Seat cushion for the bottom bunk

January 18, 2011 at 9:45 am | Posted in crafts, totally random | Leave a comment

I love a good deal, and using materials in ways that they were never intended to be used.  Take this “Christmas snow” for instance.  I found it on clearance for 0.20 a bag, so I bought all 14 bags.  I added a $1 thrifted king size sheet, and made a cushion for the bottom bunk of my son’s bed.

Several months ago we got this bunk bed for free.  It is supposed to use a futon mattress on the bottom, but the spring mechanism is broken, so it has to stay folded up.  I flipped the mattress up as the back of the couch area, and was trying to think of something to sit on the bottom when I saw the snow on sale.  (Since we only need one bed, I wasn’t in a hurry to make the couch part functional.)

I measured the seat area, cut out a rectangle of the large sheet, and boxed the corners before stuffing the cushion with all 14 bags of polyfil snow.  I used the excess sheet to cover the mattress in the back.  In order to use it as a second bed, you just have to pull the cushion off and flip the mattress down.

The right edge looks a little lumpy and wrinkled as the result of a very excited little boy scrambling over the back.  I didn’t bother ironing the sheet, since a 5 year old really doesn’t care about the aesthetics of things like that.  It isn’t as soft as a real couch, but is fairly comfortable to sit on.  And not at all bad for $5 and an hour of my time.