Dad Builds Out-of-This-World Spaceship Bed for 4-Year-Old Son
“I love the idea of him envisioning something and then building it,” he said.
— -- One Brooklyn dad built an out-of-this-world spaceship bed for his 4-year-old son, coincidentally named Cosmo.
“I love the idea of him envisioning something and then building it,” Eric Dean, Cosmo’s father, told ABC News of their father-son labor of love.
The blast-off bed has stairs leading up to the twin-sized mattress, a working control panel in the play area underneath and an even has a built-in iPad loaded with space exploration apps and videos.
“He’s got this crazy passion for ‘Star Wars,’” Dean said of his little boy. “I kind of designed the control panel to be one part spaceship, one part space shuttle and one part submarine so he could almost do anything with it. It seemed like it would be great for it to be flexible.”
The proud father, a film and set designer, intentionally left the walls in the underneath play area unpainted so his son can use his own imagination to transform into whatever he chooses when he’s older.
“What I left unfinished, I did so he and I can work on it over the years and change it and let it evolve into something more personal,” Dean explained. “He could take it a different direction if he wants to.”
Dean very much wanted this building process to be an educational experience for his son, as well.
“One of the things we did together was the cockpit chair,” he said. “I took him with me to the set shop and we watched the flat piece of birch plywood be cut by the CNC machine and then he could see how the pieces fit together like a puzzle. He liked the idea that this machine just cut this piece of wood and then it slips it together to make the chair you’re sitting in.”
Dean said he loves that Cosmo’s bed is “not like the kind of toy where you get it and it does one thing and you play with it that one way."
“We’re a LEGO household,” he added. “We love the idea of providing blocks that you can do anything with. It provides endless creativity.”
Although the entire project took a few months to plan and gather materials, the actual building process took him about a week to complete, working on certain evenings when the family was away.
“I spent about $800 on materials, and double that on labor, getting vendors to help me design things,” he said.
It’s safe to say little Cosmo will have some very sweet space dreams from now on.