How to Craft a Sleigh Bed for Barbie

Two dolls, a fashionista and a Ken relax while watching a baby, toddler and their beagle.

       Here is a lovely Queen sized bed for Barbie and Ken to share  once they have decided to settle down, marry and have a family of their own. For their master suite I will design a cozy bedroom that includes all of the comforts Barbie has grown accustomed to in her past dream homes. But this home will include a new husband, baby, and other children with pets.

The bedding for this doll bed is made from cotton prints in purple and blue. The through blanket
 was upcycled from an old purple fuzzy scarf.

View of sleigh bed construction using a box and additional 
scrap cardboard and dowel rods.

       To make this queen sized Barbie bed I cut identical cardboard pieces for the sides to glue onto either side of a box measuring 12" x 9" inches. The sleigh shaped head and foot boards add more length to the bed for the doll. As you can clearly see in the photographs, sturdy dowel rods glued securely between these cardboard pieces are used to hold up the delicately shaped cardboard pieces. 

       The next step is to attach cardboard to the inside head and foot boards. This is done by applying a generous amount of glue along the edges of the cardboard sides pieces. With masking tape, secure a length of light weight cardboard up, over and down to the bottom edges of the bed to close in the sleigh shaped head and foot boards. Remove the masking tape after the glue has hardened completely. Then sand down the edges if this is needed. I then decoupaged the entire sleigh bed using brown paper bag paper and more white school glue. 

       To make the mattress, I decoupaged the box part of the bed's mattress using a decorative ivory paper that reminded me of a mattress. Now all I will need to do to finish the bed is decoupage the faux wooden parts with printed wood papers and then sew the bedding. This is a bit less time consuming because the mattress in this bed design is the box. It won't be necessary for me to cut it out from foam and cover it with fabric in other words.

Above you can see how I braced the interior of the sleigh bed cardboard sides with a wooden
dowell rod. 

Left, the mattress is embossed paper decoupaged on top of the box. Center, a small Sculpey
detail featured on the end of a sleigh bed headboard. Right, underneath the bed you can still
see the box that I started with.

Left, is the view of the finished bed taken from the footboard side. Right, is a sideview of my
doll's sleigh bed with finished faux wood decoupage.

More Doll Bed DIYs:

• Craft an old-fashioned shoe box bed for Barbie with ''carved'' bumble bees in the headboard and a kerchief bed spread
• Craft a Heavenly heart-shaped bed for a smaller doll...