All I wanted was a bed ledge. And for so many months, I could NOT find one. Sure, Ikea makes a bed ledges/shelving unit for my style of bed (the Malm), but I didn’t want all that shelving-ness. I just wanted ledge-ness. I searched the as-is section with a fervor bordering on stalker (helped that Ikea is on the way between my work and my parents place, which I do at least once a week). But never did I find an ‘as-is’ Malm 3 Piece bed head like below (I’m not sure I could have made it work anyway – cause as is can be ANYTHING).
Ikea’s 3 piece bed head offereing
One day, in as-is, I found this:
Malm occassional table
If I overlooked the orange-ness (haha… sure, me, and orange!), it was still 22cm too ‘wide’ for a bed head ledge. And a few centimetres lower. It just wasn’t good enough. It just wouldn’t work. And nor would Ikea’s ledges. Nothing looked like it would work (despite me seeing them make a catalogue COVER with a ledge behind the bed that was the SAME width – one of those mysteries I’m yet to have solved!). I diversified to gumtree.com.au and ebay.com.au looking for occasional and sofa tables that might, by chance, meet all my measurements, and hopefully tone in with the wood.
And then… amazingly, something in my brain switched. I wish I could remember when or how or why. I undoubtedly it was with my MR DIY (not the BF, someone else, I like to compartmentalise). What if I had a second Malm bed. What if I used a second ‘head’ of a bed, against the wall, and jutted my normal bed out off the wall. And bridge the gap with a ‘foot’ of a second Malm bed? This would all measure up PERFECTLY. And then: I found a Malm queen bed in the black brown for 50 big ones on gumtree. It would be mine. And it was. I took a friend along for a ride (she was up for company, and I had a mission – and she was a sport… cause there’s two long ‘side’ bits to make it a bed frame… well we needed to NOT impale ourselves on those on our drive back… and so she helped me carefully dispose of them pronto!)
I carted the components into my loft, and then balanced everything out. Which is FINE when you live alone. And you sleep ‘carefully’. But then, well, someone came along and it went boom crash! So a securing system was needed. Lengthy negotiations with MR DIY commenced. And, to be honest, best laid plans didn’t succeed (we though we could out-Ikea Ikea – with dowels. But ikea hollowed out the bed head and it was never going to work :’( ) In the end, we just duplicated the L bracket scheme on each side. Of course, I bought enough to do this initially, then we changed the plan, returned one set, only to have to go back and buy it again. I’m a serial ‘returner’ of anything unused – waste not, want not!
Now for the photo essay:
Mounting simple L brackets to the horizontal ledge component
Two ‘legs’ to my bed ledge – using a second Malm Queen bed head
Drilling into the ‘legs’ to later screw the horizontal ledge to the vertical leg (creating an upside down L)
Attaching ledge compenent to legs component
Brackets attached to the ‘rear’ (wall side) leg and the ledge
Look at that ledge!
Side view
Finished – complete with BOOKS!
Want to learn more of my tricks for making a small loft work for me? How about how I store all my jewellery beautifully, so I know what I’ve got, and I wear it? What about an innovative way to organise my spices?
That is brilliant – I want a bed ledge too
Thanks – a change in ‘topics’ from my first few posts, but this one was rewarding to write and to document my progress!
I liked the photos of how the project went!
Looks great! I like the malm occasional table, that you can slide for breakfast in bed!
Thanks Pauline – I used to think an occasional table for b’fast would be lovely, but alas, then realised the incidences of breakfast in bed are frightfully low! I’d much rather head to a cafe
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