Kids Hobbit Bed

I made a house shaped bed for our fist kid but since we decorated our second's room in Lord of the rings, I knew I needed to make a bed that matched the room style. This is specifically designed after Beg End but you could easy take this concept to make a different hobbit hole inspired bed of your style or choosing.

My son absolutely loves this bed and unfortunately now I think I set the bar pretty high for our third's bed in the future.

Supplies

Materials:

• (3) 4 x 8 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood
• (~13) 2 x 4 boards @ 8 ft long
• (1) 4 x 8 sheet of 5mm thick plywood (I used 1/5 in underlayment plywood)
• (7) 1 x 4 boards @ 8ft long
• 3 yards of spandex material
• Fake greenery for covering (see step 20 for material I used)
• Lots of screws
• 2 in Pocket screws
• 1 1/2 in screws
• 4 in screws
• 2 in trim head finishing screws
• Staples

Tools:

• Table saw
• Circular saw
• Router
• Miter Saw
• Sander
• Drill
• Staple gun
• Lots of clamps

Step 1: Cutting the Side Walls

The wall panels are what give the bed its specific shape and were made of 1/2 inch plywood. These will be painted so pick whatever kind of wood paneling you want. I wanted some grain to show through the paint so I got plywood but OSB or MDF should work as well. I cut both the side walls out of one piece of plywood and then cut the window hole in one of them. Keep all scrap pieces for later use.

To cut the window, I drilled a hole in the center location and then used a scrap piece of wood to put a bolt through as the rotation point and then positioned the router at the same distance as the radius of the circle. Just drop the router through the plywood and then spun it around to cut the circle.

Step 2: Cutting the Front and Back Walls

I made the front and back walls the same way as I made the side walls but they are just a little more complex.

The harder part is shaping the top. I drew a line 3 inches from the top to show how much I needed to trim off and then used the router trick I did for the window to cut down to the line on both sides. I then used my circular saw to trim off that 3 inches except for where I routered out. I then used the same center hole and method to cut out the door opening and window.

To make the matching back panel, I clamped the front panel to the back panel and then used the top panel as a guide to cut its shape using my router.

Step 3: Building the Frame

I used 2 x 4 lumber for the frame of this bed. These will be stained so try and get as straight and with as little knots as you can get. I wanted to give the wood a more hardwood look so I trimmed off 1/4 inch from each side to remove the rounded edges. I also used the trimmed off pieces later for the bricks used around the door and windows.

You can see the measurements I wrote down on the drawings but I essentially cut the wood pieces to fit right to the edges of the front and back pieces but there needs to be a 2 inch gap of the sides of the side panels because they will sit recessed in the front and back pieces (1.5 inches for the frame piece, and 0.5 inches for the panel). The center vertical piece for the front panel is off-center so that it is the same distance from the door but the back is centered right in the middle. I'm sorry I didn't take as many pictures of this step but if you have questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

I then used pocket holes and screws to attach these together. I clamped them to the wall panels to make sure everything was square and then fixed them together with the pocket screws.

Step 4: Frame Cleanup

Now that the wall panels and frame were cut to shape and assembled, they needed to be cleaned up a little.

First off, the front frame covered some of the door opening. I clamped these together and then used my router to trim the frame to match the shape of the door.

I also didn't want sharp edges on my wall panels so I trimmed all the edges and opening with a 45 degree bit with my router.

Step 5: Frame Assembly

Before I did any painting or staining, I wanted to pre-assembly everything to make sure it all fit well together and make sure there weren't any tweaks needed. I attached the side frame pieces to the front and back using some 4 inch long screws (make sure all the pocket holes are facing the outside as they will be covered by the wall panels). I drilled a pilot hole first and then drove the screws in. Once it was all assembled, I removed the screws and opened up the holes in the side frames so that the threads only engaged the front and back frames. this would help with assembly later on.

An important note: I plan on having one of the sides be easily removeable so that I can access the mattress so one side used 4 screws and then I used 6 screws on the other side.

Step 6: Attaching the Wall Panels

I then attached the wall panels to the frame using 1 1/4 inch screws into the frames. Make sure you don't attach the side panels to the front and back frame pieces.

Now that this was assembled, its time to do any sanding/adjusting to make everything fit nice and even.

Step 7: Support for Eaves/roof

I started looking at making the eaves and roof pieces and found I needed pieces to attach them to.

I added a small vertical block on the front and back (only shown on the front in these pictures) to provide support for the roof pieces. I then added some horizonal pieces next to that on the front to support the eves. I attached these using pocket screws and then used my router again to trim them to the same shape as the curved part of the front panel.

Step 8: Making the Eves

I knew I wanted the eves to curve over the door so I needed to find what wood to use and how to make it curve. I decided upon 5mm plywood as it curved easily and 2 pieces stacked was about the thickness I wanted. I cut strips 7 inches wide for these eaves. Two pieces were cut and glued while being clamped to the curved part over the door (there is a nice side and a ugly side to this wood so make sure the good side is always pointed out). I then used lots of little clamps to keep the pieces in contact along the whole piece. this worked quite well and even though I had some spring back, it was able to be screwed down into it's shape.

