Spanish Sanctuary Bunk Room Design Plan

As we await our final pool inspection and next steps for the Spanish Sanctuary backyard, we’re planning our next room renovation—the bunk room!

Progress on this house has been painfully slow and renovations have taken a backseat in this busy stage of life with two littles—so thank you for your patience. I’ve been trying my best to balance it all, but the scale has tipped in favor of family time and personal obligations lately. With that said, I’m still as inspired (and anxious) as ever to tackle these renovations!

Before

When it comes to sleeping arrangements in vacation rentals, a little creativity is needed to maximize occupancy. Enter: the primary bedroom walk-in closet.

Measuring a spacious 11’2 x 8′, it was far more than what was necessary for a guest closet, but just large enough for a cozy bunk room.

Bringing this vision to life required a slight rearrangement of the layout. Here’s what I came up with!

The New Plan

The door was moved to the right, creating an entry from the main hallway rather than inside of the bedroom. A new, much smaller closet was sectioned off, with doors added to access from both rooms.

Twin bunk beds will be built along the right wall, with a small seating area and TV mounted on the opposite wall. We envision this as the designated kids’ room when families stay, but it’s spacious enough to comfortably accommodate two adults.

Design Details

Let’s take a look at the design plan!

The main character will undoubtedly be this stunning tapestry landscape mural I found. I’m going all in, covering every wall from floor to ceiling.

Just look at this woven textured detail! It’s absolute perfection.

I created a mockup to get a sense of how it would wrap around the room:

We’ll add to the woodsy feel by installing the same pre-made wood beams to match the adjacent primary bedroom, along with dark stained wood doors.

The built-in bunk beds will be a custom DIY, similar to the Hacienda bunk room. I haven’t finalized the exact design yet, but they’ll be painted a muddy olive green to coordinate with the mural. There will also be open space at the bottom for suitcases. Should I make a blog post tutorial for this build? Let me know in the comments!

hacienda hideaway built in bunk bed room — Custom bunk beds in the Hacienda Hideaway

The biggest drawback to this space is a lack of natural lighting. After seeing the dramatic difference adding a window made in the Modern Moroccan bedroom at the Hacienda, I was really pushing to do the same here. However, we just couldn’t justify the cost of labor + install + permitting hassles.

But then… an idea came to mind! What if we added a small window on an interior wall? There’s a staircase with a large window on the other side of the south wall, and it would be the perfect way to allow natural light in without sacrificing privacy. I’ve been window shopping for weeks with no luck and was really set on a cute round window with mullions, but they cost upwards of $1k. So I had another idea—what about a porthole?

These aren’t designed for traditional walls per se, but Lucas is on board and up for the challenge. It’s solid brass and a reasonable price, so I’m hoping we can make it work. I love the idea of adding this fun and unexpected design feature!

And to fulfill my original vision of a round picture window, I could hang this mirror on the opposite wall for a similar effect. Not 100% sold on this exact mirror yet, but what do you think?

As the designated “kids/hangout room”, a TV is a must. Therefore some form of seating is a must. Lucas insists on seating for two, but it has been a challenge to find something to fit our small space. This settee is the best compromise I found, and this would be the layout. What do you think—too crowded or no?

Progress

Lucas has been slowly chipping away at this room over the last few months, and here’s how it’s going. This is the future bunk bed wall, after removing the wire shelving and floors:

Taken on the same day, looking towards the corner where the new door will go:

After the two interior walls came down:

Here’s the first framing pieces for the bunk beds, and sconce wiring in progress:

The new closet and main entrance openings:

Here’s the view from just inside the primary bedroom entrance, with the shared closet on the left and bunk room entrance on the right:

And that’s where we’re at now! I already have the wall mural delivered and ready to hang, but first we’ll need to figure out this window situation, and order/install the flooring. It will be slow going, and maybe not even finished this year if I’m being realistic. But, it will most definitely be worth the wait 😉

Let me know what you think about this design plan (any other suggestions are also welcome!)

Oh, and buckle up for some very exciting and never-before-seen Halloween content coming your way 👻