In our house, we are huge Legend of Zelda fans. My granddaughter is not a fan of Disney Princess's, so when I was designing her bedroom I decided to build it around Legend of Zelda. The bed is so cool that I've had grownups ask me to build one for them! The bed is a built in bunk bed. So she always has an extra bed when friends come to visit. The castle is made from MDF and attached to the framework of the bunk bed. Using this design you could build any type of themed bed, fire truck, transformer, etc.

Because the whole piece is based on the room/wall size, I won't be giving you exact measurements. These will vary in your room.

This is also my first "instructable" so please if you have any questions or I've left something out, ask and I'll give you the answer. :)

Materials used:

2x4's
1 8ft 4x4
2x3's
1x4's
2 sheets 4x8 MDF
joist hangers
screws
paint
sponges
hinges for door
dowels

various decorations

Step 1: Hyrule Bed

The first step would be to clean out the room. If you need to paint the wall around the bed, now is the time. You also need to make make any repairs to the wall or floor at this time. After the bed is built it's almost impossible to get in the frame work to paint or repair or do anything to the floor.

Also you will need to make sure you have the mattress that you want to use for the top and the bottom bunk. You will need the sizes to build the frame.

Step 2:

Once the area has been prepared, construction can begin on the bed frame. The first thing you want to do is decided how tall you want the bottom of your top bunk. This bed is 4 ft off the ground. We decided this because the corner supports are made out of 4x4's. We purchased 1 and cut it in half. It's best to find a non pressure treated 4x4, but if you can't find one or the price isn't in your budget, can paint it to seal in the chemicals. Just make sure you paint all the surfaces of it.

After you decide how high you want the bed, you will need a stud finder and you will need to mark the location of the studs in your walls. You need to know the location of them to put in the ledger board.

To mount the ledger boards to the wall, you need lag bolts and washers. We used to lag bolts per stud for extra strength. Mark the height around the wall and make sure you use a level to keep everything straight. The whole frame is based off of your ledger board. In the following pictures you can see how it goes down the long wall and then on the end walls.

Step 3: Frame Foundation

Now that you have your ledger board on the wall, you need to add the rest of the frame work. Decide if you want your bed in the center, off center or in one of the ends. I knew before even deciding that it would be a castle bed that I wanted the bed in the center. This gave me room on the ends for other things that I needed to do in the area. Like a reading area, an art area and a spot of her stuffed animals. This also gave me room to hide the ladder to the top bunk.

Once you have decided you will need to add in your 4x4's. There is no need to have your 4x4 next to the wall. The ledger board is strong enough to hold it up.

After deciding where you put your support 4x4, you will need to attach it to your ledger board. I used joist hangers to attach the 2x4's from the ledger board to the support beam. I centered the support 2x4's on the 4x4. Make sure you level everything out.

Do the other end the same way. You will notice in the pictures that the 4x4 is just a little taller than the frame work. This was to allow me to build a platform on the end.

After you have the corners done, using a joist hanger add your front support rail. At this time, you also need to add in your support ledger and framework for the lower bunk using the same method you used to build the top support. Make sure that the mattress fits in the area. We also used bunkies to add to the strength of the bed.

Step 4:

Once the outer frame work is complete you will need to add in the support work for the mattress. To do this, I screwed 2x3's to the 2x4 outer frame, making sure the bottoms of the boards were level. Then I cut 1x4 slats and screwed them into place to the 2x3. Make sure that the fit is snug.

Now you should have the outer frame, the inner frame/stats for both the top and bottom bunk.

Step 5: The Castle

To make the castle walls, I used MDF, I drew out the design for the top and the windows then used a jigsaw to cut them out. For the door, I did the same thing, then cut the actual door a little smaller so it would fit back in with hinges. I wanted it to look a little crude and rough so I didn't build an actual door frame. For with window in the door, I cut the window out using a jigsaw. For the bars, I used 1x2 for the top and bottom, then cut dowels for the "bars". To keep them in place I drilled a hole the size of the dowel in the 1x2, coated the end of the dowel in glue then shoved it in the hole. It was a tight fit.

To give the castle a little depth, the long wall is cut to fit the frame. This goes back to centering the outer support beam on the 4x4, this gave me enough room to attach the long wall in a little. To make sure that it doesn't anywhere, it is screwed to the outer frame and I used L brackets to slats as well.

The tall castle walls are screwed to the outer frame as well. For extra support on the door area, we added a support beam from to the wall and screwed the castle wall to it. The tall walls are attached to the 4x4's outer edge and overlap the long wall.

I also painted the castle walls on both side before putting them on the bed.

The painting was done by applying a coat of light grey paint first. To get the darker rock effect, I took a sponge and tore chunks out of it. I then dipped it in darker grey paint. It gives it a rocky feel.

Step 6: Hyrule Symbol

Instead of freehand painting the Hyrule symbol and writing, I printed those out on my printer in the desired size in black then using Mod Podge I decoupaged them onto the castle wall.

Since every castle is covered in vines, I used another sponge cut in the shape of a leaf and sponge painted those in place. The vine between the leaves was done freehand. I also took the backs off of some costume jewelry and hot glued them to the walls just to give it a more "girly" feel.

Since her cat likes to sleep with her I had to make an easy way for the cat to get to the top bunk. I found these really cool shelf brackets that look like chain and added the "draw window".

The ladder was built from 2x4's and screwed into the 4x4 for stability. And I used L brackets to attach it to the top bunk frame.

Step 7: Finished Project.

The panoramic shot is not lined up perfect but gives you the idea. It was also taken before the drawbridge window was in place.

To complete the look, since her floor is painted concrete (all our floors are painted concrete or tile because of allergies), we painted a "rock pathway" from the door to all the areas of her room and pained a flower bed in the middle of it for a court yard.

To hang the curtains in the lower bunk, I mounted a curtain rod on the inside of the castle walls. (This didn't last long because she didn't like it.)