Cool and crazy DIY builds do not come much cooler or crazier than this AT-AT triple bunk bed. The genius behind the 300-400-hour build is Jonathan, a Gizmodo reader and Star Wars fanatic.

He explained what was involved:

I built the triple bunk bed for my mother’s new home to be used by my son, and nephews. My mother moved into a small home without much of a yard and was looking for a creative way to entertain the grandchildren while at the same time solving the problem of limited sleeping space and limited square footage. The beds could, however, take advantage of her 10 foot ceilings.

I’ve always been a big Star Wars fan and was looking for a subject that made sense for this design. A Walker already had four legs and it seemed an obvious choice to base my design on. I wanted it to look as real as possible. In order to accomplish movement, I made the bunk beds appear to be walking. I also made several additions to the beds, for example a complete Hoth lego display case on the second level as well as additional areas for the kids to play and climb.

When I started the project I had to solve the problem of skewing the scale of the model to suit the needs of three beds and also had to figure out a way to make the entire design modular in concept. I never intended it to be quite so detailed but this aspect took on a life of its own as I began to build it.

I live in a town home in Carmel Indiana and have always had a modest wood shop. It’s composed of compound sliding saw, a few sanders, a drill press, router, cnc router, and a few saws and sanders from Festool. I worked on the project two days a week from the end of September 2009 until its completion in February 2010. I would guess I had somewhere between 300-400 hours by the time the sanding and painting was complete. It received quite a bit of attention from friends and neighbors during the end of its time in my garage. After its completion it was taken apart and transported to my mother’s house in Ohio and it took approximately two men two hours to first take it apart and then an additional two hours to put it back together.

If anyone has come up with a cooler way to cram three kids into one room and have them want to stay there I have yet to find it.

[Gizmodo]