The birth of a child is a significant and joyful event in almost every family. However, at the same time, this is the various chores associated with preparing the necessary space for a newborn baby. This primarily applies to the sleeping place. Few can afford to buy a newborn bed, given today's prices.
It must be remembered that the crib must be stable and safe for the child.
But there is an alternative option that will save you money - this is a do-it-yourself bed for a newborn. And if you approach this matter very responsibly and with knowledge of the process itself, you will get a bed no worse than purchased in a store.
How to start the creation process
Everyone knows that children never sit still. Therefore, the children's room should be the safest place in the house. Those. it is necessary to exclude objects that can injure the baby (for example, a nail that has not been hammered to the end or an ordinary screw).
Must be stable and safe for your child.
Crib size chart for a newborn.
In addition, it is desirable to equip it with a removable sidewall (the so-called decorative side). This will help the child himself, without the help of adults, climb into his bed.
What will be required during the construction process? This:
- electric drill and drills;
- milling cutter (can be manual);
- plane;
- rasp;
- roulette;
- square;
- hacksaw;
- pencil or marker;
- hammer;
- level;
- wyma (glue blanks);
- brush;
- screwdriver
From building materials:
- nails and screws;
- epoxy adhesive;
- plugs for furniture;
- plywood sheets;
- corners for connecting parts of the crib;
- children's mattress;
- stain, varnish;
- edged board (4 cm) and bars (3x5 cm).
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Construction process for the construction of a crib for a newborn
Drawing of a bed for a newborn.
Before proceeding with the installation, you must purchase a children's mattress. After all, it will depend on him what size the bed itself will have.
- for a good rest of the child, it is desirable to build in size 120 × 60 cm (and not crowded, and very convenient). As for the height of the sides from the floor itself, it is 8-10 cm, the height of the back of the crib is 110 cm. The lower position of the bed of the crib from the base of the floor is determined taking into account the safe height. Since the bed, originally intended for newborns, will be used later (up to about 4 years of age), the height should be about 30-35 cm;
- the distance between the bars of the crib for a newborn should be 10-12 cm. This is necessary to avoid that the child cannot stick his head between them (which can happen later, no one needs to explain).
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Parts manufacturing
The strapping for the backs and transverse sidewalls is made of coniferous boards.
The material itself must be processed with a planer or with a woodworking machine. In this case, the thickness will be 3.5 cm, and the width 7 cm.To make a frame, you need to take bars (section 3x5 cm) in the amount of 6 transverse and 2 longitudinal.
Using a tape measure, points are marked with equal intervals between them on long bars.
Then this frame is compiled, a drill is taken and through holes are made at the joints, into which spikes must be inserted (you can use ordinary wooden wedges). In this case, for more reliable fasteners, you can use glue, which is applied to the joints. Do not forget to check the design with a square.
Frames of backs of a children's bed for the newborn.
Here you need to take 4 long bars and 4 short ones. Moreover, each of them should be the same size (110 cm and 60 cm, respectively).
- 2 pairs of designs are made. Those. 2 long for 2 short products (in the form of "P"). In this case, all the bases of the bars should be in the same plane. The height to the lower crossbar is 30-35 cm. Fastening occurs with the help of nails or spikes;
- then 10 bars are taken (length from bottom to top bar). These elements will serve as a "grid". Marking is done along the upper and lower crossbars, 5 points for each. Bars are inserted at these points (5 for each back).
With the help of a drill, through holes are made into which spikes are hammered. The backs are ready.
Rod manufacturing
For these purposes, slats with a cross section of 2 × 2 cm (oak or beech) are used. Quantity of products - 22 pieces (11 for each sidewall).
- with the same drill, holes are made at each of the ends of all the rails. With the help of a tape measure, the same segments are measured on the prepared frame and are also drilled;
- then 2 more beams are taken (along the length of the crib for a newborn) and holes identical to the previous ones are made in them in the same way. Notches for spikes are also required from the ends.
In infants, one of the main needs is sleep, and the first year of life the child will spend in the crib: sleep, watch others, play with rattles and pendants. Future parents can significantly reduce the cost of arranging a nursery by making a crib for a baby with their own hands. Its design is quite simple, and production will take only a couple of days.
What materials can be used?
