These Beautiful Arched Bunk Beds Are Actually a $600 DIY

bunk beds

Valeria Jacobs

Valeria Jacobs, the blogger and founder of home goods store Rebecca & Genevieve, has enjoyed sharing her home projects via social media. She and her husband purchased their first home, a 1960s midcentury fixer-upper in Concord, California last spring, and have since gotten to work updating it.

While the housing market in the Bay Area is notably difficult to enter due to a lack of supply, continuously elevating prices, and competitive offers, the couple could see this home’s potential. 

“We saw the big windows, the good-sized yard, and pool, but the condition of the house was bad,” Jacob says. “There was nasty carpet all over, wallpaper, and outdated everything, including the bathrooms and kitchen.”

Jacobs building the DIY bunk beds.

Valeria Jacobs

They view this as their starter home and not their forever home, but since it had the most potential of all the homes in their price range, they decided to see past all that wasn’t present in the house. “We’ve had fun learning and experimenting with the design,” she adds. 

Jacob’s vintage rugs and textiles business started on Instagram, and since buying this home, she has shared her house journey, the transformation, and plenty of DIYs as well—including her young sons' bunk room

My sons often make forts and cover one of the bunks in blankets, and while they have their own beds, they always sleep in the same bunk together.

Her sons, aged 7 and 5, chose a small bedroom with a large walk-in closet they often use as a hideout. As the room’s layout wasn’t ideal for two beds, Jacobs had to look for a creative solution.

Jacobs family sitting on wooden bunk bed frame.

Valeria Jacobs

She realized she could create a chic double-arched bunk bed created with two-by-fours, plywood, and MDF, painted in Clare’s Deep Dive. This DIY was actually inspired by Sarah Sherman Samuel’s own bunk room DIY for her son, Archie, which featured Sherwin-Williams' Oakmoss, velvet blinds, H&M bedding, and a Justina Blakeney rug. 

Jacob hoped to capture the same playfulness with her design, going for arches for each bunk, stairs for safety in lieu of a ladder, and sophisticated recessed brass lighting. Over a one-month period in July 2020, she and her engineer husband worked on the bunks.

bunk beds

Valeria Jacobs

“My husband was in charge of making sure it was safe, and I was in charge of design and aesthetic,” she says, and she adds that her sons were even involved in the process. “They are very opinionated and wanted the bunks to be blue."

The completed bunks feature individual alcoves—ideal for late-night snacks and stashing their toys—and H&M bedding. The straightforward DIY turned out to be a huge hit, and the boys love their new room.

Bunk beds painted teal.

Valeria Jacobs

“My sons often make forts and cover one of the bunks in blankets, and while they have their own beds, they always sleep in the same bunk together," Jacobs says.