King of the jungle! Mother creates Amazon-style tree house bed for her son, three, for only £150 – after being quoted £800 by a carpenter
- Kayleigh Hardy, from Sunderland, made a tree-house bed for son Hunter, three
- She was quoted £800 by professionals but completed it herself for £150
- She used bargain items and leftovers from other DIY projects to create the bed
- Was praised on Facebook for her good work after she shared pictures of results
A mother has revealed how she’s made a bed shaped like a tree house for her son using bargain materials – after professionals quoted her £800 to do it.
Kayleigh Hardy, from Sunderland, shared how she’d wanted to create a fun bed for her three-year-old son, Hunter.
The amateur DIYer managed to build the cute bed for only £149.47, a fraction of the £800 she had told it would cost by professionals.
Sharing her results with the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group, Kayleigh, who made the bed with her husband Steven, explained how the couple crafted it.
Speaking to Femail, she gave more details about the materials used – and said others shouldn’t be daunted about trying it at home.
Kayleigh Hardy, from Sunderland, wanted to create a jungle-themed bed for her three-year-old son Hunter but was quoted more than £800 to have it done professionally
‘After being quoted £800+ we managed to do it for a quarter of that,’ she wrote on Facebook while sharing her pictures. ‘Well worth the smile on our boy’s face.’
‘My son had a standard single bed. So we used that as part of the frame,’ she explained to Femail.
The couple also purchased CLS stud timber for the bed’s main frame work, which cost £60, and some MDF ( Medium-density fibreboard) for the roof of the bed, which they snapped up for £25 at a local timber supplier.
The couple built a balcony around the bed, which they secured with a rope they had left over from a previous DIY project.
Happy boy Hunter seemed very please with his parents’ good work. Kayleigh and Steven used their son’s bed frame and added the panels of woods on the side and a roof to build the ‘cabin’
Kayleigh, who is currently on maternity leave, said she could not afford to pay £800 for the bed so designed it herself instead
On the side of the bed, the couple put a blue safety net to insure Hunter could not fall out of bed in the night, costing £18 including securing hooks.
The hooks, Kayleigh explained, allowed her to easily take the mattress and sheets out of the bed frame for deep cleaning.
The mother-of-two added she could also fit through the bed’s door in order to change her son’s sheets. They then painted the bed frame in white with paint bought for £20 from B&Q.
The parents installed some netting on the side of the bed to avoid accidents and Kayleigh revealed she could unhook it to clean the bed sheets and flip the mattress if needed
Steven and Kayleigh decorated the bed frame with fake vines and leaves and added jungle-themed bedding
To decorate the bed, Kayleigh also purchased fake green vines and leaves from Amazon, which she bought for £6.99 and £5.99 respectively.
She added jungle-themed bedding bought for £8.99 and glow in the dark stars for £4.50 on eBay.
The couple put a sky light they had left over from another project above Hunter’s bed as well.
Kayleigh, who is currently on maternity leave, explained she needed to save as much money as possible after Steven was furloughed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
People loved Kayleigh’s results and said Hunter was a ‘lucky little boy’ after she shared the pictures online
People loved Kayleigh and Steven’s bed and gushed over it, saying Hunter must be a very happy boy.
‘Well done it looks amazing,’ one said.
‘That is fantastic! Massive value for money too. Well done,’ wrote another.
‘Love it! Looks amazing, you and your hubby did a fantastic job,’ one commented.
‘Wow wow just wow!! Lucky little boy! Stunning,’ said another.