First you need to decide on the material of the product: in no case should you use toxic chipboard and fiberboard, which can cause real harm to the child. The safest will be natural wood (birch, pine, beech, oak), processed with a grinder or sandpaper. It is very important that all parts are carefully sanded, otherwise the child can easily get a splinter.
Round wooden rods can be bought in the garden and garden departments, and rectangular slats are easy to find. In addition to timber, slats and boards, you may need plywood, a jigsaw, an electric drill, a file, a rasp, nails and a hammer, furniture corners, anchor bolts, self-tapping screws, tape measure, level, drawing paper.
Crib dimensions for a newborn
The standard dimensions for a cot bed are 120x60 cm, but other sizes can be selected. For small apartments, very small cradles (80x43 cm) are intended. In them, the child feels great, but only up to a certain age, about 6-8 months. Then you have to look for a bigger bed.
How to make a crib for a newborn with your own hands
The base of the sleeping bed and the walls are assembled from bars 5x3, 5x5 or 7x3.5 cm, while the legs will continue the walls. Legs can also be taken from old furniture, such as bedside tables or wardrobes.
First you need to make frames for the slatted sides and backs. It is best to fasten the bars with through spikes, but you can use glue or screws. It is necessary to assemble the sides from the bars and rods, for this, holes are drilled along the perimeter at the same distance from each other (4-5 cm), then rods or slats are inserted. One or two walls can, if desired, be made solid using a sheet of plywood. Self-tapping screws should be used to fasten the sides and backs of the crib.
The bottom of the bed can be different: from thin wide slats, wooden rods or solid plywood. In the latter case, it is recommended to make holes for ventilation. The crossbeams can be additionally lubricated with wood glue or PVA before being inserted into the grooves.
It is necessary to responsibly approach the choice of a mattress for newborns. It should be hypoallergenic, breathable, sufficiently rigid, and also be 2 cm smaller than the perimeter of the bottom of the crib. It is best to buy a mattress in advance and only then proceed to create a drawing. It will not be intricate if there is no desire to make an unusual bed. Otherwise, it is best to turn to specialized magazines and articles on the Internet. It should be noted that the optimal height of the sides from the floor is 90 cm, the backs should be higher, and the bed should be at a distance of 30-35 cm from the floor level.
The structure should be strengthened with corners, and all fasteners should be driven deeper into the tree and closed with plastic plugs. The assembled cradle is covered with a safe varnish (water-based) or acrylic paint in 2 layers and thoroughly dried in the open air. You can avoid the use of varnish by rubbing the crib with wood oil or wax. You can complement the bed with furniture wheels, thanks to which it will become more convenient to cradle the child, but clamps should be provided.
There are other options for baby beds: rocking chairs, transformers, cradles, playpens, etc. The presented option is easy to manufacture even for beginners and quite economical. In addition, it allows some deviations in dimensions or various additions. Varieties of classic beds for newborns are shown in the photo. The advantage is that you can make such a cradle even with a minimum set of tools.
Do-it-yourself crib for a newborn: interesting ideas
For some families, buying a handmade crib is a great solution. It can be easily restored: remove the old varnish, prime and re-coat to your taste.
After the bed is completely ready, you can proceed to decorating. Avoid too bright colors that will prevent the child from falling asleep. The hand-painted cradle will look original.
An interesting and functional decoration will be fabric bumpers for the crib, which not only protect the baby from bruises and drafts, but also serve for its development. You can make such a panel yourself or purchase it in a store. The main thing is that all the details and ropes are well fixed and do not interfere with the child.
Another addition to the crib is a hanging toy module, which will allow you to leave the baby alone in the room for a while. It can also be made by hand.
Video on the topic of the article
A do-it-yourself crib for a newborn is a great solution if you know how to craft and handle wood at least a little. Such a bed will meet all your requirements and ideas about the ideal sleeping place for your baby.
You can make a crib for a newborn with your own hands from wood and plywood.
How to make a crib for a newborn with your own hands
To make a bed for a newborn, you will need boards of various thicknesses and lengths, plywood, slats, wood glue, putty, self-tapping screws, steel corners, protective impregnation for wood, varnish or paint, a jigsaw, a grinder, a router, a file, a drill, measuring tools .
