Can I make a Thomas the Tank Engine bed? Please help!

Hello crafty people. I am not one of you... I am in awe of you... but here is my dilemma. My son, at 3 years old, is still sleeping in my bed. It's been real, but I feel the time has come for us to part ways for at least a few hours every night. He strongly disagrees. We'll be moving soon, he'll have a room of his own for the first time, and my mission is to make his room is so unbelievably irresistable he'll want to spend every possible moment there. Especially in or around the bed.

I'm broke and crazy busy. But here's my idea...

I already got a great deal on a used IKEA mini-loft bed with a slide. (A slide! You'd think that would be cool enough! But I know it won't be.) I'm thinking I can turn the bottom part of the bed into Thomas. Drape blue fabric all around (with a few authentic accents, like the red piping and the yellow #1 and maybe a circle window on the side). The tricky part is the face, which will have to go at either the head or foot of the bed. I was thinking I could start with a big garbage can lid, and then.. papier mache? I googled around and found a couple alternatives - celluclay, paperclay. I dunno, I draw, but I have no experience in the 3D arts. I could hang the face from the bed frame, on top of the blue fabric. Oh, and there will have to be a circle of black fabric in between the face and the blue. With a smokestack on top, maybe just a tube sewn out of black felt, with stiff bias inside?

Am I making any sense?

Is this a crazy idea? Does anyone have any suggestions of how to do this cheaper/quicker/easier? Especially the face. Oh, and I think Thomas will have to live without wheels, cuz I couldn't think of any way to make them, but I'm open to suggestions on that too. Remember: broke and crazy busy. I can't stress this enough. Plus, I have to be able to do this very quickly, at my mom's house (no workspace at my apt) when he's not around. Plus, he's 3. He's been going strong on the Thomas obsession for well over a year, but who knows, he could abandon it next month. (Actually, I have been hearing alot about Lightning McQueen lately... any ideas about how to make a Lightning McQueen bed?)

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Can I make a Thomas the Tank Engine bed? Please help!

It's not a crazy idea at all. In fact a friend of mine BOUGHT a Thomas bed due to just such an issue. (Actually the Grandmother did, thus making money not BE the object, where I totally understand it IS a financial concern and, frankly, how long is the kid going to be bowled over by Thomas?-- Cost-effective is just smart.)

I'm wondering if you couldn't do much of this with just layered sheets of plyboard or MDF, sanded with safe, round corners and painted up. And wheels in the same way if you were so inclined. The kid is three. Realism here, while admirable, is probably not the big issue. Marketing it to your son, and safety (and not having to jigger two many disparate pieces together that could come apart with tiny curious fingers!) really is.

Just my two-bits, anyway.
--Jenn

Can I make a Thomas the Tank Engine bed? Please help!

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I have very little to add craftwise..but I do think you are correct in thinking that he may just grow out of Thomas at any minute...but then again. I have so very patiently waited for my daughter to grow out of Polly Pocket...for a loooooong time.

I also wanted to relay an experience similar to yours...or more the resolution.
That is, it resolved itself ...when we moved. My girls went to bed the first night in their new room...and every night after that.
Perhaps the move will be enough to jolt him out of what has become habit for him?

Can I make a Thomas the Tank Engine bed? Please help!

Thanks for the replies! Face problem is solved... I discovered I can order the replacement face from Little Tikes (for their $250 Thomas bed) for $31 including shipping. Not bad at all, I could have spent that much on supplies.

Now I'm thinking, to further save time, that the details (red piping and such) on the blue fabric could be done with fabric paint. But I've never done anything with fabric paint. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for hopeful story, diosaperdida. I hope to be so lucky, but I can't count on it. I really feel like I have to go guns-blazing on this (probably the wrong metaphor) and if it ends up being overkill, oh well.