Looking for a fun and easy way to transform your home into a playground for your kids? This Ikea hack is the perfect solution! With just a few simple steps, you can turn the STORA loft bed into an indoor playhouse that your little ones will love. Using basic furniture pieces and a touch of creativity, you can create a cozy, playful space right inside your home. Whether you’re a pro at DIY projects or just getting started, this idea is easy to follow and requires little experience. Let’s get started!
Supplies
You will need:
- The STORA loft bed from Ikea
- 8 mm thick MDF sheets (The amount varies depending on your ceiling height)
- A pack of 12 mm long wood screws
- Some acrylic paint in the color of your choosing (We used white and red)
- A small paint roller (Amazon Link)
- A white angle profile 8 x 8 (Amazon Link)
- Some fake Stucco (Amazon Link)
- A wood hand saw
- An angle-cutting guide (Amazon Link)
- Wood glue
- Vinyl flooring 140 cm x 200 cm
- Some double-sided tape
You’ll need to measure and calculate how many MDF sheets you need based on your ceiling height, as it might be different from mine. To start, make sure you have enough MDF sheets to cover the bed’s floor area, which is 140 cm by 200 cm.
Next, measure the length of the railings and the height from your ceiling to the bed’s floor. Your local hardware store can cut the MDF sheets to the sizes you need, which will save you a lot of time later.
We used regular old acrylic paint mixed with a little bit of water to paint the MDF sheets. You don´t need to apply a primer as the acrylic paint will adhere well enough to the surface of the MDF sheets.
1. Build the Bed
The first step, belive it or not, will be by far the most difficult step. You need to build the STORA loft bed.
Make sure to follow the instructions very carefully and only tighten the screws at the very end! We failed to do this and it made the building experience much more difficult for us because of it.
If the bed is too close to the sealing then you can shorten the posts a little bit to get some more space for the house. But you will lose some of the height of the bed.
You should also consider fixing the bed to a wall if you feel like it moves too much.
2. Install the Floor
First, we have to install the floor of our new playhouse.
Place all of the MDF sheets in the bed to see if everything fits. Once you have tested if everything fits, paint one side of the MDF sheets white.
Then screw all of the sheets in place with the white side down. One or two screws per sheet should be enough.
Next, apply a few lines of double-sided tape to the floor to attach the vinyl flooring.
Remove the film from the double-sided tape, align the flooring with one side of the bed, and carefully roll it over the exposed tape.
3. Install the Walls
Next, we will paint and install the walls for the playhouse.
We painted the outside red and the inside white but you can use any color you want.
We also cut some windows in two of the wall panels with a drill and a saw. And then painted them too.
Install all of the panels on the sides of the bed. Use screws to fix them to the guard rails.
We also started decorating some of the sides with fake ivy to add a little more color.
4. Add Details
Finally, we add some details.
I started by cutting some stucco at a 45-degree angle at the length and height of the windows.
I then glued them with some contact cement around the windows to make a nice fancy frame.
Then I cut the angle profiles to length and glued them to the edges of the house and cut and glued some stucco to the top side of the playhouse.
And with that, we are done. We added some lights to the bottom as well and we placed an Ikea desk under the new playhouse.