Let's break down the process step by step.
- Measure the mattress and from thick wooden bars, assemble a frame for it.
- Make supports for the mattress from wooden slats about 20x20 cm thick.
- From the bars, assemble the frame for the headboard.
- Make the filling of the back from a sheet of plywood. It is best to take plywood with a thickness of about 5 mm.
- From thinner rails, make the sides.
- Carefully sand all the elements.
- Using metal corners, gather all the elements together. For your convenience, it is better to make the middle board folding.
- Remove wood defects with putty. When it dries, sand the treated areas.
- Treat the wood with a protective impregnation.
- When the impregnation is completely dry, paint the crib with paint or open it with varnish.
Decoration is up to you. Here you can use all your imagination. But do not forget about safety: do not use non-environmentally friendly materials to decorate the crib. Do not decorate it with small items that the baby, after growing up, can tear off and accidentally swallow.
Additional items for the crib
The crib needs to be equipped with two additional elements - sides and a canopy. The sides will protect the child from injury, in addition, they will keep warm.
Canopy and bumpers can be bought at the store, or you can sew it yourself
The baby crib should be ready to receive the addition to the family while the mother is preparing for discharge, but not only out of courtesy and joy. Man is a social being, and a stable society is impossible without hierarchy. Having received his territory and things from birth, even if he still does not understand their meaning at all, a small person will gain self-confidence, over time he will correctly determine his place in society and achieve success. This, of course, is not an absolute law, but the statistics clearly show: babies, by the will (or lack of will) of their parents at an unintelligent age, roamed anywhere, are much more likely to grow up carelessly useless. There is even a historical and sociological theory: they say that people began to emerge from savagery and create civilization when they invented the cradle and mothers stopped carrying babies all the time.
All this may be interesting, but in a developed civilization, dad, rushing around shops and websites in happy anticipation, discovers that the prices for cribs for babies are disproportionately high compared to the complexity and material consumption of products. And you can’t dig, a solid medical-environmental-production-legislative basis has been put under each hidden cheat. And then how about in a consumer society, and let parents do not regret anything for their child.
Let's say the head of the family is a craftsman. Then he gets the idea to make the crib himself: its design has developed over thousands of years, there is nothing complicated in it, and nothing is required of the material. It is possible to make a crib for a baby with your own hands, using the usual household tools and plus a jigsaw, manual or, better, electric. There is another reason: after giving birth, the mother, especially if it is the first-born, will be “on edge”. After making sure that the faithful in her absence did not go on and on, but diligently worked in his field for the sake of the family good, she would calm down much faster and generally return to normal. And there will be more milk, which is again good for the child.
What will we do?
Classic crib for a newborn, pos. 1 in Fig., the design is straightforward. Basic requirements for it:
- Ecological cleanliness and complete medical and sanitary safety.
- No sharp protrusions or edges.
- There should be no holes / openings and slots in which anything can get stuck in a little one, from a finger to a head.
- Mandatory presence of sides; it is known how dangerous it is for babies to fall even from a small height. The front board (wall) is desirable partially folding or lowered, so that it would be more convenient for the mother to take care of the child.
- Ventilated, i.e. slatted or perforated bottom. No matter how improved the means of children's hygiene, the baby will someday make the bed.
- If the newborn is the firstborn and it is supposed to add brothers and sisters to him someday, then sufficient strength and durability in combination with a collapsible design.
Often, for ease of movement around the house, a crib is placed on wheels, pos. 2. In small apartments, you can sometimes find samples with drawers for linen in the under-bed space, as in adults, pos. 3. However, for the reasons stated above, the drawers under the cot must be fitted with moisture-proof lids. Finally, a rather complicated and expensive product, but convenient for the mother and saving living space - a bed for newborns, combined with a chest of drawers for swaddling, pos. 4.
Many babies have to be rocked to sleep. The main types of rocking beds hammock, pos. 5, cradle (with upper bed suspension), pos. 6, and a cradle (with a bed on the lower curved rocking supports), pos. 7. A hammock is suitable only as a temporary rookery, say, in the country on the weekend. The bones of the baby are still soft, and constant reclining on something pliable deforms his skeleton. Cribs for newborns - hammocks are most often made folding and transportable.
