Welp, I’m back from my ‘lil summer blog hiatus with a bit of bunk room inspo for you, complete with a creative hack for plug-in bunk room lights, and a few other simple shifts to maximize a kids’ room. One important detail every bunk bed situation needs is a light that is safe, accessible to the bunk bed occupant, and ideally accessible from beside the bed, too (for when those little ones fall asleep with the light on…as mine often do).
Now, I feel compelled to say: this is no magazine-worthy room. This was a simple room refresh to bring more function (and a little more style) to a beach get-a-way, shot with my lil’ old iphone camera. I’m hoping one or two of these ideas may inspire you to bring more convenience to a room in your home.
The Plan
This is the smallest of three bedrooms in this 1980s beach condo. It serves as the kids room, and we were looking to house more sleeping bodies (a top objective for a beach house, am I right?). Two sets of bunks would have been overwhelming in the room, so we decided on replacing one of the two twin beds with a twin-over-full bunk, allowing for four sleeping kiddos.
I found the perfect set to fit into this small room (and a matching twin), with the ladder at the foot of the bed, rather than on the side. We shifted the dresser into the seldom used closet, and separated the two blue bookshelves.
The existing custom drapes are original to the home and were in great shape and a timeless pattern. The drapes on the smaller window do an excellent job of making that narrow window seem wider, so they stayed as-is.
BEFORE
The drapes on the larger window would have interfered with the new bunk bed, but were in great condition. So, I removed them and had an inside mount Roman Shade made from the fabric.
This is a simple, functional, sustainable solution when the fabric works, but the layout changes. If you’re interested in doing something similar, look for a drapery work room. They should be able to convert the existing drapes into shades for just the cost of labor.
To the right you can see the Before photo of the room, and how the old drapes extend far outside the window well. This would not have worked well (or looked good) with the bunks.
The new Roman Shade fits the room much better now, and still coordinates beautifully.
Plug-In Bunk Room Lights
When deciding on sconces, I wanted something that could plug-in, as I wasn’t interested utilizing an electrician for this project. My search for retro inspired, low profile, plug-in sconces within the budget did not yield any results, so I had to think outside of the box.
I came across these inexpensive hard-wire fixtures with a pull string and (BONUS!) an outlet built into the base. This could come in quite handy for guests wanting to charge a phone or tablet by their bed.
For the cord, I found an incredible company offering a huge variety of fabric covered wire: Color Cord Company. I chose a pink to coordinate with the room.
As an added feature, I wanted a low profile, wall-mounted shelf at each bed. This would serve as the perfect spot to stash a water bottle and a book or two (and perhaps that charging phone). We use these for our girls at home, and I’ve found that these Ikea spice racks are the perfect solution. They are inexpensive and are unfinished wood, so you could paint or stain them to coordinate with your room.
[Unfortunately, the closest Ikea is about 2.5 hours away, and I couldn’t justify that drive for a $15 purchase. Luckily, I found them on Amazon. You can’t trust that all Ikea products on Amazon are legitimate, but I can vouch for these. They are a bit pricier, but the shipping was free and fast.]
I won’t go into the details of how to convert a hard-wired fixture to a plug in, but if you’re looking for a good tutorial, check this one out. Luckily these fixtures already had the pull-string, so I didn’t need to add a switch into the cord.
I’m in love with the function and form of the final look!
For the light over the top bunk, I simply added a ball chain extender to the pull cord, swagged it to the side of the bed, and threaded it through a small eye hook. This allows for turning the light on and off when standing beside the bed.
