My only advice would be .... talk to the Moms who are already raising
crib-sized kids.  See what they love about their cribs and what they don't.

When my first daughter was born I bought the remains of an early 19th
century cradle .... a big one ...like, halfway between an infant sized
model and a full-blown crib.  Yep ... duplicated a pile of spindles and
poured my heart into it, and - shazam, it's beautiful if I do say so
myself. Now, 45 years later, it's on the 3rd generation of Johnson babies,
but guess what.  Each Mom that has come into the family uses it as sort of
an honorific .. and then it goes back up into the garage rafters because it
doesn't rock easily ... it's too big for an infant ... too tippy for a
toddler etc,.  ..and too big to be used as a decorative piece in a family
room.  Sooooo, on average, it's sits in the attic and comes out for a week
or two when a  newborn arrives.
Practical - safe - easy to clean etc, all come ahead of purty ....

With the planning you're doing and the advice you're seeking I bet it will
be practical, safe, easy to clean, *and* beautiful!
.02 and out
Tom

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Mickey Elam  wrote:

> John,
>
> I would take a look at the Rockler crib plans and hardware kits. I used one
> such kit to build a crib for son that worked out very well and was very
> attractive as the Lyptus wood it is built of has some fairly nice figure.
> The particular plans I used were for a convertible crib that could change
> to a day bed once the child became a toddler and then be converted once
> again to a full size bed once the child graduated to a big kid's bed.
>
> The Rockler plans expect quite a bit of power tool work but I was OK with
> that given the repetitive nature of making spindle after spindle after
> spindle after... Well you get the idea. The kit also included the mattress
> frame and the drop gate hardware, but I think the CPSC has determined that
> drop gate are dangerous, so that bit is probably no longer included.
>
> Mickey
>
> On Apr 20, 2015 7:35 AM, "John M Johnston (jmjhnstn)" <
> jmjhnstn@m...>
> wrote:
> >
> > 'Lo Galoots Assembled,
> >
> > My youngest daughter is due to deliver her first child (and my third
> grandchild) around the middle of July and she has asked me to build a
> crib.  Having never made such a piece, I thought I would turn to the
> collective wisdom of those Galoots who have gone before.
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