The cradle is easy to swing, but it is more difficult to make, because. some kind of mechanism is required. In addition, the risk for the baby to fall out of the cradle, hanging over the side, is much greater than from a hammock or cradle. The latter, in addition, is easier to make, and the small bumpers on the rocking chairs make it completely safe, which is why the cradle is the most common. In the cradle, there must be a bed retainer, and it is highly desirable to have a spring with self-resetting, which must be taken away for motion sickness, otherwise the busy mother may forget to insert it, moving away from the crib. “With self-reset” means that the mechanism itself will put the stock horizontally and drop the pin into the socket if the angle of the cradle exceeds a certain allowable value.
Note: baby cribs can have completely different bumpers, see at the end.
Motion sickness in the transverse direction for a person is not optimal, this is how our vestibular apparatus works. Anyone who has gone to sea in a boat or sailing yacht knows that pitching is much easier to carry onboard. Infants who are constantly rocked sideways may even develop a habit of motion sickness, which is why the obnoxious screamer, growing up, risks turning into a hyperactive stunner or "no" autist. The probability of injuring the baby's psyche by excessive motion sickness is reduced to almost zero if the cradle (pos. 8) or cradle (pos. 9) are adapted to motion sickness in the longitudinal direction.
Recently, pendulum beds, pos. 10, free from the disadvantages of cradles and cradles. Firstly, lateral motion sickness in a pendulum bed is harmless, because. the child's body does not bend with him and his vestibular apparatus experiences a completely negligible load in one plane. Secondly, it is almost impossible for a child to fall out of it, because the crib itself is not tilted. Thirdly, the underbed box can be arranged in a simpler way - access to it is provided automatically. The pendulum mechanism itself is fundamentally simple, pos. 11, you will only need to occasionally adjust the tension of the springs as the child grows.
How not to do it!
In no case should you make a crib for a newborn that can swing in 2 planes, pos. 1 and 2 in fig. Perhaps your offspring, having matured, intends to become a pilot or a parachutist and from the first run will endure with a joyful grin, without turning a bit green, training on loping. But in infancy, humpty-dumpty back and forth would not have benefited Valery Chkalov either.
Further, it is undesirable to make the bottom of the crib with a too rare crate, pos. 3. When the baby learns to stand up, his legs will crawl into the cracks along with the mattress. A thick mattress pad (see below) solves the problem, but this is extra work, material and costs, and extra dryer replacements. The best bottom for a newborn's bed is made of fiberboard with a thickness of approx. 10 mm with holes with a diameter of 20-30 mm, drilled on a grid with a pitch of 70-90 mm. Suddenly it will completely become unusable, it is easier and cheaper to replace than a mattress pad, and it takes up less spare space. And don't worry, fiberboard is an environmentally friendly material, even cleaner than the original wood. In its manufacture, synthetic binders are not used, and during the processing of wood, all volatile substances are “exhaled”.
Note: it is also undesirable to make a height-adjustable bottom in the baby's crib. Nests under its holders are seductive from the point of view of knowledge of the world, and the little finger will climb into them. If without nests, then a rather complex and expensive mechanism is required. And the folding side is enough for mom.
A bad solution is also a playpen, pos. 4. In all beings whose life is divided into an active phase and sleep, the instinct during the latter demands complete security. The combination of the sleeping area with the play area does not give it. What adult is able to sleep sweetly at work? And what about small children who are defenseless and not yet able to realize their surroundings?
About the canopy
A canopy over a newborn's bed is not a luxury. And not so much a remedy for dust, which should not be in the nursery and in general in a well-groomed apartment. But remember, which of the adults was not brought to white heat by an autumn fly or a mosquito itching and itching in the dark? What is it like from them to a baby who still does not own little hands? And it is very, very not necessary to turn on the fumigator or spray repellent in the nursery.
The canopy over the baby's bed is made of freely breathable natural fabric: chiffon, veil (silk or cotton), organza (only silk), muslin. The optimal design is a tent, on the left in the figure, or a tent, in the center, which, if necessary, allows you to completely fold / push back the canopy. But remember: in the process of learning about the environment, the child will pull and pull the canopy.
