Why would we want to make a DIY princess canopy bed? Well it all started last fall when we asked our 6 year old daughter what she wanted for Christmas. Most everything on her list was perfectly doable, though some were a bit strange… I mean, she wanted marbles?!?!? What 6 year old wants marbles from Santa?
As strange as it is, marbles are fairly easy to obtain, especially on Amazon Prime. But when she got to the part on her list where she wanted a canopy bed, I thought “oh crap”.
How in the hell is “Santa” going to pull off a canopy bed for Christmas! It’s not like she needed a new bed anyway. That would have been too easy, just to buy one. And I was not about to go out and buy a brand new bed when she already had a really nice bed that matched all her other furniture.
DIY Princess Canopy Bed
So I started to look around for DIY canopy bed ideas. I figured Pinterest HAD to have something I could use. Surprisingly, I didn’t find a ton of great ideas that would work for my daughter’s bed and bedroom.
There were a lot of DIY canopy beds that you could build either the entire bed frame, or structures around the frame. But that was a lot more building than I had in mind.
Then there were some really cute circle canopies built around hula hoops. But I knew that wasn’t the full on princess canopy effect that my little girl was thinking of. Plus I felt like that wasn’t really practical, and the paranoid mom in me was afraid of suffocation.
So finally it boiled down to hanging curtain rods on the ceiling, which I wasn’t in love with, or simply screwing eye hooks above each of the four corners of her bed.
And that was it. Not only was it the simplest method, but it was the most cost efficient as well. Win win!!!
All it took was one trip to the hardware store for 4 eye hooks, and one trip to the fabric store for the material. I ended up having to special order the fabric because they didn’t have that much quantity on hand, but it came in within a couple of weeks which was in plenty of time.
How to Put Together a DIY Princess Canopy Bed
Materials:
- 4 eye hooks – We got this kind that has a 2″ inner diameter and it worked great. You could probably also use a larger eye hook without the ring if you preferred.
- 16 Yards of Fabric (for a double/full size bed) – Ideally something mesh and shimmery, you want it to be lightweight and you don’t want to have to hem the seams. There are sooooo many options here. Check out these fabrics from Etsy. Or this one from Amazon is a really good price, with a few extra yards. I got mine on sale from Joann Fabrics, and it ended up being the perfect amount. It was two full bolts, 54″ wide, and 8 yards of each.
- Drill – this is just to make a pilot hole in each corner. We used a 3/16″ bit, but that may vary depending on what size hook you get. You just want the pilot hole to be a teeny bit smaller than the screw.
- Tape Measure
- Fabric Shears
- Sharpie
Directions:
- Start by making marks in the ceiling, measuring equidistant, at the four corners of the bed
- Use the drill (with appropriate bit size) to make holes in the ceiling, using your marks, where the eye hooks will go
- Screw an eye hook into each corner
- Take the fabric and run it the length of the bed through the hooks, draping a little at the top, then tie a knot so that it stays in place
- I had only the fabric going the length of the bed go all the way to the bottom of the bed, so you’ll want to make sure each hanging length of fabric is even.
- Cut the fabric at the bottom – only on one side, because you’ll end up using every inch of the 16 yards for a full size bed
- Do the same thing on the other long side of the bed
- Now run the fabric through the bottom width of the bed, leaving about a foot on each end instead of running it all the way to the ground
- Use that extra food to tie a loose knot around the eye hook
- Now now do the same at the head of the bed
And voila, the easiest DIY Princess Canopy Bed you could ever put together. No need to go out and buy a whole new bed, or fancy kit. She’ll surely feel like a princess when she sees this! I know my little girl did. Thank goodness she doesn’t sleep in her own bed on Christmas Eve, though. Doing this without her knowing was the only tricky part.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll answer as quickly as possible.
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