Ultimate Kids Room Makeover! DIY Bunk Beds, Nursery, Home Office & Living. Interior Design Ideas

There's just so much stuff. Is that a table? Tennis table? Why? I'm Lucy. And I'm Jono. And this is Reno Goals. So this is a fun room. This is very much kid's room, rumpus room, games room. This is basically a huge size, but it's also filled with junk. It's kind of like all the stuff. It's the equipment room. So this room is at the bottom of the stairs. It's quite a good size. It's actually split level and that lower level looks out onto that lower deck area. It can sleep quite a lot of people, which has been quite handy. However, things have been getting just a little crowded. To be honest, we just need to rethink this room because this was done, you know, 25 years ago. So Jono and Stephen, his brother, were little and now they're big and they've got me and others tagging along. So there's just a bigger family. So as the family grows, the house needs to grow with it. So currently when we stay in this home, we either sleep in this bedroom or in the guest bedroom, depending on who else is in the house at any given time. But because we're adding new bedrooms into our new extension, which we will eventually sleep in, I actually want to turn this into a dedicated kids retreat and I want to create bunk beds, but I'm actually a bit worried about those ceilings being a bit too low. Bunk beds, good idea. The ceilings are low, but I reckon we can make it work. The bottom bunk can basically be on the floor and then we'll just measure up from there and give sort of equal head I mean, look at this. I mean, look at what we're dealing with. I think we need to sit your parents down and be like, does this give you joy? Like does this random foosball table Why do they still have these things? Why? Whose bike is this? There's just so much stuff. Is that Why? Okay, so we need to do a cleanup, a big one, and then we need to work out a plan for these bunk beds. So whilst the room is being cleared and tidied up, I have been looking at some inspiration for our bunk beds. I was actually really inspired by the bunk beds at the Barwon beach house. They were built from timber and I really loved that simple ladder and railing. And I also loved the fact that that kid's room celebrated color. So that's something that I really want to do in this room as well. I also loved the bunk beds in Noah by the beach. They had some nice elements like that dowel ladder and also that curved railing as well. They were quite minimalist. I've also found a few good examples of bunk beds on Pinterest as well. So now that I've got plenty of inspiration, I need to head back to the room once it's cleared to nut out a few of the details. Yeah, that's your clearance. Can you get out? Yeah, because I'll be sitting on the edge. So technically, yeah. New koala mattress. Yeah, that one. This one? Because they do that in a single. All right, confirming 920 width. It needs to be a somewhat snug fit, but not crazy. Yeah, you go in there. Oh, you can't fit. You're officially not allowed in the bunk bed. I don't fit up there. Not yet. All the measurements done? Yes. All your measurements sorted? Yes. Good. I trust you guys completely. I'm going to go paint the house. Good job. So bunk beds, we've worked out our measurements. We've worked out what height we want to set that top bunk at. Bottom one's going to be slightly off the ground, but we've got about a 4.6 meter span for that top bunk. So what we're going to do is build an extra stud wall at the right hand side. And the one on the left, we're going to add a bit more structural support and install an LVL to span that huge gap. So we're just going to tie it into that back wall, use a bit of yellow tongue as the base, keep it super simple. Then we just have to work out detailing for our ladder and our railing, but that's a job for another day. Oh my God. These are so cute. It's beautiful. It's soft. I love it. I think it's beautiful. Okay. So let's chat through some of the interior design concepts for the kids retreat. Let's first start with color because I want a lot of it in this room. So this is tranquil green. So this is Dulux wash and wear. As soon as I painted this swatch, I was quite literally like, Oh my God, I need this in my home. So this is going to be a feature color for this kid's room. And then to compliment that as well, I'm also going to be bringing in this color, which is beige calm. I like the way these two are quite similar in tone. Beige calm will be for the lower living area. And then this tranquil green will be for the upper sleeping quarters and also for the bunks. Also for the bunks, I want to have a feature ladder. So I'm going to be using this feather soft. I thought this was a really nice, soft, subtle contrast instead of maybe going really stark and going with natural white. It's a nice sort of variation on that. And I think it works well with the beige calm. The trims will be natural white, which is consistent with the rest of the home. And I will be doing natural white half strength on the ceilings and for the exposed beams. Flooring is going to be consistent with the rest of the home as well. So this is the precinct oak, the Bora floorboards from Carpet Court. That timber is going to look beautiful in this room. And to add some more timber, I'm actually really excited to bring in black butt. So these are actually easy craft panels. I'm actually going to be bringing in a smooth panel surface to the back wall and also to that nib wall that Jono is creating for the bunk beds. I just like the way it brings a wonderful, rich and earthy texture to this very soft and calm color palette. Rugs, very important for a kid's room. Kids spend a lot of time on the floor. So I really wanted to make sure I got a very comfortable