The 101 is a revolutionary child’s bedding system. It grows with the child from a standard 42” round crib into a full twin size bed in three simple motions.
The 101 is innovative in several ways: It reduces clutter. Unlike other convertible bed systems the 101 has massive amounts of storage that can be used in both configurations by way of innovative “swing-side” drawers so there aren’t any cumbersome extra steps when turning the crib into a bed. Because it has so much storage, the need for extra dressers is lessened, and when in bed mode, it holds tons of toys so you need fewer boxes and shelving. Also, because of the crib height, it can also double as a changing table, eliminating the need for yet another piece of furniture.
The 101 reduces hassle. Get the 101 and you’re set for a decade. No need to buy a crib and then have to turn around and buy a bed. No extra parts to buy either. Everything needed to convert from crib to bed is built in. You don’t have to read any complicated instructions because conversion is incredibly simple.
The 101 is fantastic now, but it was a grueling experience. It all started out innocently enough as personal ID projects often do, but quickly spiraled into a two year journey in which I learned much, and am lucky to still be married!
First there was a kid on the way. Then there was an idea: “Hey.” I thought, “All these cribs and beds I see are totally LAME and the ones that aren’t are WAY out of my price range… I’ll just make one”. And then there was the sketch.
Round. O boy. But it was GENIUS! If it would work. So I did exhaustive calculations. Amazingly, I discovered that the standard round crib mattress is 42″, just one inch more in diameter than I had figured the 101 would need to be. Perfect! That’s all the fact-y-ness I needed, it was ON! So then came the 1:1 mockups.
So far so good. It’s easy to bend cardboard though. Then the real fun began. I hunted down some bending poplar for this, my first bent ply project in Knoxville. I wish I had pictures of my form because it was seriously not by the books. But I got it to work.
Of course, it didn’t get any easier from there. The good news is that it splits in half for moving. I’ll let the images say the rest.