Purchased children's canopies are equipped with a strong bracket with a paw-holder made of lightweight durable elastic plastic, on the right in fig. With self-production, the best option is a canopy tent suspended on a cord from the ceiling. Hook-screw M6, screwed into a steel threaded collet, and a strong adult will not pull out of the ceiling, and if you unscrew it, then the hole is almost imperceptible on the ceiling only 2.5 m high. except for the lightest fabric and a thin lace, it will not fall off.
Note: The best protection for a crib against pesky insects and dust, under which an asthmatic does not get out of breath is a mosquito net. But not a fiberglass window, but a special tropical one. Its cells are wider than those of dress-drapery airy fabrics and it is stronger. We have a rare product, but still take an interest. Ruffle bows look good on her too.
What to do sides?
Sellers offer a wide variety of baby crib safety guards: folding, lowering, hinged, sliding, with doors and manholes. But upon closer examination, it turns out that there is something everywhere in which a finger or a whole pen can be pinched. And the recesses under the overhead parts carefully store the dust and, as it were, invite the settlers themselves. Only undesirable and not of a human kind, but of an arthropod.
The simplest and safest bumpers in the crib of a newborn are folding ones with elastic bands, see fig. The height of the folding part of 150-180 mm is enough to make it convenient for the mother to take care of the child. There are no complaints about such boards, but it is reliably known that at least one new person in this world with a character of envy m-mes Sobtchak & Timoshenko, for 3.5 years she has never been injured and has not broken anything; During this time, the rubber bands were changed 2 times.
Note: 2 ways of laying a folding bar of this type will be discussed below.
Let's get down to business
Now it's time to make the bed. Making it and decorating it is another article (with one small exception, see below); first you need to make a solid and reliable foundation for them. And before that, decide on the material; first of all, for its safety for the baby, then for the price and manufacturability at home.
What to do?
Plastics fall away even the safest: a little grown up, the child begins to touch everything. The tactile sensations from plastic go against his fundamental instincts, which can cause irritability and damage the emerging moral and volitional qualities. For the same reason, we also discard metal, which will also hurt more when the baby starts teething. Then the shortcomings of textile and other semi-soft type of beds will fully affect.
As for chipboard, the emission class of phenol-containing compounds E0 (zero, premium or extra grade), it seems to be applicable for children's furniture. But conscientious manufacturers in the specifications honestly indicate: “For children from 6 months”, therefore, not newborns. In addition, high-quality chipboard is expensive, a bed made from it will cost more than a ready-made purchased one with a canopy. That is, a newborn's bed must be made of wood.
We choose wood for a crib, taking into account the fact that its impregnation with any biocides is unacceptable. Therefore, any business wood of foreign origin is no longer available: consumer supervision simply will not let it go to the market raw. From domestic hardwood species, birch and beech are suitable for a crib for several generations; for single use - cheap aspen or linden, but it is expensive. All the rest contain tannins, salicylates and other substances that are harmless for adults, but can cause allergies in a baby.
Of the conifers, pine is quite reliable, but not every one. Pine wood goes on sale in the form of expensive tar, cut down during sap flow, and cheaper dry chips, harvested in winter. Tar is good for outdoor buildings, because. does not lend itself well to rot and pests, but is absolutely unsuitable for a crib. In other conifers, the change in resin content from sap flow to sleep is not so pronounced, so it’s better not to risk it.
In order not to miscalculate with pine, it is better to make a plywood bed out of it. The cheapest construction and packaging plywood is made from dry-chip pine glued together with harmless and safe casein glue. There is no point in "cheating" for manufacturers, because everything else is more expensive. A plywood bed will last with proper home preparation of the material, see below, 2-3 times for 4-5 years, which is quite enough for a family.
About finishing
Over time, the baby will feel that something is climbing in his mouth with which to bite. And then he starts to chew on everything. This is a natural and necessary process, but once it created serious problems for children's furniture makers: to leave the tree bare - the fibers would be swallowed, or even choke on a chip. Nitrolac is not harmless, and its sharp scales cut lips, gums, tongue.
Now there is no such problem: water-based acrylic varnish, firstly, is completely safe; secondly, it is very durable. Compounds of a similar composition restore the enamel of bathtubs, on which even a seasoned wolf will break his fangs.
