This is a practical solution for a teen whose outgrown twin beds, or for a guest room where it's necessary to alternate between twin beds and a large single bed.
If you've ever pushed two twin beds together, you know exactly what the problem is; the gap in the middle.
Without a twin bed king converter, we've gotten around this problem by putting several toppers on the mattresses.
However, if you move around a lot when you sleep, the gap is still an issue. Movement slowly splits the twin beds apart.
So being the creative sort, I placed non-skid padding under the mattresses to prevent the mattresses from splitting apart. Although that was an affordable way to address the movement of the mattresses, it didn't solve the dip in the middle.
This is Where a Twin Bed Connector Comes In
The one featured below has straps that wrap around the twin beds. It keeps the beds together.
You may still feel a dip or gap, however, if you place a mattress cover and other toppers on before the sheet, it should be barely noticeable.
Overall this is an affordable solution to transitioning a kids room to a teens room. You can keep the twin beds and convert them into a king for the growing youngster.
Most teens want a bigger bed, and if their room is already furnished with twin beds, this is a viable solution. Best of all, you don't have to buy a king sized bed!
How to Make it Look Nice:
If the room you're making over isn't going to be switched back and forth between twin and king, then it's easy to dress up the bed so it looks like it's always been a king bed.
- If you have two headboards and you're able to remove them, then you could either go with an improvised headboard attached to the wall that's the width of both mattresses, or elect to skip a headboard altogether and simply deck the bed out with many pillows.
- If you opt for pillows as the backdrop, without a headboard, you can use a bolster at the head of the bed so the pillows don't appear to be resting directly on the wall. I've done this myself, and it looks really nice.
- Use a king sized bed skirt. With one skirt going around both beds. Without the appearance of two headboards, nobody will notice the beds were once twin beds.
- I can't stress enough how padding the mattress with various covers makes a difference; I've used a mattress cover as well as a thick foam mattress pad and it really gives the bed that one piece feel.
The Bed Sheets and the Bedding
Two twin beds, especially with extra padding on top, is a little bigger than a standard king size bed; not much bigger, but enough of an issue that you'll need over sized or deep pocket king sized bed sheets. We love Jersey Knit Bed Sheets because they're stretchable, and they'll work nicely to solve this problem. However, if you're not a fan of Jersey Knit Sheets, then be sure to get king sized bed sheets with deep pockets.
The Non-Slip Padding Mentioned Above
Above I talk about the non-slip padding I put between the box spring and mattress, well I actually used ones designed to hold area rugs in place.
For us they worked perfectly. This one measures 4 feet by 6 feet, so I just bought a couple for each twin bed, and positioned them on the box spring so as to cover a good portion. I would position them to go over the gap in the bed as well. The Grand Fitted Quilted Mattress Pad Cover Hypoallergenic (Stretches to 18
Mattress Pad Cover
Here's an example of a king sized mattress pad cover that you can put over the twin bed king connector and mattress.
This one has 20 inch deep pockets as well, so if you want to put a layer of foam underneath (for added comfort) you should have a enough room. I would say, if you had to choose between the non-slip pads above and this, choose this. It's the best way to pull the mattresses together after you've used the twin connector.
What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dawn, it sure makes for a nice big bed too
DeleteNever knew there was a way to convert two twin beds into one large bed besides just pushing them together. Interesting information.
ReplyDeletePat, and to think I figured all of this out quite by accident lol
DeleteThis is such a wonderful idea! King mattresses are so expensive and if you already have 2 twin mattresses, it makes great economical sense to use the twins and purchase the connector and recommended paddings. Sure would provide the same comfort of a king size mattress without the expenses. I also loved the idea of using a lot of pillows instead of a headboard. So often you can see the headboard for the bed dressings anyway, so why no!
ReplyDeleteIt sure is a money saver isn't it Cynthia!
DeleteI did this, using two twins and covering it with a mattress protector that zipped kept it all together. https://www.youtube.com/user/protectabed. awesome idea thanks so much
ReplyDeleteWow!! What a great idea. I never knew you could do this until now. Thanks Barbara!
ReplyDeleteI've used two twin beds pushed together to look like one big bed for many years now. Hubby & I decided we'd reached an age where we had both become restless sleepers and were disturbing each other's sleep, so opted for twin beds, but pushed together. We used separate bedding (twin sheets, etc) so didn't have to worry about the gap in the middle. We bought a king size headboard and a king size bedspread, so when made up it looked like one big bed! And with the beds pushed together, we were still close enough to touch when we wanted to. Quite necessary for those good night kisses! :)
ReplyDeletePat that's a good idea to push the beds together to be close but treat them as separate beds in terms the sheets and bedding. Very creative solution :)
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