When people are enquiring about booking St Marks Stays, the question asked a lot is, ‘What is a triple bunkbed?’ So with the unveil of bedroom three, here is exactly what our triple bunkbed looks like.

Bedroom three is the middle room in the house and has had the biggest transformation and building work undertaken. Previously it had a single bed, with a sink and shower cubicle directly in the room and a toilet in a little room next to it. We could not therefore call it an ensuite room and having a sink and shower in the room felt like the old style guest house B&Bs that used to be the norm.

Thankfully, with Damian being an architect, he knew that we could knock the walls around a bit and create the bedroom ensuite that we now have. The doorway to the toilet was blocked up and the connecting wall between the toilet and the bedroom knocked out. The sink and shower plumbing was removed and the wall brought out slightly in to the bedroom so we could create a long, compact ensuite big enough to fit everything in.

The size we had to work with meant some creative construction work to get a sink unit in, so we bought a worktop and had the builders cut the curve to size. We sourced some free standing legs online and opted for a basin top sink. The tap does seemed to be loved by all the kids that stay in this room.

Due to the size of the bedroom, we added a sliding door to allow more space and the door is actually the one that we took off the kitchen larder, painted up, with a sliding mechanism fitted.

For the size of the bedroom, we had two choices. We could either keep it as a single bedroom, or have a double bed that would be against the wall and hence not accessible properly from both sides. This led us to the idea of a bunkbed. Not to everyone’s taste, but I guess we are just used to bunkbeds from many hostels and travels around the world. The UK is full of boutique hotels with sumptuous double beds and free standing baths, but our property is different and we wanted to attract people who, like us, are happy to go with the flow because the right company, the feeling of a place and experience is of more value to them.

When we were looking at bunkbeds, we found a bunkbed that has a double bed as a base and a single bed above it. Now of course that still has the same issue of a double bed that is only accessible from one side, but it does mean we can have this room suitable as a twin room, so you do not have to share a double bed if you are booking on to a retreat where you don’t know anyone before you arrive.

It was the addition of the bunkbed that inspired the style of the room, as we decided to go for a kind of ‘Preppy College’ look. We chose a monochrome colour palette with a pop of red and sourced artwork from independent artists on Etsy to fit with this. The theme also inspired us to go for a vinyl flooring for the ensuite, as opposed to tiles in this bathroom.

We knew this was the room to go bold with, with the black shower panels and we created some interest to the subway tile effect with the addition of black and mirror tiles.

The size of the room has meant we have had to be creative with the storage space for your stay. Floating shelves and lamps are fixed near both levels of the bed for convenience. Underbed drawers can be tucked out of the way and a rail suitable for hanging items has been fitted in, as opposed to a bulky wardrobe.

With the college feel to it, we decided to name bedroom three, De Montfort, as it was after all, De Montfort University where we met. Whilst it seems to be the children and teenagers that stay in this room, we can say hand on heart that we have slept in the bunkbed to test it out and it does indeed support two adults with no creaking, or problems at all. Just watch your head if you are sleeping on the bottom, as bunkbeds are snug!

Sources

Floor Vinyl – Burts Vinyl
Subway Tiles – B&Q
Mirror Tiles – Ebay
Sink – Victoria Plumb
Tap – Light in the Box on Ebay
Worktop – Worktops Express
Hairpin Legs – Wicked Hairpins
Bathroom Mirror Set – Umbra Dima Mirror
Bunkbed – Happy Beds
Forget Rules Cushion – Argos
Wall Prints – Cassia Beck Collage, Colours Fly Art Prints and Art and Hue all on Etsy
Bathroom Print – Woah There Pickle on Etsy
Floating Shelves – B&Q
Lamps – B&Q