Another twist on a full size Ciera

These pictures were taken just before we painted it white. This bed is both taller and shorter than usual. I know that seems imposible but the customer wanted the bed to sit lower to the ground than the usual 56 inches. But they also have a super thick mattress, so the bed is lower but the over all height ended up taller than normal. The price for a full size Ciera loft is $340 unpainted, and we can make small adjustments like this one at no charge.

Altered James twin loft

So here it is the James twin loft with the ladder in the middle. I think it turned out pretty good. This is actually what makes what we do fun. We don't ever want to be a bed factory turning out the same bed over and over till we are old. It is fun that people ask us to do something different and then we get to figure it out. Well my husband figures it out, I am more the crazy idea kind of person and my husband is more the figuring out how to make it work kind. I think that is what makes us a good team, that and he chases away giant spiders in the middle of the night (see "our night life" )Some alterations we can make at no extra charge and other we have to charge a little. If there is something you have in mind just ask and we can let you know what if anything it would cost.

Our night life

Sometimes we find ourselves working late at night, we have four kids and sometimes it just seems like we can get more done after they go to bed. (not to worry, our wood shop is literally five steps from the door of the house ) Sometimes not only do we get more done but we see something we would probably not see in the day. Last night we saw this beauty, more actually this giant spider scared me in a big way! I don't like spiders but really who would not be startled to turn around and see this in the dark? We have a six year old who loves bugs so my husband took a picture of it for him and then scared it away for me. I think he just knew that if he didn't I would be in the house the rest of the night.

Full size Ciera loft

This is the head and foot board of the Ciera loft in full size. One of the big differences when you get to a full size loft is that the bed rails are 2x6 instead of 2x4. This is not really a typical Ciera, but then most of what we do is really custom in some way or another. This particular bed is altered slightly so that it can accommodate a thick mattress. So we lowered the bed rails and adjusted the position of the safety rail so that it will be where the kid is.

A word about ordering and payment

Two questions we often get asked are "how do we order?" and "how do we pay". I thought that maybe I would try answering it here. First of all to place an order we need you to let us know what it is you want to order, who you are and where you are. So we need your name and address (this tells us where to bring your order and helps us to schedule you on the same day as other people who live near you.) Also a phone number that we can reach you on the day we are delivering, sometimes we get lost or break down or get stuck in traffic and need to let you know what is going on. You can give us this information by sending an email go fhlunsford@msn.com. When we get this from you we send you a return email confirming your order and giving you the total and the delivery day.

Next comes the part where you pay us. We feel like there are a lot of scams out there. No kidding every time we place an add on Craigslist we get a version of a scam wanting us to accept payment in the form of a check that they will mail to us because they are away on business, or my favorite on their honeymoon, (who shops online for bunk beds on their honeymoon?) So in order to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with the transaction we do the payment part in full on delivery. It just makes more sense that way you the customer get to see what you are paying for and we get payment from a real person. Admittedly it is not a perfect plan we have had a couple people flake out, sometimes after we have built the beds and that is inconvenient for us. However normally we end up making money and the customer ends up getting what they wanted so it mostly works.

Now how to pay, we always accept cash. But we can also accept payments through paypal using a debit or credit card. However we do add 5% to those payments to cover the fees that paypal charges us. So it is great if you can let us know ahead of time that you want to pay that way. Still though there is no need to make those payments until we show up with a piece of furniture and it is what you wanted. You can always ask us questions either on here or through email.

In case you were wondering...

So the baby birds are growing, and getting a little less ugly. Whenever we walk close to the saw their nest is on they get all excited and open their little mouths wide. Their eyes are still not open. Momma bird comes and goes all day bringing them food, she sometimes chastises us for being there and other times completely ignores us.

James twin loft

Notice on this one how the ladder is all the way across the foot board, in the one we will be making next week the ladder will be in the middle. So check back to see how that goes.

Next week

Next week will be a busy week, we are going to deliver Two full size Ciera loft beds and one James style twin loft. Again these will be good examples of custom work. The James loft will have a different ladder configuration than normal. I'm posting a picture of how it usually is then when we have finished it you can see what is different about this one. The customer liked the look of our ladder on the full size loft better than the twin. Also one of the Ciera lofts will be painted white. We can paint any color, all we need is for you to go to lowes or home depot and pick what you like then give us the name or number and we can get it. This one is just a paticular brand of white paint but my favorite was one we did pink. The same is true of stain if you find a shade you like, or you know what shade the other furniture in a room is we can use that shade.

