What a great bed! I'm sure your son will love it. As for cons, you already mentioned the difficulty in making the bed. Another might be that it is less versatile in terms of where it can be placed in a room. It does seem to have some real space-saving benefits, though. How old is your son? Will he outgrow it quickly? I'm all for letting kids be a part of the decision process for their own rooms, as long as they're reasonable.

Jan

I can't wait until ds is done with his loft bed. It's horrible to change the sheets and we never actually make the bed. I have to stand on his desk chair and dh on the ladder in order to change the sheets and even then it's not easy. I have to stand on his desk chair to kiss and hug him goodnight and tuck him in. I miss sitting on his bed with him before bed. Of course this is just my experience but I thought I'd share.

We have a loft bed for my son. The link is below. My husband picked it out. I can tell you it's a love/hate relationship for me. My DS will be 6 on Wednesday. We got it for him when he was 4 1/2.

On one hand, it is very cool, space underneath is fun, friends think he's the coolest, etc. On the other hand, when he's sick, or when he's fallen asleep on the couch, in my bed, in the car, I, being 5' tall, cannot carry him up and put him in bed. I remember a night when he was sick coughing and then got sick (vomited), it was not that easy to get him OUT of bed, 1/2 asleep, etc.

Just my two cents. Very cool, but then not so cool.

Here is a link that might be useful: Loft Bed with Slide

Ok, I'm kinda a lurker but I thought I'd bring up an issue I don't think a lot of people think about when they get loft or bunk beds (we didn't). My sister's house caught on fire a couple years ago and luckily they were all ok and gone when it happened, however, walking the house after the fire we all noticed how much worse the ceilings and top of the rooms were damaged as smoke rises and also the flame patterns followed the ceiling into the room. Her daughter had a loft bed at the time and she vowed never to get another one after seeing that as a lot of fire deaths are from smoke inhalation. Plus it would be very hard to grab a child quickly if you are small. It is just a thought to consider, I don't mean to be grusome. But after that I changed our bunk bed into two twins. Fyi, the room with the door shut in her house was barely damaged and the kitten that was in the room survived and had hardly any smoke damage but the rest of the house was toast. So shut your doors at night. Anyway just my two cents too, didn't want this to be my first post on such a subject but oh well...

Our daughter had one, and I'm like Fivefootzero, there were some things I liked about it, and some I hated. I loved the space savings it provided, and my daughter thought it was cool when I hung a shower curtain from the top so she had a private area underneath. BUT, the bed-making was very difficult and no more cuddling at bedtime and I hated that! We didn't put it back up when we moved into our new house because of that, and we're all much happier! Had I thought it through and realized that we wouldn't be able to sit on the bed with her and read a book or hug her goodnight, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Hope this helps!

On this subject: we just got a bunk bed, and my DSs are loving it, but DS1 has had several stomach viruses of late, and fivefootzero is right on. Sickness makes a high bed into a colossal PITA. DS1 was sick not just on his own bed, but on DS2's bed (TMI, I know, sorry!). Last night, when the virus came back, DH actually took DS1's mattress off the top bunk and put him on the floor, so it'd be easier to get to the bathroom if needed.

I also miss being able to sit on his bed and read with him, although we've shifted to reading on the floor and we're all surviving...

Since vomiting was already brought up. Here's my con. DD had a loft bed during her middle school years. She loved it. But she got sick once in the middle of the night. She did not make it out of the bed to the toilet. She had hardwood floors. I could hear it from the next room. I thought I was having a nightmare. DH had to handle the mess. Sorry for the grossness of my message but it changed my mind about loft beds forever.

I have a gag-reflex like none other so I did get the shivers a little bit while reading this but I'm SOOOO glad I did because as a mother of 2 year old twin girls, I was really considering bunk beds at some point and probably won't now. I hadn't thought about the getting sick part or the idea of not being able to cuddle with them in their beds, which would be too bad since I am so excited to get rid of the cribs so we can all pile on one bed and read books at night. I saw another idea in the Pottery Barn Teen catalog...it's a corner unit with 2 twin beds attached. I'm not sure how space saving it is compared to bunk beds but may at least provide more room than 2 separate beds in a room. I've attached a link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: bed corner unit

I also am not a fan of loft beds. To add yet another reason to those already listed, I don't think that the desk area is really very useful for today's students. The needs are changing at a lighting pace with more and more emphasis on using computers and the internet for daily homework assignments, communication with other teachers, classmates, etc. We bought large computer desks with a keyboard pullouts and hutch about 4 years ago; but for DS in 9th grade he now uses a laptop and we plan to upgrade DD in 7th to a laptop before school resumes in the fall.

At that time I did also get DD a captain's bed that is raised a bit higher than the average bed and has drawer storage below. It works great for her and it a great space saver in a smaller room so that I could eliminate the need for a dresser.

If I were to get the loftbed for a teenager, I much prefer the ones with the sofas below as it's a nice place to sit and hang with their friends, read do honework, etc.

My son wanted a bunk bed so bad when he was 5. By the time he was 6, he hated sleeping up there. We had to put another bed next to it. To this day, he prefers to be down lower (he is now 10). We didn't get rid of it totally because he has friends and siblings that like to sleep in it sometimes, plus it had storage on the side, but for everyday use, I'd never buy one again.

Wow guys Thanks I am convinced no loft bed. But now I am on the hunt again. Does anybody have a link to a cool boy captains beds, or just cool all around boys beds?

We have a loft bed for my both my kids (used to have a captain's bed for my son). Their rooms are very small (10x12 each) and so it was the only way to fit in a large desk and not cram the room. The loft bed has a desk the whole length of the bottom (no dresser), so it is rather large - plenty of room for computer, textbooks, and then some.

Pros and cons.

GREAT use of space. Looks really cool! Their friends love it. (They are 12 and 8). Large desk.

However, no more cuddling at bedtime. Impossible to change the sheets, but I have a housecleaner who does it. However, she nearly quit over those beds. Hard for me to help them with homework or computer issues without bonking my head.

We will keep them for now, but we will eventually just move to a full-size bed with storage drawers for both kids. I like the Hampton line at PBTeen.

My conclusion - novelty idea, but there are better options.

I don't know how old your son is, but I have always loved this bed from Costco

Here is a link that might be useful: Bed with Trundle

Has anyone ordered furniture from Costco? Our nearest Costco is an 1 1/2 hours away. Would standing by their product be a problem?