One easy way to get some extra space in your dorm room is to raise your bed. But you may not know how to loft a dorm bed. Here are 5 simple steps to lofting your college dorm bed.
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Dorm rooms are notorious for having little space. But the intelligent dorm resident (like you) knows that optimizing space is essential. And one of the best ways to get more space is to loft your dorm bed.
Here’s an easy step-by-step guide on how to loft a dorm bed:
- Safely turn the bed frame on its side
- Securely attach frame leg extensions
- Test how secure the extensions are
- Flip the bed frame back up
- Add furniture underneath
Don’t leave yet because you will learn each step’s nuances, best practices, and even some insider tips for how to loft a dorm bed. But first, should you even loft your dorm bed?
Should You Loft Your Dorm Bed?
If you’re anything like me, you like your space. It seems silly to me not to claim extra space anywhere you can, especially in a small dorm room!
Here are the most common reasons to loft a dorm bed:
- More space
- More privacy
- It reinforces the idea that your bed is for sleeping/studying and not a storage area
How to Loft A Dorm Bed (in 5 Steps)
Here are the steps you need to take to loft a dorm bed:
Step 1 – Get a Lofting Kit
You can use one of two products to loft your dorm bed.
The first is a lofting kit (also known as a loft conversion kit).
These are not available on Amazon anymore because they’re often very specific to different types of beds. Fortunately, most housing societies or student stay departments offer the lofting kit for dorm beds.
But if you can’t get these kits at your dorm, you can always buy bed risers (this model can lift your bed by 20.5 inches).
Bed risers can fit a wide range of bed sizes as long as their bed posts are slim enough to fit in the rising posts (all dorm beds have posts that fit these). Still, it is an option I would go for only if I couldn’t get a lofting kit.
Step 2 – Remove the Mattress and Turn the Bed Frame on Its Side
Depending on your college dorm bed’s heaviness, you might need someone to help you with this step.
While mattress removal can be easy, turning the bed frame on its side can make it freefall.
And the mattress can get dirty if you put it down, so I find it handy to place it on a plastic sheet (or an old bedsheet).
You and a friend can move the bed into the center of the dorm room and turn it on its side. Moving the bed frame to the middle prevents the platform or the corners of the frame from clashing with the dorm walls and damaging them.
More importantly, it ensures you have enough room to work on the bed frame with your lofting kit.
Step 3 – Attach Lofting Pegs / Bed Risers To The Bed Frame Legs.
The process will be slightly different depending on whether you’re using a loft conversion kit or bed risers:
- With a conversion kit, the leg extensions are supposed to fit your dorm bed precisely.
- Bed risers sold online are marketed as “universal”. That is, created to fit a broad range of beds and comes with securing screws that you need to tighten.
Either way, the overall process is the same: you must make your bed frame legs longer with your extensions.
With a lofting kit, you will need to tighten the peg. And if you use standard bed risers, you’ll need to fasten the tightening screws until the leg extension is securely attached to the bed.
Repeat this process with all four legs, and you will bed done (well, almost).
Step 4 – Test the Strength of the Bed Extension
While the bed is still on its side, use your foot to apply downward pressure on the bed riser/extension.
If the extended leg is wobbly, the peg isn’t tight enough. If the extension doesn’t budge, then it is secure.
Step 5 – Turn The Bed Upright And Test It One Last Time
This is the final step in raising your dorm bed to a loft height. Simply turn it back upright and carefully place something heavy on top to see if the bed riser buckles.
If it doesn’t buckle under an object half your weight, you can climb on top and test whether it can carry your weight.
Now all that’s left is decorating your newfound space!
Not sure what to do with that space? Check out this article on under-bed dorm storage ideas.
Lofted Dorm Bed Inspiration
Now that you know how to loft your dorm bed, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to decorate. If you’re stuck on what to do with your space, here are some lofted dorm bed inspiration pictures to help you out:
Frequently Asked Questions About Lofting a Dorm Bed
Here are some of the questions posed most often by people looking to loft a dorm bed:
How High Can You Loft a Dorm Bed?
You can loft a dorm bed to 6 feet before it is too high to be stable. Many dorms have a maximum limit for bed height that goes slightly above 4 feet.
Are Lofted Dorm Beds Safe?
Lofted dorm beds can be unsafe if the bed risers are made with weaker material than the bedframe.
Aside from the risk of toppling over, bed frames may also put you close to your ceiling fans. That said, you can safely loft a dorm bed with the proper precautions.
How Much Weight Can a College Loft Bed Hold?
A college loft bed can hold anywhere between 500 lbs to 1000 lbs depending on the weight of the bed frame and the mattress and the maximum carrying capacity of the bed risers.
You can subtract the weight of the bed and the mattress from the carrying capacity of the risers to figure out the capacity of your lofted bed.
How do You Avoid Falling Off a Lofted Bed?
You can avoid falling off a lofted bed by adding a safety rail to one side of the frame and pushing the other against the room’s wall. Still, if you fall off a regular bed often, you should not loft your bed.
Recap: This Is How to Loft a Dorm Bed
Here are the steps to safely loft a dorm bed:
To loft a dorm bed, get a lofting kit or bed risers, turn the bed frame on its side, and add extensions underneath the frame legs. After securing the extensions, you can turn the dorm bed right way up.
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