I then cut pieces for each side of the door. On the left, it was jus two straight pieces stacked. One the right, I overlapped pieces to make the corner piece. Everything was longer than needed when glued and then trimmed to final shape after I glued them. I used paint cans to hold the flat pieces together. It worked ok but using all my little clamps probably would have given me better results.

I then trimmed them to final shape and screwed them into place. I changed my mind from the last picture. For the corner piece, I only screwed it into the front and back frame pieces and not into the side frame pieces (4 middle screws not used). This was because I want to remove the side piece and screwing into that frame would prevent easy removal.

Step 9: Building the Ceiling Arches

I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with the roof and I finally decided to give this bed an arched top for three reasons. The inside of Bag End has arched ceilings, it would give more room for us parents, and it would allow me to give it a grass top to better make it look like it's in a hill.

I ended up using the rest of the 5mm plywood that I used for the eaves to make the ceiling arches. I cut 2 inch wide strips and then cut them to around 58 inches long to give me the arch shape I wanted. I recommend playing with the length you want as that length gave me some issues with them cracking and breaking.

To assist with the bending, I took them and let them soak in the bathtub for 5 to 10 minutes in as hot of water as I could get. I then took them out and bent them in place to give them a partial pre-bend before gluing. This was needed as the wood would break if bent into its final shape right away. Also, make sure half of the strips are bent with the good wood down and half bent the other way.

Once the wood was pre-bent, I used lots of clamps and a strap to glue one arch into its final shape. Once that one was done, I remove it and used it as a template to glue up the other arches.

Step 10: Roof Attachments

Now that I had the arches, I needed a way to attach them to the frame. You could probably find some brackets but I cut some scrap steel into these little brackets and then bent them to the angle I needed. (One set will need to be a wider angle because the arch over the door is shorter and not as curved)

Once they are fabricated, I used epoxy to attach them to the arches. I clamped them in place and made sure the arches were nice and level.

Once everything was dry, I spaced them out and screwed them into place so I could locate their position easier when I did final assembly.

Step 11: Sanding Everything

I was now just about ready to paint and stain but wanted to sand down the frame pieces to get rid of the saw marks. this meant taking the whole thing apart and sanding each piece individually. I wanted it to still have a little bit of a rustic look so I didn't worry about making it prefect but I wanted to reduce a good amount of the marks. You only need to sand the exposed parts and the back side will be covered by the panels.

Step 12: Staining and Sealing

I used two different stains for the wood pieces on this bed. I used one called Provincial for the frame pieces and one called dark walnut for the eaves. While looking at pictures of Bag End, the inside wood in Bag End was a nice medium brown color and the exterior wood was a lot darker. There may be better stains for these features but I already had these and they were close enough. The pictures don't show it was well but the dark walnut is a lot darker then the provincial stain.

After all the stain dried, I sprayed everything with a clear semi-glass polyurethane.

Step 13: Prime and Paint the Interior Walls

Here are the two colors I picked for the panels. I felt like they were pretty close to the pictures I looked at online. The interior is a nice light beige and the exterior is a light yellow color.

I started by priming both sides of the panels. Once that dried, I painted the interior walls with the beige paint. I had enough paint to do two coats on everything with just a quart of paint.

Once the paint dried, I assembled the frame pieces and then screwed the wall panels into place.

Step 14: Fill Screw Holes and Paint Exterior

Now that the wall panels are in place, I filled all the exposed screw heads with wood filler. Once that was dry and sanded, I put two coats of yellow on the outside of the panels.

Now is the time to disassemble the panels from each other and assemble it in its final location. Attach the wall panels back together, screw on the eaves, and screw on the roof arches. You disassemble this by removing those 4 inch long screws and are now left with 4 panels that can be more easily transported. I had to finish painting this is the basement due to the weather and was able to bring everything up to the second floor without too much problem.

Step 15: Roof Eaves Support

I made these supports in three sections all from 2 x 4 lumber. The first section are 22 in long pieces that I trimmed down to be 3 in wide and square edges. The second pieces are 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 inches. And the third are 1 x 1.5 x 2.

For the long pieces, I cut a 16 in long cut at 0.75 inches from the side. I then used a 5 gallon bucket to give me my radius that I then traced and cut on the band saw. The third piece was just sketched by hand and then once cut, was transferred to the other pieces.

Once all cut, I sanded them down and glued them together. Once the glue dried, They were stained with the same dark stain that I used on the eaves and the sealed with polyurethane as well.

(This next part was done after the roof was done because I was waiting for them to dry)

To attach them, I decided to use and adhesive along with some trim screws. Putting the screws in first and then removing them gave me holes to align to when I put on the adhesive. These trim screws held it tight while the adhesive dried and were small enough that they are not very noticeable.

