom DIY kids house bed that is sure to be the cutest statement piece!

Project Tips

Prepping your wood:

Most local hardware stores can cut your wood pieces for you. Use sandpaper to smooth out any rough edges or surfaces. This ensures safety and a polished finish.

Roof shingle options:

We opted for long slate shingles to match the painted stripe design. However, feel free to experiment with different shingle shapes. You can even upcycle any scrap wood or paint leftover floor boards.

Securing the roof shingles:

We secured the slates to the roof base with wood glue and held them together with tape (clamps and weights could also work) while drying. We found this method to be sufficient. But you can also opt to nail the shingles to the base.

Assembling the bed:

We highly recommend having an extra set of hands to put together the bed. It took us about an hour to assemble whereas it would probably take about 2 hours if it were just one person.

As mentioned before, this DIY playhouse bed could be modified for any toddler house bed with rails (or even without rails). This similar loft bed is a great alternative since it already has a roof. Or this DIY could work for a Montessori inspired low house bed.

Colorful DIY Toddler Bed for Girls Bedroom Idea

More Easy Bedroom Projects

For more unique ways to decorate your child’s bedroom, check out some of our favorite tutorials below —

Colorful DIY Toddler Bed

5 from 1 vote

Bring imagination to life with our step-by-step guide on building an adorable DIY toddler bed house, featuring a colorful slate roof that will spark joy in every child.

Prep Time1 15

Active Time1 15

Bed Assemble Time1

Total Time3 30

Course DIY

Category Bedroom

Equipment

Rotary saw
Paint brushes
Drill
Screws
Wood glue
Cable zip ties
Painter's tape or clamps or weights

Materials

1 Little Seeds Rowan Forest Loft Bed
2 plywood sheet or wood board
Wood slates in your desired length and width
Paint any colors of choice

Notes

If you’re unsure about how large you want your roof and roof slates to be, assemble the bed first.
Project cost dependent on desired wood material and paint. We used leftover paint from a previous house project.

Instructions

Using plywood sheets, cut out the 2 panels for the roof and the roof slates for the toddler bed to your desired lengths. Ours were about 80" x 24" each.
Paint the bed's windows (optional) and roof slate shingles in your desired color of choice. Allow to dry.
Assemble the toddler house bed and its accessories (except for the fabric roof covering) according to the manual.
Attach the plywood sheets to the pitched roof frame with a drill and screws to create the wood roof base.
To secure the 2 panels together at the top of the roof ridge, drill pocket holes on each side at the top. Attach the 2 roof pieces together through the holes with zip tie cables.
With the wood glue, arrange and apply the colorful slate shingles to the roof base. Use painter's tape or clamps to hold the wood together while drying.
Optional: Fasten a basket to each of the painted windows with zip tie cables, and fill with faux flowers or greenery. Remove the painter's tape.

Cost: $500

KEYWORD: diy toddler bed, toddler bed house

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