Very suspicious parents can still put special silicone pads on the sides of the crib. But you will have to buy them and adjust the design to the selected sample: building and aquarium silicone is not suitable for homemade products, you need a special one from which teething toys are made. It is not on sale in its raw form, only in finished products.
Cradle and classic
How a classic wooden crib for newborns is arranged is shown in fig. on right. Pay attention, firstly, to the laying of the sides in the pockets and the prefabricated design of the rocking chairs. We will deal with the first one, and we will use the second one further. Its recommended dimensions and specification of parts in a modern, without labor-intensive artistic details, execution are shown in fig. below.
Cradle
Who knows, perhaps the pediatrician, after looking at your restless baby, will recommend rocking him in the cradle. A child is different for a child, and there is no person who would fit into the general rules in everything. In such a case, in Fig. drawings of a newborn's bed - cradles from boards. However, it is no longer possible to keep a grown child in a cradle, so you should not increase the length of this crib. Secondly, the latch (stopper) of the bed is still needed, since the baby is restless. In this design, it is manual, so remember to insert as you leave and control each other.
Plywood classic
Here in fig. - detailing of a plywood bed for a newborn of the classic type with a side with elastic bands. It was made at home; manual jigsaw (electric ones were not widely available then). The wayward person mentioned above grew up in her. Material - 2 sheets (quite a lot left) of birch plywood 6 mm thick; will go and construction pine.
First of all, the plaz was prepared (several pieces of packaging cardboard put together), the contours of the parts were sketched on it, and everything was covered with a single piece of plastic wrap. Then the plywood sheet on the plaza was impregnated with a water-polymer emulsion, first on one side, and after it had completely dried on the other, and cut into blanks with a hacksaw. With a jigsaw, grooves were cut for the crate in the middle plates of the packages and openings in the backs.
Parts were glued together from plates on PVA for wood (sold and sold in hardware and hardware stores). The glue was applied with a brush in a thin layer on all surfaces of the package plates to be glued and kept until soft tack (the glue film turns slightly yellow and becomes translucent in places).
There were no clamps for rallying packages, there was no time to do it. Therefore, small packages were simply wrapped in polyethylene and tightly pulled together with a flat elastic band for underpants; she left a whole skein, approx. 10 m. It was necessary to tighten the packages with an elastic band, winding and pulling the coils very evenly so that the plates do not crawl over the glue. The upper and lower planks of the walls (pos. 1 and 3) nevertheless crawled, so after applying and holding the glue, they had to be knocked down with small nails. The nails were then pulled out, and the holes were smeared with home-made putty from sawdust on the same PVA.
It was more difficult with the backs, you can’t tighten them with rubber bands. Therefore, holes were drilled for assembly guides, which were used as furniture dowels 18 mm long. The gluing of the backs was carried out on the plaza under oppression, to which pancakes from dumbbells and stacks of books went. According to the calculation, for 2 layers of PVA of such an area, oppression of 25-35 kg is needed, evenly distributed over the surface of the package.
Also, from 3 strips of plywood, each part of the support belt was glued together, but it was assembled already in the crib in place. In all details, the adhesive streaks that appeared after drying for 3-4 days were cut off with a safety razor blade (mounting knives did not exist then either) and the edges were skinned.
While the glued packages were drying, the bed frame was assembled from boards cut into half a tree, glued without exposure and reinforced with nails. The squareness of the frame on the glue that had not yet hardened was carefully verified by measuring the sides and diagonals, because. it then served as an assembly template, and only then were nails driven in. The flooring of the bed is fiberboard with perforation, see above. It was laid on glue and nails on the side from which the paws of the crossbars were, so that they lay on the longitudinal beams, and did not hang on nails and glue.
Note: the racks of the crate of the backs were made similarly to those of the walls, but shorter. They were laid in place in front of the overlay of the top plate.
A crib was assembled on screws (now, of course, confirmations would be better). The loads on the connections of the baby's crib are small, fastening with threaded hardware along the layer in this case is quite reliable and at the same time allows up to 4-5 disassemblies / assemblies if the plywood is impregnated with a water-polymer emulsion. The squareness of the box was verified with a bed, and its horizontalness with a level. Then marks were made along its bottom, and beams of the supporting belt were placed on them with glue and nails; the transverse ones should fall into the gap between the longitudinal ones, so the bed will be stronger.
