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DIY Pirate Treehouse

June 17, 2014May 2, 2016 by Kelly Dedeaux

Okay, I think I’m recovered from our huge remodel of my boys’ room and ready to spill the beans on how we turned their standard bunk bed into a DIY Pirate Treehouse!

For those of you that saw my grand revel of their Pirate Bedroom Makeover, you saw some pics of our final DIY Pirate Treehouse. The kids love it! And although there was quite a bit of heavy lifting (try getting that huge board up there and holding it still while your hubby screws it to the posts – not easy), it actually didn’t take very long!

Table of Contents

Supplies

One 79.5″ x 43″ board. This will be the large side on the top of the treehouse
One 25″ x 48″ board. This connects to the large board on top, on the side by the stairs.
Two 20″ x 32″ boards. These will be the two front sides on the bottom of the treehouse.
Four corner bracks (L-brackets), about 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. This hold the top boards to the wall and together.
Four thick board pieces, about 1-2 feet long and at least 1″ thick.
Paint or stain of choice, and painting supplies
Screws appropriate length for going securely through pieces, but not sticking through causing a pointy/sharp hazard
Sand paper for smoothing rough spots
Wood filler, if you want to cover the screw holes

Directions

Paint all of your boards and pieces your color/stain of choice. I did both sides, but you can choose.
Attach the two bottom bunk font sides first. I recommend measuring very well (always), cutting your windows, and then attaching them securely to the side posts and the top post (between the bottom of the top bunk and the top of the bottom bunk). Be sure your screws don’t poke through, causing a scratching hazard!
Measure the top piece VERY carefully (you don’t want to have to re-do this), and cut out your windows. We attached screws to the two end-side posts (several screws all up the posts), and then screws to a post that was in the middle, also. Note: We accidentally secured our large board completely BEFORE cutting our windows. This made it much more challenging…so learn from our mistake!
Carefully align the top bunk end piece, that goes next to the stairs. Screw it into posts on both sides.
Use your board pieces now. Use 2 to attach the corner/L-brackets to, fastening the large board on one side to the wall. Then use the other 2 so the corner/L-brackets can secure the large board and end board together. Like this….
Once we completed adding our extra pieces, I realized that the color difference between the bunk bed and boards was going to drive me BONKERS! So I painted the bunk bed areas that were visible. Notice the contrast in the photos two up? Now look after I painted the areas that showed: I purposely only did one coat, because I liked the streaked look. Made it seem more of a ‘handmade tree house’ that way.
Now all you have left is basic clean up (sand rough edges, paint touch ups, vacuum any mess, etc.), puddy/paint over the screws (if you want), put the mattresses/bedding (may have to lift the top mattress OVER the top big board like we did….carefully measure BEFORE putting the board up so you know you have room!), and decorate as you’d like!

They LOVE having the windows…and it makes it much easier to check on the boy on the top bunk at night.

Green Lantern was very happy about his new bed…but not how I had his blankets, so he had to fix that asap!

Traffic jam on the stairs!

I’m THRILLED with how this turned out, and think this adds so well to the boys Pirate Bedroom Makeover!

Please remember, your measurements may be very different than ours. I’m just explaining how we made ours work, but because there are so many factors that can differ, please plan your DIY Pirate Treehouse very carefully. We assume no responsibility to any injuries or other harm that may come from following this tutorial, as it simply is explaining what WE did. Build yours at your own risk.

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