Sweet Pea Bunk bed part 3--Pergola and window boxes

Continuing on.  Here is a link to Part 1--front and side panels, Part 2--stairs and shutters, Part 4--drawers and cubbies,  Part 5--the finale!  

Moving on to the pergola and the window boxes.  The window boxes were pretty straight-forward, however we did build boxes for both the upper and the lower windows--again, sister wants window boxes on her windows too!!

Had a heck of a time deciding on what paint color to do the boxes.  Started out dark pink, then ended up with this green teal color.  Still not sure I love it, but it will do. 

At this point the window boxes just sat around, being uninspiring.  I tried another paint design on them and didn't like it.  I also didn't like how much the pink still showed through the teal, so I sanded them pretty much all the way down and started over.  But basically I put them aside and worked on the drawers, etc.

Now we jump forward a few months to when the bed is finished EXCEPT for these dang window boxes.  I finally decided to take some of the wood flower/butterflies from the drawer fronts and use them on the window boxes.  That turned out OK.  I'm happy with it I guess.

I'm also thinking--"What's the point of window boxes with NO FLOWERS?  You need flowers, right?"  I want to figure out a way to get a nice flower arrangement in the window boxes, while at the same time being realistic about the harsh world occupied by "things that are played with by children".  I didn't want to put anything in permanently, because in a couple of years (or months) it would be all torn up and ratty looking.  I came up with the idea of making some drop-in boards that would hold the flowers but be removable.

Got a couple of bunches of silk flowers from the thrift store, then snipped them apart and re-made them into these small "nosegays".

Made these little platforms that drop down into the window boxes themselves.  Rope handles to make it easy to get them out again. 

Here you can see how they fit inside the boxes.  Sorry for the blurry picture!

Now slipping the stems of the little bunches into the holes.

Final picture--upper bunk windows.

Lower bunk windows.

Now the pergola.  This is a problem, since because we changed the design to allow the sides of the lower bunk to open, we can no longer use the original supports, which were underneath and attached to the sides.  I thought for a long time how to adapt it, I didn't want to leave the pergola off, since it is one of the cutest parts of the bed!  Finally we settled on supporting it from above with chains.  One thing we did was to make sure that all the chain/bolts/connectors we used were rated for 200+ pounds, since we all know that if you build it, they will climb on it. 

We notched these to fit on the 2x4



We used large lag screws to bolt them in. 

Here you can see the round two on the window boxes.  I ended up changing that paint design. 

I ordered these eye bolts with the nut caps online. 

Not all the chains are perfectly taut.  We should have put the chains on first and then marked where the eye bolts go.  Oh well, live and learn. 

That seems like enough for part 3.  On to the next-to-the-last post, Part 4, Drawers and cubbies!