Little Man’s New Bed (aka: Fort Night)!

Okay, peeps. 

Our random home project palooza is ongoing, though the majority of our list has been completed.

Honestly, at this point, I’m kind of questioning our sanity in tackling all these long-term-planned projects in a painful couple of months, but sometimes, that’s just easier (even though it’s harder; if that makes any sense, ha).

Welp. This past weekend, we tackled something that was many months—if not, years—in the making.

I give you…Little Man’s new bed! (Which we have hysterically named Fort Night, in an homage to the video game—that we, ironically, don’t let him play, ha):

Amazing, fun, unique, cozy, with convenient shelving and just a generally coolio-for-a-young-kid vibe, yes?

But you might be thinking: hey, didn’t Little Man already have a pretty fantastic room and bed???

Why, yes, YES, HE DID.

A room/bed that he hadn’t really slept in for almost three years. 

Now. To explain and give context…let’s rewind. 

So…when we moved here, back in March 2019 (wild; it’s been five years!), Little Man was just moving out of a CRIB. Just transitioning from diapers. And still using a pacifier. INSANE.

So, needless to say, we arranged a small, twin-sized bed, arranged up against the wall, for him to use as his first “bid boy bed. And he still had his baby glider chair in his room.

It was adorable, full of superheroes (his love at the time), and just what he needed for that particular stage.

Welp. Fast forward a couple of years and his room got a refresh, based on his growing and changing needs. Away went the glider. In came a desk. And we planned ahead for future use by getting him a queen size bed that could also be used for company—when we had overflow, above and beyond the head count that could fit in the guest bedroom.

All good things, yes?



I loved this refresh. It was so vibrant and fun. And quite inexpensive, thank heavens. Amazing what online furniture shopping can do.

Welp. This upgrade of his room was truly a God Thing, as well. A couple of months after this refresh, our Water Disaster happened, and we officially became a family that only lived upstairs while we waded through the insane fallout and restoration downstairs. 

Little Man was booted from his room and the hubby and I had to take it over as our primary bedroom. Chica’s room had to be used as the office (this was during lockdown/ working-entirely-from-home times), and all three kiddos had to bunk in Chicklet’s room—for months and months.

As soon as the house was restored (in about summer of 2021), the kiddos had been bunking together long enough that they just liked it that way.

And we were beaten down by life, kind of adored their togetherness, and couldn’t really think of a persuasive argument against it, ha.

They slept more soundly. 

Felt safe.

And it prompted sibling bonding.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Plus, we knew it wouldn’t be forever and kind of loved how much they enjoyed it. 

For the next two years, they pretty much took turns having “sleepovers” in all three of their bedrooms and would just rotate every few weeks and it was such a fun and unique phase for our family—mostly because we knew it wouldn’t last forever.

Mind you, for the two years they bunked together we’d offered—and even tried many times—to separate them when society or outside opinions made us feel like we “should”—but the three of them, collectively, always rejected it. 

We knew, in our parental gut, that they’d separate when the time was right.

Lo and behold, the night before Chica started middle school, she was like: hey, maybe I should sleep alone in my own room, and we were like, YES. ABSOLUTELY. YOU SHOULD! 

She made the change, it was zero percent of an issue, and none of us have ever looked back.

See…all as it should be.

That no-issue, easy-breezy change of Chica being back in her room, alone, confirmed our beliefs that everything sometimes just happens in its own time.

Okay. So. At that point, Chica was back on her own, but Chicklet and Little Man still wanted to bunk together, so we just let it be. Especially since those two can always use more bonding time, ha. 

However. Because they pretty much set up camp in Chicklet’s room and decided not to rotate anymore, Little Man kind of got the short end of the stick by always being on the non-official-mattress-palette (technical term).

And eventually, by Fall, he was talking about solutions and a way to comfortably be back in his room, but the kicker (that we’d known for a loooong time): he didn’t like his queen-size bed and just felt exposed and scared in there.

He wanted something oriented along the wall again, and he wanted something smaller than queen. Oye. 

I’m not gonna lie, the hubby and I were so uggggggh about the idea of getting him a smaller, more juvenile type of bed (why would we go backwards???) that we just hoped the situation would go away and he’d quit asking. Or just suddenly be fine with the big, exposed bed.

But…no such luck. SHOCKER.

It became a big issue, and we eventually realized if there was something we could do to help promote feelings of happiness, coziness and safety in his own room, we just needed to DO IT.

So we got over our feelings of being opposed to buying him yet another bed, and decided to just get on board with a fun solution, that could be CHEAP. Ha.

But I put my foot down at getting him back in a twin. I thought a full size bed was the best compromise, and all parties agreed.

Thus ensued months of searching and hemming and hawing about which way to go with all this, and how to keep it from snowballing, until, finally, we had a few finalists beds selected and we let Little Man weigh in. 

And we had a clear, affordable winner. Only problem: it took six hours to assemble! Ha.

We set aside last Saturday, as we were all sort of hunkered down clearing out germs (Little Man was home sick that Friday), and aside from the process of dissembling the lovely bed he already had (I tried my best not to be sad), the process of making way for the NEW was really fun.

If you could that many hours, and a gazillion parts “fun,” ha.

So many times as we were assembling, I had to remind myself of how young my boy still is.

He’s so tall and bright and self-assured, and tries so hard to keep up with his older siblings that it’s sometimes hard to remember he’s still an eight -year-old second grader!

It’s okay for him to still be a little scared at night and need a safe and comforting sleeping situation. He’s not all grown up. 

That reminder really helped me to put things into perspective.







After helping me assemble the sports equipment organizer for the garage, Little Man was all in with wanting to help, and I loved that. Chica lurked in the room for most of the time, as well, while Chicklet had her nose in a book, ha. 





We had one tricky stretch when we were assembling the “roof” that almost set the poor hubby over the edge. There were about a dozen pieces that had to be held in place before the first one was secure and it was a RIOT trying to make it happen. 

I got the giggles while the hubby tried his best not to be a rage monster, the kiddos were trying their best and failing, and I LOVE Chica for taking this pic before she stepped back in to hold her piece. PRICELESS familial memories.



It was certainly NOT the easy, two-hour process one online reviewer claimed, but, again…priceless family memories. :)

We ordered an inexpensive memory foam mattress that’s really cozy, actually. 



And my boy was SO excited to have it all assembled and to pounce on the bed.





He spent the rest of the evening stocking his bed shelves with all his precious things that he LOVES having within reach. Especially his books. Honestly, it’s my favorite part of the whole shebang.



I switched out his framed artwork with some Pokémon prints (he previously had Mario) to freshen it up a bit, and…voila!



We’ve spent a few minutes each night getting him settled after he’s done reading alone in there, and then he’s been conking out happily, and sleeping so well!

Who knows if this will last a year or oodles of years, who knows if the effort and cost will be worth it, but all signs point toward this accomplishing the goal of getting him back in his room—a room he can LOVE.

I’ll just end by saying this has created a spiral amongst our three kiddos, regarding room refreshes, ha. Can I get an OYE. So this will likely not be the last I post on bedrooms.

But for now, one is mostly done, and I’ll say AMEN to that!

More mañana, peeps.

Over and out.