Comment on my idea for a loft!
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I am thinking of building a loft in my kids room. I have one five year old (who now has the room all to herself) and one one year old (who will soon be moving out of our bedroom to stay with big sister). I am not sure this is the right place to post it, but it would be great if someone could look at my attached SketchUp file to see if you think it looks o.k. Is it a good construction? Would you suggest any changes?
Thank you!
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Hello and welcome here, this the right place for almost any idea you'll see that.
As a side note , post your model in a version everybody can read: Files/save as/bla bla bla /sketchup model/ choose V6.
Thank you.
You will always have an answer here.
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Is this better?
This is the first time I use SketchUp (love it!) and I am mainly looking for comments on the actual building project (will it be sturdy? should I add some support somewhere? do you have a better design idea?), but comments on the SketchUp plan are also welcome. I am really a beginner both at designing/building lofts and using SketchUp.
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@gavagai said:
Is this better?
This is the first time I use SketchUp (love it!) and I am mainly looking for comments on the actual building project (will it be sturdy? should I add some support somewhere? do you have a better design idea?), but comments on the SketchUp plan are also welcome. I am really a beginner both at designing/building lofts and using SketchUp.
Sturdy for sure, you should show the walls, doors, window and celling in wireframe to have a better idea of the context.
And the little one's bed looks like the cat's box, also you will break your back and your head when you will pick it up in the night.
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Welcome Sara. That looks like quite a fun project and I'm sure there are two little girls who will just love it. Good work on the model. One suggestion is to watch the face orientation and make sure you correct the reversed faces--shown in blue in your model. Those boxes next to the upper bed as well as the shelves on the middle level have reversed faces.
I agree with gilles that the little one's bed looks like a cat box. You might want to consider making it with rails that can be removed at some point to allow the little one room to expand. She might feel like she's sleeping in a shoe box.
Of course right now it is probably a good idea to keep her somewhat contained at night. -
Another small tip to help you with future modelling, your file size is quite large for what you have in the model, I can see you have downloaded and tried various components and materials within your model that you haven't ended up using. These components are still stored within the model therefore increasing the file size. A simple purge reduced the file from 3.6meg to less than 300kb.
To do this go,
Window, Model info, Statistics tab, purge unused. -
I already love this forum! So many useful comments. Thank you!
will get back and answer them later today. -
Nice job. Some thoughts I had looking at this: can't the lower bed be put under the other one and have some more headroom, perhaps be raised some? Or is something else going on in that corner? I'd leave the shelves out of the upper loft. There would still be room along the bed for stuffed bears etc., and it would leave room for YOU to come up and fix the bed or snuggle. You can find other ways to hang or otherwise store more things there. Remember the standards currently adopted and keep the railing openings no greater than 4" for safety around kids.
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I like the concept. Something just says to me you should have some direct bearing on the legs. It's probably fine as is but letting the legs in under the floor framing might be worth doing. Hanging something on the shear strength of a fastener can lead to a failure.
S
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It helps a lot when you design something in it's true context, even a very basic wall structure and something to give you scale makes all the difference.
I've thrown a very simple "room" around your loft to give it some context. As an example this helps to show the difficulties of access to the baby's bed, and if the wall is actually behind those bookshelves you'll have to crawl under to get to your Bub.Designing this way lets you look at the room as a whole and makes it possible to use design features in the construction itself. For example I've used the Unicorn as an angle brace to help suport the bed . You can tie the structure into the wall decorations, perhaps the underesea landscape flows from the wall into the bed area and a simple clam structure could poke out of the wall over the bed in a sort of canopy effect with a reading light inside...... If you can design it with simple lines and pushpull then it can easily be cut from wood. I have no idea what sort of things your kids like, or your carpentry skills, but Sketchup is an ideal tool for bringing "borrowed" ideas together. Images from the internet can be easily turned into workable structure that you can cut up and paint or have made for you.
Just wanted to make the point that by putting in all the variables you are able to work through the complete design and solve many potential problems before they even arise. Hopefully stopping you from building a structure that stops you opening the wardrobe door. It even allows you to print out cutting templates or masks for painting on your walls.
And best of all it is fun!
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Thank you so much for all the comments! There are actually walls on three sides of the loft, which I realise now make the cat box bed pretty inaccessable. Also the railing on the "top floor" goes all the way up to the ceiling, so that "floor" is rally just a loft for sleeping.
