Quick & Easy Bunk Bed Pirate Mast

While my own story may not be quite as exciting as that of Captain Phillips, I am slowly being taken over by pirates. Well, one room in my home is anyway. My little guy loves all things pirates right now and when it came time to redecorate his room it was an obvious choice for him. He has a super neat set of bunk beds that my hubby made for him a couple of years ago, but my son is getting to the age where he needs private places to play more than extra beds. So what’s a mom to do, you ask? Easy…make him a pirate ship by using his top bunk as a play space. I took the mattress off of the top bunk and was left with a fun play space for my guy. But it needed more. It needed a touch of piracy. What it needed was a pirate mast.

I’m sure you’ve seen some pirate masts making their way across Pinterest. I knew that my situation was a little different in that I had bunk beds and I wanted to ensure that I had a crow’s nest that could be used during playtime. Here is what I came up with.

This is what my son’s bed looked like before adding the pirate mast. As you can see, I had already removed the mattress from the top (I was able to fit it underneath the bed, almost like a trundle) and my son had moved his army of stuffed animals up top to play with.

A quick trip to Hobby Lobby was in order to get all of my supplies. I used:

2 yards of fabric

5/8″ dowel

apple bushel basket

raffia covered wire

rope

spray paint and acrylic paint

The first thing that I did was measure the bed to make sure that I cut my fabric to the size that I needed. Then I quickly hemmed up both sides and also hemmed the top, making sure to leave a space large enough to insert my raffia covered wire through. It looked like this:

Because I was going for a pirate look and did not need for it to be perfect, I did not even bother hemming the bottom of the fabric. Next up was inserting the wire into the loop that I had sewn in the top. After that I cut a simple skull out of vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo and painted that baby with plain old acrylic paint. If you were wanting the ability to wash your mast, make sure to use fabric paint. I applied a quick coat of spray paint to the dowel and the basket and let that dry. Now it was time to attach the mast to the bed. I don’t know about you, but my kids change their mind about what they like just about every day. I wanted a look that would be easily removable so when the time came to decorate with Lego or Star Wars or what have you, that it would be simple and would not damage the bed. That is where that raffia covered wire comes into play, I tied it around the posts on each side of the bed. Just wrap it around a time or two and tuck your ends in, making sure that any sharp points are well hidden or removed. I attached the dowel in the same way, just wrapping the wire around it. Here are a couple of pictures to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

After attaching the mast and the dowel, I tied a couple of strands of rope around the mast to give it a bit of depth and to get that billowy effect. Then I pulled out my trusty hot glue gun and glued my basket right on top of the dowel. And that is that. My guy has a play space that is private and exciting. He has a crow’s nest and an elevated attack position, therefore in his mind, he has all he needs.

All in all, I spent about $15 on this mast and a couple of hours time. What a simple way to make a statement and add character to a room.