Is popular a good wood for bunk beds?

[Dumb_Polack]

Hi,

Daughter wants bunk beds.  I have plenty of cherry and hard maple, but she wants it white.  Ain't no way I'm using cherry or maple since it'll be painted.

So i'm thinking popular since it take to paint well.  Is it strong enough to support the upper bunk?

[Bill Wilson]

Hi,

Daughter wants bunk beds.  I have plenty of cherry and hard maple, but she wants it white.  Ain't no way I'm using cherry or maple since it'll be painted.

So i'm thinking popular since it take to paint well.  Is it strong enough to support the upper bunk?

I've seen them made out of pine, so I would presume poplar would be plenty strong enough.  Much depends on how you build them.

[Strokes77]

I built mine for the boys from 2x4 and 2x6. We wrestle and jump off the top all the time.

[rwe2156]

Poplar is a popular wood for paint.

[overland]

It depends on the design, I suppose. I built one out of pine boards from Home Depot, and it was very sturdy--much better than most commercial versions. I imagine poplar would be fine.

[BloomingtonMike]

Poplar is harder than pine and would be prefered over pine imo.

[jteneyck]

If you want a smooth finish without a lot of extra work, maple would be a far better choice.  It's the wood I use most often for anything painted.  It's also a lot harder and won't dent as easily as poplar.  

John

[giradman]

If you want a smooth finish without a lot of extra work, maple would be a far better choice.  It's the wood I use most often for anything painted.  It's also a lot harder and won't dent as easily as poplar.  

John

Now poplar is a 'hardwood' w/ good but not the best strength stats - see HERE for some interesting comparison charts of both hard and soft woods - poplar should be fine and does paint well but agree w/ John, the more expensive hardwoods may be more durable, but for a girl, I'm assuming the beds will not be much abused?  Dave

[Admiral]

If you want a smooth finish without a lot of extra work, maple would be a far better choice.  It's the wood I use most often for anything painted.  It's also a lot harder and won't dent as easily as poplar.  

John

Paint grade soft maple is not much more expensive than poplar ($2.60 vs $1.80 for poplar on Wall Lumber site) but that being said, with the proper design poplar would be ok.

[bandsaw]

I built my Grand Daughter's bed from poplar

Princess bed with turned spindles 7 feet high (done in sections as lathe only does 44")

Head board and foot board from patterns I drew in CAD

rails for base and top with bed hardware

Primed and painted white

Had an artist paint fairy scenes 

Clear coat over

She's 10 now - poplar has held up well and was good to work with