The oval support boss of the folding bar of the side is less traumatic, and it is easier to make it than a pocket. Some of the scraps 18 mm thick went to the bosses, they were put on glue and nails. At the ends of the plank, U-shaped holes were chosen for them, with a drill and a chisel - there were no household wood routers then either.
Time still endured, and the bed was covered with oil varnish, not as harmful as nitro. Immediately, the elastic bands were fixed in blind holes, also with furniture dowels. Then another final drying, and the crib is ready.
Transformer
There are also a lot of convertible cribs for newborns on sale, but at least one variety is not just a tribute to fashion. We are talking about a bed for growth, but the matter here is not limited to a sliding bottom. An already sufficiently formed personality may be indignant: “I won’t sleep like a little one!”. Therefore, a transforming crib "from scratch" should be structurally and outwardly similar to an adult. In this case, the fence is made removable from the cord; Of course, this option is only for fairly calm babies. And the transformation comes down to the fact that one back is removed and the bed is increased in length with it. Drawings of a self-made "growing" bed for newborns are shown in fig.
Drawings of a crib “from zero to growth”
What if you are very restless?
It also happens that the doctor shrugged his shoulders: nothing can be done, you need to sleep with you, then he will outgrow it. Or vice versa, even if the mother is the most wonderful in the world, she is weak and constantly getting up at night for feeding is beyond her powers. Then you need a crib attached to the parent without a front wall. The composition of the crib for restless newborns necessarily includes a bumper - a soft hygroscopic pillow along the contour with ties, see fig. on right. And from what and how to sew a baby crib bumper with your own hands, see the video below:
Video: how to sew a bumper (sides) in a child's bed
Arrangement
In no case should you protect the mattress of a crib from getting wet with oilcloth, this will lead to scuffs and diaper rash in the baby. Firstly, actually mattresses need 2, with a margin for drying. Secondly, they must be non-rotting and dry quickly enough. Therefore, it is preferable to sew them from linen and wrap them with coarse calico, flannel or baize. The stuffing is the best horsehair; its almost complete replacement is coconut fiber or sisal.
Now remember that the bones of a newborn are soft. Therefore, the thickness of the mattress is needed small, up to 6-7 cm. But then it will not be so comfortable to sleep, feeling the hard bed with the body. A mattress pad 10-15 cm thick will help out from the most dense, 45-50 number, furniture foam, it is wrapped in the same fabric as the mattress. The mattress pad, in addition, will take in part of the moisture, which will speed up the drying of the mattress, but then they also need 2.
A pillow for a newborn is not needed so that torticollis does not develop. However, sometimes, on the recommendation of a doctor, for very fidgety people, you have to buy a butterfly pillow: its middle is almost flat, and the wings are voluminous. But in no case should you experiment with such pillows yourself - suitable materials are not sold separately and the manufacturing technology is not subject to “domestication”.
Decorations
When considering the design of a baby's crib, you need to remember that his vision, both in terms of sharpness and color perception, is formed gradually. Therefore, the contours of the decor elements need smooth, and the colors are soft and unsaturated, preferably close to the middle of the spectrum: pale yellow, light beige, light green, pale blue. Bleached reds and oranges are acceptable, but noxious greens, deep blues, and purples are inappropriate, as is anything shiny.
A very simple and useful way for a child to decorate his crib is to hang a mobile carousel over it, see Fig., with soft toys. Their smooth movement will not only calm the baby, but also contribute to the development of his visual motor skills. Since mobiles for babies came into use, the number of children with congenital visual defects has decreased markedly.
Finally
Presumably, now it has become clear to you that an unpretentious bed for a newborn is inherently not so simple, because it contains a whole world of a new person. Therefore, let me wish you success not only in mastery, but also in studying the basics of child psychology. They have it from the very beginning, even if they themselves do not understand it yet.
All photos from the article
Natural wood baby cribs for newborns today can be found in any furniture store. However, very often parents prefer to make this piece of furniture on their own: in this way, it will be possible to reduce costs by almost an order of magnitude, and choose the design that will fully meet our needs. And just to create something for your child yourself is very nice.
