We Made a Baby Bed (over a few months)

We made a little co-sleeper bed with nifty wheels for rolling around the apartment in order to better annoy our neighbors. It has a removable (sliding) wall and it fastens to the side of our bed with simple hook and eye pieces. Vanity demands I point out the circles were my idea, but R's Dad (H) made most of this possible, both with his expertise in building things and his extensive collection of tools.

I enjoy building things provided they aren't too complicated (IKEA, piles of debt). I did assist in a number of Roberts family constructions in my youth, including a massive chickenhouse/work shed. It is Vermont's only Brutalist chickenhouse/work shed and will never come down, neither by the hand of man nor that of nature.

Had I done this by myself the bed might still be in pieces under our bed, covered with a downy layer of discarded cat fur. If it was together, it certainly wouldn't look as nice. It is a certainty that a butterknife would be employed at some point as a screwdriver. Luckily, there are no substitute tools in H's world; he either has it or it does not yet exist. In one case we had to wait for a tool to be invented.

I think it came out nice and thought I'd share it. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to show it from beginning to end. Don't worry-- the baby's in the last few. She spent nearly all of last night in it, and lay in it this morning in the living room. She's in it right now!


The dimensions had to be re-thought a bit.

H.

We used two locking casters and two free-rolling. I thought I was being fancy, but the locks haven't been useful for anything yet.

The poor hole saw was overtaxed.
H has all these great colors in powder form. We added pure yellow and then pure red to alcohol and painted it on.


We burnished it once it had dried, blending the colors. H then sprayed it with a lacquer.

Here it is, done weeks before the baby even deigns to join us!

Finally, in the living room tonight:


Good night!

* R adds: Is it me, or, in this last pic, does our darling Z has an amazing resemblance to Vinnie Jones or some other footballer yob? Awwww.