Step 16: Eves to Wall Transition Pieces

There are some decorative arches that sit along the roofline between the eaves supports. I made these out of the extra pieces of 1/2 in plywood from the wall pieces. The most difficult parts was the one that goes over the door. I removed the ceiling arches and placed the board on the back side of the eaves and traces it. This ended up fitting really well. I wanted these to be 6 inches tall at their edges so I cut this down to be 6 inches thick on the end and cut two more pieces that were 6 inches thick.

Once the eave supports were installed, I measured the width between the supports and cut all of these down to length. I started a little long and then trimmed them down some more until it was a nice fit.

For the piece over the door, I put it in place and traced the shape of the door opening. I then used a "brick" piece cut in the next step so make sure there was enough clearance for it before I sketched out a arch shape design. I cut it down the middle and then cut out that shape so that I could flip it over and use it as a template to make sure it was symmetrical.

For the other two pieces, I used the door cutout piece to give me a radius to trace onto the pieces.

I also cut two small pieces to wrap around between the two supports on the front corner and two more to fit on the edges where it sits against the wall. Just make sure you can still remove the side panel once they are installed.

Once they were all cut out, I sanded them down just to remove any rough edges and then stained them with the same dark stain as before and clear coated them.

To attach these pieces, I used construction adhesive and finishing nails to attach them to the walls. Just make sure the nails you use are not too long or they will stick through the back side of the wall. I used 3/4 inch nails as both plywood pieces were 1/2 inches thick.

Step 17: "bricks"

This was one of the longest and most tedious steps but really gave it that finishing touch.

To make the "bricks", I used the 1/8 in thick strips that I cut off the 2 x 4 lumber when I was cutting them down to 3 inches wide. These had a radius on them, so I trimmed off 1/8 inch off each side resulting in strips that were now 1 1/4 inch wide. I then cut them down to 2 1/2 inch long pieces. I had enough strips without knots to be able to make the ~200 pieces needed to go around the door and windows. I used the centers from the door and widow to make sure I had enough pieces.

Once they are all cut out, I quickly sanded them to knock off the sharp edges and then stained them with a red stain to give them a brick like look. I would the easiest way to stain them was to put them in an old, large jar and then add the stain and shake it to coat everything. Then, I just had to wipe them each off to remove the excess stain. When the stain dried, I put a layer of poly of them to seal them same as the other wood pieces.

To attach these pieces, I only used construction adhesive to attach them to the walls. These were small and light enough that I didn't need any nails. I found the best way to apply it was to put the adhesive on a plate and then use a small brush to apply a small amount to each piece. If you put too much on, it will squeeze out when attached to the wall.

Step 18: Fabric Roof Covering

I'm not going to lie, this was the most frustrating step of the build. It may be a lot easier with another set of hands but with one person it was really hard trying to get all the wrinkles out.

I decided on using fabric for the top because it could stretch over everything giving a nice smooth ceiling and I also wanted to add lights that I could allow to shine through the fabric when they were on.

I got 3 yards of 60 in wide white spandex material. This was really stretchy and gave me a little extra material to play with. I found the best thing to was staple this along the back side of the bed and then stretch it over to the front and staple it down on the front. that was the easy part. I then stretched it down over the ends but it always resulted in extra material in the corners so I found I could hide the extra material along the top side of the end arches. This gave it a nice smooth look on the inside and the outside didn't matter because it was going to be covered anyway.

Just a note, I double or tripled the fabric along the edge where I was stapling just to give it some extra reinforcement.

Once it is all stapled down, I trimmed all the excess fabric.

Step 19: Lights

This step is only necessary if you want to add lighting to the inside of the bed.

I just got a 66ft long string of led lights and ran them over top of the fabric. I laid them out to find the spacing and then stapled the ends into place.

Step 20: "Grass" Roof Covering

Fake grass covering: Grass wall panels

I did a bunch of searching for the best material to cover this with to give it a grass like top and settled on what is called boxwood panels. These panels interlock and it has a plastic grid underneath that allowed me to trim around the door arch and make the end shape.

One order gave me just enough to cover the whole top. I interlocked all the panels and then placed them on the bed aligning it to the front right corner. I had to trim some around the door arch and then a couple inches along the back. I then trimmed around the right side to make it even and then used the scraps to patch together a panel for the side. This piece is just sitting on top and didn't require any fastening methods since it it contoured to the roof shape.

Step 21: Matres Slats

I didn't want the mattress sitting on the floor so I bought 7 boards that were 1 x 4 x 8ft. I've been told that its not good for mattress to just rest on the floor due to lack of air flow that can cause mildew or mold. One piece was cut in half length wise to make the side pieces and the rest were cut to the width of the interior. This also shows you how I can unscrew the 4 screws and remove the wall panel to have easy access to take the mattress in and out. I then evenly spaced out the slats and screwed them to the two long side pieces. Now I can put in the mattress and close that side back up.

I did find out later, the mattress can be pulled though the door if needed but removing the side panel is a lot easier.