Triple bunk bed

Once again we built the beds and did not get a chance to take pictures. I'm not complaining though, it is good to be too busy filling orders to have time to take pictures right? This is one that we built a couple months ago. It is set up so that we could spray on the clear coat. The last two we made were stained and looked so nice I really wanted to set them up properly and take pictures but anyway you can get the idea. This bed will fit in a standard room with 8 foot ceilings. I hope you can tell from the photo, it has three bunks. My oldest thinks it would be the coolest thing to have the middle bunk because you have to climb through the hole to get into it, he thinks it would be like having his own cave. This is probably only a good solution for fairly small kids.

Birds nest update

In case you have been wondering about our little squatter in the wood shop, we have not had the heart to evict her. She laid 4 eggs and now has three ugly little chicks. I say this with the utmost of affection, I am a bird lover but there really is no other word to describe the little things. I don't know if it will show in the pictures but they have the most amazingly ugly little Mohawks on the top of their heads.

Outdoor Furniture

We do also build outdoor furniture. Actually the first thing we built years ago was Adirondack chairs. So here are some photos of some of the things we have done lately. As with our other furniture we are always willing to do something custom.

Obviously this is a porch swing, it is for two adults and the front and back of the seat are rounded to fit your body right.

This picnic table is made of 2x6 lumber and there are no visible fasteners, no screws in the top or seat. We have often been asked if we would build it with treated lumber, the answer is no. We just don't like working with it. Have you ever actually looked at the warnings of that stuff? We will put a coat of Thompson's water seal on it. Then it can either be painted over or left to see the grain.

Our Adirondack chairs are also rounded on the back and front to fit your body right. We have had many people with back problems tell us they are very comfortable for them. We have two on our own deck and I enjoy every minute I get to sit out there.

So these are just a few examples, if you are looking for something else let us know.

Modified Ciera Loft

This is a very good example of what make us a custom furniture builder. This is a Ciera style loft in twin size. It is probably hard to look at the pictures and tell the difference between it and the others we have posted so I will explain. This customer has a 12 inch thick mattress. Our beds are designed with a less thick mattress in mind. The customer was worried that the safety rail would not keep their little one safe if it was normal. Which it would not. So we made the top taller and dropped the bed rail down so that the safety rail will keep them from waking up to the very unpleasant thud of the little one falling out of bed in the middle of the night. Because we build each bed to order we can make little adjustments like that at no extra charge. Another side point this bed is not set up it is on the rack we use when painting.

My home gym

Every time I turn on my computer there is always some add for weight loss ie the one rule to obey for a flat stomach. I thought I would add my advice to the mix. This little beauty is my own personal trainer. If you use it for five or six hours in a row it is a total body workout! In all seriousness since we started doing this my abs and my arms are in the best shape they have been in years. I won't subject you to before and after pictures to prove it, those are just wrong on so many levels. You will just have to take my word for it.

The pile of wood behind it will be one of two tripple bunk beds we are making to deliver on Monday. Along with those is a Ciera twin size loft painted white, we have it built but not painted. It will be a busy weekend around here! I will try to get pictures especially of the triple bunk beds since we don't have a picture of one on here yet. They are really cool you can sleep three kids in a normal room with normal ceiling height.

Finished

Have you ever wondered how to fit two Adirondack chairs and a twin size loft bed into a small minivan? The answer is of course very carefully! Our problem is always the same, we never have time to get decent pictures of what we make. This week is no exception. This is the first Jeffery style twin loft bed that we have made and I really wanted to set it up and take decent pictures of it. But alas this is the best I could get. This is the Headboard.

Here is the foot board. The space is for the ladder, which there is no picture of...

This is not a terrible shot of the chair, it would look better on a nice beach though instead of in our messy workshop.

James Style

This is the James style, it is where it all started. We made a set of bunk beds and put the add on Craigslist. We have been busy at this ever since. This is just a basic simple and affordable style.

Jeffery Style

This is the Jeffery style, again we designed this with a customer. She liked the James style but wanted to be able to switch the headboard and foot board. So my husband came up with this design that can do that.

Ciera style

I am posting some pictures of some of the things we have done in the past. Basically to get some pictures of bed up. This is our Ciera style frame. We owe a great thank you to one of our early customers who let us design this bed for her. After we made this first one for her shown above we have sold many of them. We can make it in just about any size or configuration.

Progress

From piles of rough wood to piles of sanded wood. I promise I won't always put pictures of just wood on here, I just wanted to kind of show the whole process once. Next we put it all together and it looks like furniture.

It all starts the same way.

These pictures are backwards, I have not figured out yet how to fix that so Just imagine them in the other order. This pile of boards represents our week of work. In this pile of wood is a twin size loft bed and two Adirondack chairs. For the bed the boards need to be planed first so that is what is going on in the shot of the board going through the machine. The next step is layout for the chairs and cut out for the bed. Then everything gets sanded. That is mostly my job. I have to do something and it is really just about all I am qualified to do. Believe me no one wants to buy furniture made by me. So I stick to sanding, painting and staining.