I wanted to keep the small bed where it so that the five year old can use the other half of the floor where there is standing height for her.
Attaching a somewhat modified file (and a picture). I realise this is really a horrible adjustment to the sketchup model in so many ways, but it shows the loft in context.
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Please keep commenting! I will comment more on your ideas later. In a hurry right now...
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Woah! your kid is little buddha floating in the air, I suggest a flying carpet instead of a mezzanine .
Just kidding , send a projection of the bedroom , 3 walls are not enough .
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@gilles said:
Woah! your kid is little buddha floating in the air, I suggest a flying carpet instead of a mezzanine .
Just kidding , send a projection of the bedroom , 3 walls are not enough .
Yes, I realised after I uploaded it that he was floating in the air and didn't have time to change and upload again.
I will remake it (with four walls) and upload later. -
Here's a few ideas, simple structural, not interior design. Just thrown together quickly to give a bold concept.
By using simple shapes you can break up the cage effect and create usable book shelves for all the toys, books and nick nacks while still providing a safe structural barrier. Tapering curved corner shelves give more space to the area while still giving usable storage. Raising up the small bed gives you better access and good storage for bedding underneath, and the movable bars make nice safe area. When the time comes for a bigger bed you can still have it in a similar position, probably lower with the foot area extending under the loft. The chest of draws under the cot can be moved elsewhere.
Anyway, as I said, just a few random thoughts with bright colours to show the bits more clearly, not meant as a fancy design, just a look from a different view.
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@box said:
Here's a few ideas, simple structural, not interior design. Just thrown together quickly to give a bold concept.
By using simple shapes you can break up the cage effect and create usable book shelves for all the toys, books and nick nacks while still providing a safe structural barrier. Tapering curved corner shelves give more space to the area while still giving usable storage. Raising up the small bed gives you better access and good storage for bedding underneath, and the movable bars make nice safe area. When the time comes for a bigger bed you can still have it in a similar position, probably lower with the foot area extending under the loft. The chest of draws under the cot can be moved elsewhere.
Anyway, as I said, just a few random thoughts with bright colours to show the bits more clearly, not meant as a fancy design, just a look from a different view.
Wow, that looks so much more like a room for kids than the rough model with lines all over that I made. I still am not really best friends with sketchup. I do love it, and I see the potential in it, but it doesn't always love me back (i.e. do what I mean it to do).
Thank you so much for the ideas and very inspirational image. -
@s shepherd said:
I like the concept. Something just says to me you should have some direct bearing on the legs. It's probably fine as is but letting the legs in under the floor framing might be worth doing. Hanging something on the shear strength of a fastener can lead to a failure.
S
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Yes, I thought about that too. Maybe that is better. I will make a version like that as well. What do other people think? It is better to put the floor frame resting on the legs, right? Also, as I drew it now, the legs are made out of two 2x4 beams glued and screwed together (since I can't find any 4x4 beams near here). Will that work as well?
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The suggestion by S Shepherd is good practice for floor construction. It is an economical way to ensure safety and stability. Or, you could use countersunk and plugged heavy through bolt connections. (I don't think you want that.)
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One thing to remember is you aren't building a house, the structure needs to be safe and secure but you won't be supporting the rest of the house with it.
2"x4" placed at right angle to each other will be stronger than face to face. You end up with an L shaped 6"x4" which is less prone to raking and can be more easily screwed to existing wall and such.
What your walls are made of makes a difference to how you would construct it also. If you have good solid walls you can easily fix the structure into the wall making it solid, however if it is cardboard or a rental property where you can't fix into the walls then you need to put in more diagonal bracing to stop raking and squeaking.
Here's a quick sketch where everything is a straight cut and can be precut to length for you. It's an often used simple prefab construction method. Four corner posts and a platform that can be built elsewhere and put together on site. The shaped front board doubles as both decoration and diagonal bracing. The corner blocks just lock things together. Once in position it can be fixed to the walls or suitable bracing added. The L shape of the upright also makes it easy to continue the construction to create your lower level, it's much easier to put screws through 2" wood than 4" and blocks can be added if necessary rather than having to do cut outs or long bolts.
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We rent the flat and I don't want to damage the walls more than absolutely necessary. By the way, what do you think about this that was my inspiration in the first place: http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2011/08/how-to-build-a-loft/ That one is about as big as mine, the floor does not rest on the legs and it's not screwed to the wall. Also the legs are much further apart than in my 6 leg construction.
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