By: Cynthia Logan
Remember racing to the cabin at summer camp to claim the top bunk? Or sharing a room with a sibling and negotiating for the better spot? For generations, bunk beds have been woven into childhood memories—iconic symbols of nostalgia and late-night laughs. Today, the bunk bed is having a sophisticated second act. Once reserved for summer camps and kids’ bedrooms, bunk rooms have become a mainstay in beautifully designed homes, boutique hotels, and vacation rentals. The nostalgia and space-saving ingenuity remain, now paired with thoughtful design, beautiful materials, and lasting craftsmanship.
Bunk Beds Grow Up
“NOSTALGIA HAS MORPHED INTO KNOWLEDGE. WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING CUSTOM FURNITURE, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER.”
“Nostalgia has morphed into knowledge. We are in the business of building custom furniture, but more importantly, we are in the business of bringing people together,” Jason Clary, President and CEO of ICON Bunks, says. ICON handcrafts each bunk bed and says it’s proud to offer an American-made product that exceeds both national and international safety standards. This Bozeman business is quickly becoming a standout leader in the fast-growing bunk room industry.
Clary has always been interested in art; he enjoyed the 3D aspect of high school sculpting classes, then apprenticed to a world-renowned sculptor while working in construction. The two talents came together when he started building rustic barnwood furniture in his garage in Manhattan, Montana, in 2004. “I was lying in bed and realized I’d pulled about two million rusty nails,” he says with a laugh, recalling how he came up with the name for his flagship company, Rusty Nail Design.
Now known as RN Design, the company has built a strong reputation for creating custom, built-in bunk rooms over the last 20 years. What began with one-of-a-kind bunk rooms for homes in Big Sky, Spanish Peaks, and the Yellowstone Club soon expanded beyond the Rocky Mountains. The RN Design team began to travel around the world for custom installs.
“Our custom bunk room clients in Montana started asking us to build bunk rooms in their other homes across the country and at their island retreats,” Clary says. “They’d ask us to do a bunk room in Florida or the Bahamas, and at first, we were sending our team all over to build these custom bunk rooms.”
“OUR CUSTOM BUNK ROOM CLIENTS IN MONTANA STARTED ASKING US TO BUILD BUNK ROOMS IN THEIR OTHER HOMES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND AT THEIR ISLAND RETREATS. THEY’D ASK US TO DO A BUNK ROOM IN FLORIDA OR THE BAHAMAS, AND AT FIRST, WE WERE SENDING OUR TEAM ALL OVER TO BUILD THESE CUSTOM BUNK ROOMS.”
A pivotal moment came four years ago, when Montage Big Sky, a luxury resort, approached RN Design to provide a large number of freestanding bunks for their hotel projects in Big Sky. As client demand for RN Design bunk rooms beyond Montana grew and RN Design wrapped up the Montage project, the idea for something bigger began to take shape. They modified the freestanding bunk bed designed for Montage so the bunks could be flat-packed and shipped anywhere. This provided the craftsmanship of a custom-built bunk room to homes around the world—and ICON Bunks was born.
“We took a gamble and pushed all our chips to the center of the table. Now, we’re exploding at the seams,” Clary, who credits “the best team I’ve had in 23 years” for ICON’s rapid growth, says.
A large part of ICON Bunk’s success comes from their custom woodworking foundation—over 20 years of craftsmanship, thoughtful design, and an understanding of what makes a bunk room truly work. ICON Bunks are handcrafted from solid oak, use a beautiful hidden joinery system, and offer customization options unlike other bunk beds you can buy online. Customers can choose from different safety railing styles, ladder styles, stained or painted finishes, and even add stairs that double as a dresser for extra storage. Each bed is handmade to order, letting every customer create something that is truly their own.
“I work with some pretty demanding hardwoods, and white oak is our most popular material. All of the work is done here in Bozeman—milling, cutting, fitting, sanding, and putting all the pieces together. The team labels and packages the parts by hand for each order. The whole team pulls together; that’s where you really get to see the craftsmanship come through,” shop manager Evan Willar says.
“I WORK WITH SOME PRETTY DEMANDING HARDWOODS, AND WHITE OAK IS OUR MOST POPULAR MATERIAL. ALL OF THE WORK IS DONE HERE IN BOZEMAN—MILLING, CUTTING, FITTING, SANDING, AND PUTTING ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER.”
“We have one of the strongest wood bunks on the market,” Clary says. “Having global reach really speaks to our culture—we’re not outsourcing or figuring out how to build cheaply. Quality takes time and costs money.”
ICON Bunks lets homeowners customize and order bunk beds online while staying true to the company’s roots in the design and building community. Interior designers, architects, and builders remain an integral part of ICON Bunks’ business model, collaborating with the team to create bunk rooms tailored to each home and project.
“I love working with ICON Bunks,” Michele McCarthy, a partner and interior designer with Vertical Arts Architecture in Bozeman, says. “Their freestanding bunks are designed specifically for each space with the quality, craftsmanship, and attention to detail you would expect from a custom-build. Their team is professional, timely, and always willing to go above and beyond to make sure every detail comes together beautifully.”
While there will always be a place for fully custom, built-in bunk rooms through RN Design, ICON Bunks fills a space in between, offering clients the quality, craftsmanship, and design of a custom bunk room without the need for a fully built-in solution.
Rachael Celinski, Owner and Lead Design Principal of DOMAINE INTERIORS in Bozeman, is equally impressed: “We especially appreciate the customization that ICON Bunks offers, allowing designers to create a high-end, highly tailored look without the cost of fully built-in bunks. It’s fantastic to have a beautiful, well-designed option that gives us more flexibility to value-engineer without compromising the overall design.”
For all the pride ICON takes in its craftsmanship, it’s the company’s Bed for a Bed program that may mean the most to the team. For every bunk bed sold, ICON donates a shippable, twin-size bed with simple interlocking components to an organization serving those in need. Major donations following the 2024 hurricanes included beds for Beds for Kids in North Carolina and Better Together in Florida. ICON also recently launched a partnership with local and national chapters of Family Promise and will soon send beds to Spokane to support families who lost their homes in the 2026 wildfires.
“THERE WAS A TIME IN MY LIFE WHEN I DIDN’T HAVE A REAL BED. I’M SO THANKFUL THAT ICON BUNKS ALLOWS MY TEAM THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE BACK TO THOSE IN NEED. EVERYONE DESERVES A SAFE PLACETO SLEEP.”
“There was a time in my life when I didn’t have a real bed,” Clary says. “I’m so thankful that ICON Bunks allows my team the opportunity to give back to those in need. Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep.”
That same sense of community extends beyond the Bed for a Bed program and into the very spaces ICON Bunks helps create. In a world where technology can leave us increasingly disconnected from one another, a bunk room creates space to gather, reconnect, and make memories together. Because ultimately, luxury isn’t just about having a bigger home. It’s about having room for the people who matter most.
ICON Bunks plans to expand its collection with new products designed to bring people together while continuing to grow its Bed for a Bed program. No matter what comes next, the heart of the company remains the same: creating beautiful, lasting pieces that become part of their clients’ stories. Handcrafted to last for generations, ICON Bunks strives to create furniture that lasts as long as the memories they help make—and, in time, become every bit as iconic.
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