How to Hang a Bed Swing

I am so excited to finally share with you all our crib sized bed swing we got hung a couple of weekends ago! I really had no idea how much I would love this thing, but it is my favorite thing to do when I come home from work. Before I begin, we did not build this swing. It was a yard sale find I bought last summer for $50 and I've been wanting to redo it and hang it ever since. 

We were a little intimidated when we first started thinking about how we were going to hang such a heavy swing. I did lots of research, and read lots of tutorials and we finally came up with a plan to get it hung after months of sitting in the garage.

The first thing we did is measure the distance between the eye screws that were attached to the swing.  This is important because we wanted our hooks in the ceiling, to be the close to the same distance apart as the hooks already screwed into the base of the swing. Once we knew that distance, C began to push up on the siding in the roof until he could feel the ceiling joist. Once he found the first one, he marked it (you can see the lines in the picture), and then measured 72 inches from that joist (72 was the length between the eye hooks in the base of the swing), and began pushing up until he found the nearest joist. Once he found that one, he marked the joist and then used an electric drill to drill holes in the ceiling where we wanted our eye screws to go. The eye screws we used were purchased at Lowes and they each hold a max weight of 350 lbs. Since I had my rope (Sisal rope purchased from Lowes. Sisal or Manila rope will work, 3/4 thick in diameter.) cut at Lowes, I just took it over to where the heavy duty eye screws were (same aisle as the rope and chain cutting) and fed my rope through a few eye screws until I find the size and weight limit that I thought would work best. 

Once we had our eye screws in we took our rope and fed it through the hooks, which we had cut in 2-25 foot pieces. To get this measurement you will want to measure the height from floor to ceiling and then double that for each side of the swing. So in our case from our patio floor to the ceiling was 12.5 foot, so double that would be 25 feet. We needed two pieces of rope because we were using 2 hooks, so we needed 50 feet total of the sisal rope, but had it cut into 2, 25 foot pieces. (if you are using 4 hooks you would simply take your floor to height length and then have it cut into 4 pieces that length no doubling the measurement.) 

Next we sat our swing on 2, 5 gallon buckets and fed the rope ends through the 2 eye screws that were on each side of the base of the swing. We then tied a tight knot on the bottom of those screws and cut off the remainder rope that was hanging down. Repeat this for both sides of the swing

Once we were finished tying our knots, we removed the buckets and there it was! The bed swing I have been dreaming about since we moved in. 

I used Alabaster white by Sherwin Williams to paint the swing, and then used G's old crib mattress to create the cushion for it. 

The pillows and crib sheet were purchased at Target and I love how fun and colorful they are!

This was so easy to do and I can't believe how many months we spent making this so much more complicated than it was. Seriously so easy to hang, and I love spending my free time out back swinging! I hope this helps inspire you to get your own set up today!