Painted blue spindle bunk beds for girls

Are you looking for bunk bed ideas for girls? I’m going to show you how I took a vintage wood spindle bunk bed and transformed it with paint. This soft blue paint color is a great girl bedroom idea, especially mixed with the palest pink wall paint and colorful accents. I used a custom mix of general finishes milk paint to get this light blue paint color.

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Supplies

Before: Vintage Spindle Bunk Bed

I found this second hand bunk bed for $150 through Facebook marketplace. I love a bed with spindles, and I thought this bunk bed was perfect for our girls’ bedroom. They were in really great condition, except for a few minor cracks and dents.

Step 1: Repair the wood bunk beds

The bunk beds had just a few small cracks and holes. I used the air compressor and blew some wood glue into the cracks and clamped it tight. I filled all the holes and dents with spackling and let it dry.

Step 2: Prime the wood bunk beds

Before priming the beds I cleaned them using water and tsp. Once that was dry, I lightly sanded using 150 grit sandpaper,

Next I did a coat of primer on the beds using a 4 inch paint roller. With chalk and milk style paint, you don’t always have to prime. I generally like to prime, it makes me feel that the paint will go on smoother and provide better coverage.

Step 3: Mix the paint

I decided to use general finishes milk paint and mix two shades to get a custom light blue color for these bunk beds. I used the same color combination for the dressers in the girls bedroom, and I wanted the beds to match. The ratio I used was of 1 part Persian Blue, and 4 parts Snow White milk paints.

I used my measuring cup to add 4 parts Snow White, 1 part Persian Blue, and mixed it all up to get a beautiful custom light blue color.

Step 4: Paint the spindle bunk beds light blue

I removed the bolts from the bunk beds before starting to paint. Then I applied two coats of light blue paint using a small paint roller, and using a paint brush to get into the hard to reach places. I sanded in between each coat using 220 grit sandpaper, and when the final coat was dry I lightly sanded with 400 grit.

Step 5: Spray paint the hardware

The only hardware on this bed were the bolts holding the brackets. I removed the bolts and spay painted them using oil rubbed bronze spray paint to match the hardware in the rest of the room. Once everything was dry, I put the beds back together and brought them up to our girls’ shared bedroom.

Girl bedroom Ideas with Blue painted bunk bedS

This bunk bed makeover started because our 4 year old daughter was still in her toddler bed, but was started to outgrow it. We wanted to move her up to a real bed, but in a shared girls bedroom we didn’t have the space for two twin beds.

I also decided to paint the walls in the girls bedroom. We had so much leftover paint from when we built our house, that I just mixed up a bunch of white and grey paint, with just a touch of pink. This mixture ended up as a very soft pale peachy pink. And I also finally painted all the trim in the girls’ bedroom. After three years living in our new house, I’m slowly chipping away at painting all the trim.

I made some bunk bed bedding using sheets I found at Value Village. I sewed the sheets together on one side to make inseparable sheets, and also cut a white quilt in half to create coordinating bedding for each girl. I’d love to know what you think of these bunk beds for girls!