Naturally, the manufacture of such a crib is a rather complicated process, which should be undertaken only after thorough preparation. So if you have not previously encountered furniture work, we recommend that you carefully study the methodology described in the article.
Materials and tools
Blanks for main parts
Beds for newborns made of natural wood in furniture stores cost a lot, but the materials themselves for their manufacture can be purchased at a very reasonable price. So it turns out that if we have the skill, we can make premium furniture, spending about the same amount of money as we would need to buy the simplest MDF or chipboard bed.
For the manufacture of children's furniture, we will need:
- Edged boards made of coniferous wood (spruce or pine).
- Bars with a section of 30x50 mm for the manufacture of main frames.
- Reiki with a section of 20x20 mm for the manufacture of filling.
- Plywood (optimal thickness is about 5 mm).
Note! For bars and slats, it is best to take the most durable wood, such as beech or oak.
In addition, the work will be impossible without related materials:
- Self-tapping screws (it is best to take phosphated products designed for woodworking).
- Joiner's glue.
- Putty for wood.
- Steel corners for connecting parts.
- Stain or other composition designed to impregnate wood and protect it from moisture.
- Furniture varnish or interior paint.
As for decorating, here you are not limited in your imagination. For this purpose, it is worth using multi-colored ribbons, and textiles (canopy can be made from it), and complex compositions for artificial aging of wood.
In addition, we need a children's mattress. And here it is better not to save money, but to buy an orthopedic product in a specialized store. Of course, the price of such mattresses is quite high, but they really have a beneficial effect on the baby's emerging spine, so we take as high a quality model as the budget allows.
A set of tools for work
Despite the fact that a wooden crib is not difficult to design, we still need carpentry tools to make it. Of course, every master has most of them, but if any of the above is missing, then you should either buy it or rent it.
So, we will need:
- Electric jigsaw or reciprocating saw for cutting boards and beams.
- Sander.
- Manual milling cutter with a set of nozzles.
Note! If possible, it is better to use a stationary router, but there will be little work for it.
- File for wood.
- Drill and screwdriver.
- Measuring tools (tape measure, level).
- Clamps for gluing workpieces.
- Kisli and rollers for painting, varnishing or decorating.
Crib construction method
Making the basic elements
Solid wood cribs for newborns are usually made quite compact. The optimal dimensions of the product will be as follows:
Note! Small deviations from these dimensions are possible, but you should not make a bed either too large or too small.
We assemble the crib
If you performed all the operations described in the previous section on your own, then you will not need instructions for assembling the crib - you will already perfectly understand where each part is installed.
So below we will limit ourselves to only general recommendations:
- First, we install the frame for the mattress on the backs. To do this, we attach metal corners to the frame of the side parts, on which we lay the lower support part on top.
Advice! For more reliable fixation, it is worth additionally fixing the frame with through screws, twisted through the crossbars in the backs.
- Then install the far board. It can also be fixed with self-tapping screws, but if you want the structure to contain a minimum of slots, then you should first make sockets for spikes on the side cross members in the backs.
- The near side is best made folding. To do this, we install two furniture hinges on the mattress frame, to which we attach the side frame.
- We fix the board in the closed position with two latches, which we fix outside the crib.
Finishing and decoration
When our natural wood baby crib is ready, it should be decorated.
We carry out the work in the following sequence:
- First, with the help of wood putty, we eliminate all defects and gaps between the parts. We wait until the putty mass dries, after which we carefully grind the leveled areas with an abrasive material with fine grains.
- Then we impregnate all wooden parts with a stain or other compound designed to protect the wood from moisture and decay.
Important! Since we make children's furniture, impregnations should be used as natural as possible, not containing aggressive and toxic substances.
- After the impregnation has dried, either open the bed with varnish, or paint it with latex or acrylic paint of the selected shade.
- Also, for decoration, you can use the craquelure technologies that are popular today (artificial aging of paint), decoupage (sticking images printed on thin paper under a layer of varnish), etc.
So, the crib for the baby is ready, and we just have to put the previously purchased mattress into it.
Conclusion
Making a crib for newborns from solid wood according to the scheme described above will be possible even for a beginner in carpentry. However, the final result largely depends on your skill and accuracy, so for a more detailed study of the techniques and techniques, we recommend watching the video in this article.