rug. This is a beautiful wool rug. It has a very generous loop to it as well. So it's very soft and very comfortable. This is from Miss Amara and it's called the Aziza rug. It also has a really nice marbled gray texture through it. That color and tone, it's great in a rug because to be honest with you, it hides all manner of sins. So not a bad thing to have in a kid's room. For a little bit more texture, we're going to be bringing in curtains. So this is the Jilibee flax from DIY Blinds. So this curtain is going to be going on our new hardwood sliding doors. And I'm also going to be bringing in a second curtain in Burano Vanilla. So that's actually going to sit against that nib wall and also against that green. So that's going to help differentiate a few different zones within the room. And then we have the most beautiful door pull handles, the Helsinki handles from Ivor. They are in that brushed brass, which is going to look stunning against that hardwood. So this is our base and our foundation. And from there, I just want to layer on top and have a lot of fun with color. I've got four beds to style in those bunk beds, so I'm going to be bringing in some Kip and Co bed linen. I'm just going to have a lot of fun. I'm going to mix and match to my heart's content. I'm going to bring in lots of different colors, lots of different patterns, and ultimately just have a lot of fun when it comes to styling this room. All right, so the main structure of the bunk beds is in. We've got our big LVLs tied into the wall at that end, the nib wall that we built over here. We worked out our height, which has left enough headroom for the top bunk. Probably left a little bit more headroom for the bottom. Lucy wanted to make sure that you could sit down on there, not hit your head, watch the TV. So we sacrificed a little bit of room up top for a little bit more room down the bottom. Now, all we need to do is I'm going to have to find the center point of this, work out the actual length of the mattresses. I'm going to build a landing up the top here to separate the mattresses. And then once we've got the center point here, I'll be able to work out the width that we want to make our ladder and then put in a couple of handrails for a bit of safety. I've got the ladder in and now I'm just working on the railing. So all I've got is 90 by 45 cut down. I just took 20 mil off it because I thought that the profile looked a little bit better, a bit sleeker on the ladder here. So I've got some upright supports, center. I've got a back support here and then the top plate will just run from here to here, all the way to the wall. I've ripped all these down, given them a quick sand. I'm going to install them all because then we'll be priming and painting everything anyway. How do you like these new bunks? You have done good. Jono, take a bow. These are great. How long did it take? A little while, not that long. Can I get up here? You can go up. I cranked the heater to get it dry quick. How's your headroom? Well, I think I just seem to be a little little, but I can fit. You can get up there. For little people it's fine. Yeah, that's the job. Yeah, I reckon this is epic. Oh my god, this feels good babe. Well done. Oh, these are strong. Well, that was the plan. They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere if they can carry me. These are going to be used the most, aren't they? The bottom ones. Yeah. First preference, yep. Plenty of head space. So what to do now? Are you going to put something under here? That's my last job. So they're 90% complete. So I'm going to clad that ceiling bit. With the easy, the black butt? I think so. I reckon it'll look nice. I reckon it'll look great. That's the last job. You get to choose your color for your ladder. I've chosen it already. I've got the paint. I'm very excited. I'll go get it. I'll go get it. So the same as what's on the wall, but just in aqua enamel. Yeah, where's that for? That's for the bunks and the landing. And then what, the railing's a different color? The railing and the ladder is going to be feather soft. It's going to be beautiful. I'm really excited to paint, which is saying something considering how much painting I've done, but I'm actually really excited to paint these. I've got my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lead pads on. Paint, please, sir. What color? Both of them, please. Two? Yeah. Two at once? Yeah. You're painting twice at once? Yeah. Skilled. Yeah. Thank you. All done. All done. It's all dry. I'm just making sure we give it a good 24 hours before we start putting things on. Now it just needs some beautiful mattresses and bedding and bed linen. Oh, well, it might be time for a bit of unboxing. Yeah. Well, we've got other furniture we need to unbox first. All of the goodies from Koala arrived. So we've got a sofa bed. We've got some storage. So can you help me do that, please? Sure. Let's get into it. Okay. So what are you working on? DIY shelf time, Jono. Hot tip. Can't cut things longer. No, you can't. Can't cut them shorter. They're wise words, Jono. All right. Chest fit, assembly, all good. So now we're just going to sand it all, glue it, and pin it together. Get it finished. That's the shelf. Done. Happy? Yeah. All right. We'll let that glue dry, and then clear coat it, and then we'll put the handles in. Cool. Done. Well done. Got your fancy little shelf there. Yeah. Nearly fancy. Nearly? Yeah. You're fancifying it. I'm fancifying it. Good. You got all five in. But how cool. So can you please... Where's it going? I need you... Can you show me where it's going first? Yes. Over here. How cute is that? I love it. It's the cutest. Favorite room yet. Almost done. Almost done. So we've just installed our additional curtain. I really like the way that this has