Believe it or not, I have never, in all my adult life, had a real bed. For the past 11 years, my bed has been a mattress and a box spring on one of those cheap metal frames. It isn't that I didn't want some real furniture, but nice furniture is expensive, and there has always been something else to spend that money on.
Fate finally intervened a couple of weeks ago, when one of the existing supports on that cheap metal frame bent nearly in half, resulting in a u-shaped mattress and many uncomfortable nights.
But am I willing to spend a lot of money on a decent replacement? Not on your life! We've got tools, right? And am I not awesome? So I decided to design and build my own.
I spent a lot of time searching the internet, looking for plans for a simple, modern, good-looking and easy to build bed, but couldn't find anything I really liked. Then I pulled out my trusty Room and Board catalogue, and found it.
This is the Anders Bed from Room and Board. Rather elegant, isn't it? I've admired this one for a long time, but the $1700 price tag has always been a little out of reach. But does this really look all that difficult to build? Does it look like $1700 worth of furniture? So in the last 18 hours, I've learned Google Sketchup and drawn up my own set of plans. Here is what I came up with:
If this turns out sucessfully and you want to build your own, these are the materials you will need:
5 eight-foot pieces of 1x8 lumber
3 36-inch 3x3 posts
2 eight-foot pieces of 2x2 lumber
1 eight-foot length of 2x4 lumber
10 eight-foot pieces of 1x4 lumber
1 set of bed hangers (4 pieces)
#8 1/2 inch wood screws
1 1/2 inch wood screws
Today we went over to Home Depot and picked up all the materials. I'm planning to stain the finished product, so we used poplar for the 1x8s and the posts. If you wanted to paint instead you could easily use pine and save some money. All of the materials, including wood conditioner, stain, and polyurethane, cost less than $250.
First you'll need to cut the 1x8s for the bed frame. Here's a tip - Home Depot will cut them to length for you and since the poplar is priced by the linear foot, you only pay for what you actually need. It's also a little easier that trying to balance a long piece of lumber on your table saw. The dimensions on this plan are sized on my mattress - you might need to adjust them for yours.
By the time all the materials shopping was finished, there wasn't much light left - just enough to start cutting the legs for the front of the bed. Here's what each leg should look like:
Tomorrow the actual construction will commence - I'll try to post pictures of the entire process. Here's hoping that the finished product won't be too wobbly!