When you’re a kid, your bedroom is important. After all, in a world usually controlled by grownups, it’s the one place that you can make entirely your own. That’s why these two dads went all out to make their kid’s beds — and bedrooms — special.
These dads wanted to connect with their sons and build something they would appreciate forever. So, after thinking about what they bonded with their kids over, these parents went to their respective hardware stores and started working on something their children would never forget.
A new father going by the Imgur username GlockTwentyThree (GTT) faced a dilemma in 2016: his little boy Jack had grown too big for his crib. This dad wanted his son’s first bed to be special…
The dad knew Jack loved trains — especially steam locomotives. Of course, getting his son a boxcar to sleep in was out of the question. But maybe, the father thought, he could build something.
So dad went to the hardware store and picked up the supplies he needed to build the perfect first bed: wood boards, plywood sheets, and more. Then, he went to work.
GTT chronicled the build on imgur, detailing the sizes of each plank of wood: “For the frame, I used two 84″ 2x4s and two 37.5″ 2x4s to give a rectangular size of 39″x84″,” he wrote…
Meanwhile, he “used a Minwax Espresso stain for the entire project. I didn’t stain the middle of the plywood since the mattress covers it. I only stained the edges.” That’s cost effective!
In December of 2016, GTT finished the train! Jack loved it, but the perfectionist dad wasn’t satisfied — there were a couple of major elements missing.
How could he live with himself, he thought, if his son slept in a train bed without a locomotive’s iconic cattle catcher? Similarly, the train lacked a personalized touch. So a year later, he grabbed his tools again.
Along the top headboard, GTT stenciled on the locomotive’s name: The Jack Steam Express! After adding a train number to the side, he went to work on the cattle catcher…
“It would have been easier to make [the cattle catcher] 90 degrees,” GTT wrote. “But for the extra 30 minutes…was worth it to make it look better.” Jack, meanwhile, appreciated the name of the train!
Finally, in November 2017, GTT finished the Jack Steam Express — no doubt, that smile was worth all dad’s time and effort! That’s why other dads, like Imgur user Dericrw, tried their hands at bed craftsmanship, too…
Dericrw faced the same dilemma as GTT: his son needed a new bed. Instead of pulling something off the shelves at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, however, he wanted the bed to be special.
Like GTT, Dericrw thought about what he and his son enjoyed together. The answer? Star Wars. The dad had passed his own interest in the iconic franchise onto his son — but could he incorporate that into a bed?
Dericrw envisioned a bed that looked like it had been pulled right out of a galaxy far, far away, and he had the carpentry knowledge to do something truly impressive. He started with a wall-mounted frame…
Dericrw was far more tight-lipped that GTT on his bed making process, but he nevertheless chronicled most of the build with photos. By the looks of it, his lucky son lent a helping hand, too.
After some time, he had the basic shape of the bed built and mounted on the bedroom all, but a lot of work remained. Can any Star Wars lovers out there guess what he was making?
Next, Dericrw performed a little DIY magic (i.e. he didn’t photograph any of the steps between hanging the frame and the finished product). The end result, though, blew everyone away.
Take a look at that! Dericrw built the cockpit of Han Solo’s ship, The Millennium Falcon, using a mural to complete the whole ship. But the most impressive part was probably inside…
Sure, knobs, buttons, and dials didn’t pepper the inside of the ship (and it was probably missing light speed capabilities)! But the lighting delivered the authentic Star Wars feel. And outside the cockpit?
Dericrw fully stocked the room with Star Wars gadgets, from lightsabers to toys guns. By the looks of it, you could call Dericrw’s son a scruffy-looking Nerf gun hoarder! And that TV?
Because of the way Dericrw positioned the cockpit door, his son could watch that TV while laying down in bed. For a kid, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Dericrw and Glock ThirtyThree built their sons special childhood beds the boys would never forget, but most importantly, they used the beds as a way to strengthen their connections with their sons. Very cool!
These young men will never forget the work their dads put into these bedrooms. What would your childhood dream bed look like?
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