All that extra space between the floor and ceiling...

The bedroom in our little beach cottage is very small. That never bothered us, because with our nice big living room, we figured we'd only ever sleep and store clothes in the bedroom anyway. As long as there was room for a bed, dressers and a little closet, we'd be set.

Well, it turned out that the space I assigned to house Steve's dresser resulted in said dresser blocking the door to the bathroom. We lived with it like that for a year while we contemplated solutions. When my parents visited back in September, the brain trust discussed the problem:

Design ideas in mind, Steve and I embarked on a little building project.

Last bit of framing going into place ("walls" partially sheathed... the sheathing adds stability... you can jump up and down on this thing and it moves not a bit):

We had decided to paint the finished bedframe. So, while I was away spending time with my Grandma, Steve took the initiative to give everything a light sanding to prepare for the paint. Well, at least that's how things started out.

Upon doing an initial sand, Steve found that he thought the formerly unremarkable, rough, construction-grade wood looked quite nice. So he sanded it again. And again. And again.

Crazy as he is, I admit that the end result was beautiful. Obviously we couldn't just paint over such a lovely sanding job.

Steve begins to stain (he used two different colors, a lighter one to blend more closely with the floor and a darker one for a little more drama):

That done, we snugged Steve's dresser underneath:

Steve stapled some inexpensive indoor/outdoor carpet to the plywood base. This places a barrier between the mattress and plywood for cleanliness as well as just creating a nicer look.

Final(ish) product:

I add the "ish" because, as we all know, projects are never truly done. We plan to install a padded headboard after we pick out fabric. You can see the pictures leaning underneath and near the bed, so there's definitely a lot of decorating things still to do.

We currently use a small ladder to climb into bed. Eventually we plan to build a nicer fold-out ladder or something of that sort. It only takes a few steps to get up, so it really doesn't end up being a problem at this point in our lives. Steve can actually get up there without the ladder, but I don't have the arm-strength to vault onto the bed like he does. Something to work toward, I suppose.

We've been sleeping up there for a couple weeks now, and have found it very cozy. The additional height makes it more comfortable temperature-wise than before. With our 10 foot ceilings, the higher you can get in the room, the warmer you are. We'll see how it is this summer, but really our summers are mild, so the bonus of staying warmer in the winter is more valuable than any issues we'll have in warmer months.

Having the unblocked bathroom door has been wonderful and now we have a ton more storage behind the dresser to utilize as well. Things like Steve's dive gear and computer parts will fit nicely down there. We're planning to build some sort of door(s) to close that compartment eventually.

This weekend, it's back to working in the garden.