Ideas for Raising Beds

Raising a bed off of the floor gives you more space for storage. If you raise the bed high enough, you may even be able to fit a living space, such as a fold-out loveseat or a desk, under the bed. While you can purchase a set of four bed risers, they often aren't much to look

at. Get creative and look for items hefty enough to hold a bed up.

Bricks or Cinder Blocks

Use bricks or cinder blocks to raise a bed off of the floor. You can lay the cinder blocks longways or stand them upright depending on how high you want the bed. You can also use the holes in the blocks for additional storage or place a decorative object in each hole to spice up the look of the blocks. Paint the cinder blocks a bright color or to match the legs of the bed if industrial gray doesn't go with your room decor.

Glue together bricks to get the height you want for the bed risers. You may want to place adhesive backed Velcro on the top of the bricks and on the bottom of the bed's legs to guarantee that the bed won't slip off the risers.

Wooden Blocks

Cut a 4 by 4 inch post into four equally sized pieces and use those as bed risers. Use slightly larger pieces of wood to raise the bed even higher. You have a number of options for decorating the wood. You can paint it or stain it. You could also cut images from newspapers and magazines and create a collage on the wooden blocks using decoupage glue. If you decide to create a collage on the wood, leave the bottom of the riser plain since the friction between it and the floor will cause it to wear away.

Basic Plastic Risers

A lot of home stores sell plastic bed risers. While these risers aren't much to look at, they are pre-cut and feature a spot to hold the bed's leg firmly in place. Plus, they're easy to customize. Wrap the plain plastic risers in sticky-backed paper or glue fabric to give jazz up their appearance. Like the wooden blocks, you can also decoupage the plastic risers. Coat the risers with decoupage glue, then apply the cut-out images. Allow the glue to dry, then apply a coat of decoupage glue on top of the images to seal them.

Loft the Bed

If you need a lot of space under the bed, lofting it is probably your best option. You can build a loft bed yourself if you're handy with tools. Some beds, particularly those found in dorm rooms, are designed to convert to loft beds by raising the mattress height on the bedposts. You can choose to loft the bed a few feet off the ground, so that there is room for a short bookcase or dresser under the bed, or high enough that you can fit a desk under the bed. If you loft the bed very high, consider guardrails so a person doesn't fall out.