actually created a new zone in this room. So we've actually turned this space into both a nursery and a home office. So the koala desk fit perfectly. I love the way it sits in this little nook. It has a great sense of privacy in here. So this room is fun. It is fun. This is a big transformation of where we were before. It was just... Do you remember how much junk was in that room? Yeah. It was a good storeroom. I had a long board, a couple of short boards. There was a bike. I don't even know where that was from. Well, guess what? It's not your room anymore. Foosball table, table tennis table. It's not your room anymore. Isn't that great? I've upgraded. Yeah. You're no longer little Jono. You're big Jono. So you've got to pass it on to the next generation. But I love the color in this room. It really does. It has such a wonderful energy. I love that green. I really wanted to integrate that green into the home, that tranquil green. It's so beautiful. It's got a lovely soft eucalyptus tone and it works really well with that timber. It does work really well with that timber. I like that timber cladding. I want to use it in other rooms. I'm kind of a little tester that one. It was. But it worked. I liked it. It was really good. And well done on the bunk beds. Yeah. A bit of a mish. You did so well. But they were. I left you to your own devices. I trusted you completely and I come back and it's like, what did you find most difficult about the bunk beds? The layout, the planning. Yeah. And then it was just put it together, make it fit. We were able to squeeze it in. We measured it. We went as low as we possibly could on that lower bunk basically. Still got an air gap under it and it's still, the mattress is still lifted off the ground, but it's basically at ground level. Yeah. And then we've almost got a similar headroom on the bottom bunk and the top bunk now. Yeah. I had a lot of fun styling that. Oh my God. Kip and Co bed linen. Isn't it just the best for kids as well? Although some of those, especially that May Gibbs, I'm like, I want that in big size, but that bed linen is just fun. I really knew that I wanted to create something very fun and playful in there. I really wanted to bring in a lot of pattern, a lot of texture, a lot of color. And I also think that we made a really good use of space in that sort of dead zone, which is tucked behind the bunk beds. So basically creating this multi-purpose area, which could be used as both a nursery or for homework, that sort of thing. Yeah. So I like that area now. It actually has a purpose. It was an odd shape room to start with. It used to be a garage. Then we have different roof levels. We have different floor levels. I think we've switched it around and made the most of the space. There's a lot of space in there. Yeah. Now with the bunk beds, it's got its own zone. You've got the other zone next to it. You've got the little zone with the koala couch. Oh my gosh. The koala couch. That was so easy to put together. They all are. All those things are. You know what I did when I started assembling some of them? What? I got a knife, a drill driver, pulled out a couple of screwdrivers and set it all down, then open up the boxes, put it together. And I realized I didn't even need tools. Yeah. I must admit not needing an Allen key and then like having to, you know, yeah, it was great. So we did start from scratch again. So we've got new floors, new VJ 100 on one wall, the black butt on the other walls. It kind of works with all the different weird beams and columns and things that are going on in that room. Yeah. We decided to sort of embrace its randomness and just go with it basically. And that was another reason for why we actually differentiated that sort of dead zone to turn it into a nursery slash workspace because the ceiling sloped down quite a bit. So it actually needed to be something sort of a bit smaller. Some of the pieces I love the most, those elephant chairs from baseline are the coolest thing ever. Like I'm actually legit obsessed. You need a big girl version. I don't even know if I want a big girl version. I just want to sit on that one. It's so cute. I loved it. But some of those key pieces worked really well. So from baseline and with koala and then with all of the custom furniture that you made, obviously with the bunks, I think it just, it ties together really well. One thing that we didn't do that I could maybe do down the track, I was thinking about adding in more cabinetry, but I actually sort of pulled away from that because I just needed more usable space for sleeping because I did want to make sure that it was a usable area for kids. There is storage in say that TV unit and also in that tall unit as well from koala. However, I will be solving a lot of that storage issue by bringing in more cabinets when we do our bedrooms and add on. So I think there'll be plenty of storage in this home. Whereas this one was all about the kids and kids territory. Yeah. This room's all about accommodation. Bulk beds. Bulk beds. Four bunks and a queen sofa bed. Yeah. Six people. Yeah. Yeah. We've had more than six people stay in that room before. We certainly have. And I'm sure there will be again. I think it was a good solution. Yeah, it works well. Well done. Sweet mother of tap. It's laundry makeover time. Okay. So this does not look like much now, but trust me, this is going to be amazing. We're going to have a beautiful bench top, tiled splashback, a couple of wall cabinets. Okay. So that is my look. Simple, classic. Love it. I feel like we've taken 10 steps forward and like 15 steps back in here though. What have you done? Oh, it's so close. Does that work? I just like totally spaced out for a minute there. Did you get that on camera? Yeah. My brain legit just stopped working.