The perfect IKEA montessori bed (tutorial)
Since I wrote about Oliver’s montessori bedroom all Ikea, many of you have asked me about the bed. Get ready for a trip to Ikea, because today I’m going to tell you (in as many details as possible) how we made it. It’s actually super easy.
You’ll need:
- Sniglar bed structure (70x160 cm)
- Sultan Lade slatted bed base (70x160 cm)
- Vyssa Slappna mattress (70x160 cm)
- A measuring tape
- A pencil
- A saw for wood (we bought a very simple one in Leroy Merlin)
- Sandpaper for wood (but the one you use to smoothen walls works too
What to do:
- Go to Ikea ;-) (make sure you check the availability on the website to avoid disappointments).
- Buy the Sniglar bed frame and Sultan Lade slatted bed base. The bed base doesn’t actually come in the bed frame box, so make sure you get that too.
- Get back home ;-)
- Assemble the bed base.
- Before you start assembling the bed, you’ve got some sawing to do. Measure 2cm from where the leg starts and make a mark with your pencil on each leg. You can also cut it all off, so the structure is completely on the floor. We left 2cm because we wanted to put the carpet underneath (as you can see in the picture).
- Saw the legs off (yes, just like that!). It’s easier if you have some help: I held the frame tightly while my husband sawed the leg off.
- Using sandpaper, smoothen the bottom of the leg.
- Finish assembling the bed.
- Put slatted bed base and mattress in, and voilat! Your perfect montessori bed is done!
Two more tips:
- As you can see in the pictures above, we didn't instal the bed security bar: soon, Oliver will learn no to fall out of bed. (How? Read here!)
- The quilt we bought is cot size (110x125 cm): for now, it's big enough for Oliver and it doesn't touch the floor.
Parliamone
Hi! I love your idea, I'm trying to find a bed for my 18 month old who has bed shared up till now. You mentioned in a recent comment that you purchased a bigger bed and cut the legs off that one too. I'm wondering what bed you purchased? Thanks!
Hi Carlotta! Thank you very much for the idea of transforming an IKEA bed into a Montessori-style one and for the details! Can I ask you a couple of things? As you've written the post 5 years ago — for how long the bed was useful? Did it become uncomfortable for the child at some age?
Also — did you buy a bed base because the Sniglar was sold without a base at the time (now they seem to include it, at least in Italy) or there was something wrong with the original base?
Thank you again!
Team La Tela
Hi there! Thanks for your comment. Let’s see if I remember… the base in Spain was sold separately, otherwise it’d have been perfect with the base it comes with.
Personally, if I went back I’d buy right away the bigger size (normal child size bed) which is the one that we then got for Oliver a few months later (we cut the legs of that one too) and stayed with us for long. I thought a small baby would be too small in such a “big” bed, but it was actually better as they had more time to move around. 😊
Hi Carlotta, super nice ideas for the baby bedroom. :)
I love the carpet, could you be so kind and share where did you bought it?
Thank you.
Ana P.