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Built-in bunk beds are a popular choice you might have come across when browsing on Google images or in Pinterest. It is important to understand the difference between a built-in bunk bed and a bunk bed as a piece of furniture when deciding on what beds to choose for your kids.
While freestanding furniture can stand on its own, built-in bunk beds are exactly what they sound like: they are constructed into your home, permanently attached and supported by your walls, often going from floor to ceiling and surrounded by moldings or wood trim. Typically they are constructed by the contractor or millworker following the drawings and specifications created by the architect or interior designer.
Once a built-in bunk bed is installed, it cannot be moved. While these designs often sound like a good idea as they can be visually appealing and blend in with the space, freestanding bunk beds remain the most ideal solutions as they can easily be repurposed and moved into a new home, making them more sustainable in the long-run.
One of our most valued principles is creating sustainable furniture that will last and be able to be reused, repurposed, and adapt with the owner’s life: easily moving with them to a new home or disassembled and stored as needed. Built-in bunk beds will last around 10 years before they are outgrown by kids, possibly even less if a move occurs. Once this happens the bed can’t simply be disassembled and moved into a new home, and will have to be demolished, wasting materials, time, and money. Meanwhile, our free-standing beds can be passed on and enjoyed by a new family and will last 15 or 20 years, sometimes even longer. For this reason we’ve created ourfurniture resale program, which connects customers who want to sell their Casa Kids furniture with new buyers, extending the furniture’s life and usability.
Built-in beds can seem like a good idea if you’re planning to stay in your home for the next 10+ years, but unexpected changes happen. If you need to move, unfortunately built-in furniture cannot come with you. Even small changes are difficult, like simply rearranging the room’s layout. Kids will either outgrow their furniture, or simply want a change in the arrangement of their room. Free-standing furniture allows for these unexpected changes easily, allowing you to move everything around the room for a new layout, for painting the room, or to come with you to a new home.
Kids furniture is regulated to meet safety standards, and they are tested to ensure they meet those requirements. While built-in bunk beds are not required to meet these rules, traditional free-standing kids’ furniture must meet specific regulations to ensure they are safe, and go through rigorous testing to meet them. Because of this, built-ins often look great but can be dangerous, as they prioritize aesthetics. While there are plenty of examples for built-ins that contain dangerous elements, you can be sure freestanding furniture has proper rails on the upper bunk, and stable ladders or staircases that will not only look great, but will prevent injuries for you little ones.
For these reasons we encourage free-standing furniture over other options like built-ins, and our beds can still be highly personalized and be designed to fit in perfectly within your space, giving the custom look you’re looking for in built-ins.
