Parents build amazing Jeep bed for son and it cost just £200
- Abigail Talbot, 23, and Darren Block, 42, built a Jeep bed for their son
- The project cost them just £200
- Abigail and Darren used products from scrap yards and timber yards
If you’re planning to use the lockdown to revamp your home, and want to start with your children’s rooms, take inspiration from this creative project.
Parents Abigail Talbot, 23, and Darren Block, 42, built an amazing Jeep bed for their son Horatio, two, and the whole project cost them just £200.
Abigail, a support staff for engineers at SSE, and Darren, a blacksmith and bicycle mechanic, live in Manchester and are also parents to Aria, one.
The Jeep was the perfect focal point for the dinosaur-themed room, which they accessorised with products from ebay and Amazon.
Abigail told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "The idea for the Jeep bed original came from a Facebook post. We then spent time researching a design that suited us and our space.
“The first step was to draw out the Jeep then cut out with a jigsaw. We assembled the jeep body, added the legs, filled and sanded the screw holes with body filler and sand flat, then added the wheel arches and filled and sanded the joints and also wood slats for the bed.
“The trickiest bit is getting the angles of the cuts to fit. Car body filler hides a lot of mistakes! Then we added the grille and primed the wood with car spray pain.
“We then applied a few coats of paint as MDF soaks up a lot of the paint. I used exterior paint as it's more hard wearing. I also used car pinstripe tape to make the finish neater where the colours join.
"Next was the wallpaper, before moving the Jeep into position. We added the wheels and grille and painted cracks on the wall to add to the feature using scrap off cuts of MDF.
"I used cheap plastic plants and fire wood logs from Aldi to create the scenery and stuck it down with car body filler.
“We covered the rest of the MDF with a thin layer of filler and pressed in some cheap gravel. I used all the MDF I had left instead of throwing it away.
"Cheap artificial grass was then laid under the Jeep to create an area for Horatio to play, and this was stuck down with double sided tape.
"Cheap plug-in LED light strips from Amazon added to the Jeep. He can change the colour to what he likes with a little remote!
"The process is messy due to the woodwork and with the MDF you need appropriate ventilation.
"Once all the pieces of wood have been cut, you will need to build the bed in the room you are putting it in as it's heavy and won't fit through door frames.
"The overall cost was around £250 for the entire bedroom. The bed cost £200 and it's made from MDF and softwood timber.
"Our local timber yard is still open so we were able to source all of our materials from there but B&Q stock all the products required. The headlights were from Halfords. We tweaked them so they could be wired to a plug!
"One big tip we wish we had have been told is to make the bed fit your mattress. A lot of designs on the internet are in American sizes and they have different mattress sizes to the UK.
"The wheels were gifted to us by one of our local scrap yards, Gadbury Auto Salvage.
"Car body filler to fill all the joints and screw holes just finishes the bed off, and truck bed liner paint which you can buy from Halfords was also great and cheap too.
"It doesn't scratch or wear easily so we have used it on all the areas that our boy comes in contact with often.
"All the fake plants are from ebay and were as cheap as chips and the bookshelves are spice racks that were painted to match his bed. The wallpaper was from Amazon for less than £30!”
Abigail says that getting stuck into a DIY challenge such as this one is a great way to be creative and productive during what is a stressful time for families.
"It's a great little project that will keep people busy during lockdown and it's something amazing for the kids,” she adds.
“I’m relieved now it's done and so happy that our little boy loves it. It was a big step for him because it was the transition from a cot to a bed.
“The sky is painted to look like the stars at night. This was done prior to the lockdown by Marshalls Night Sky Ceilings but it really adds to the overall look at night time.
"The next project after the garden will be a bed for Aria!”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “Which kid hasn’t dreamed of an epic bedroom like this? The lockdown is giving lucky kids with creative parents the chance to have a totally bespoke, tailor-made bed that transforms their bedrooms.
“Best of all, this bed cost Abigail and Darren just £200! If your DIY skills aren’t the best, inspire yourself first on Pinterest and Instagram, then follow YouTube tutorials to build your own amazing Jeep bed from scratch.”
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