Making a platform bed.

[Jacqui Hines]

My girl child wants to down grad from a full size bed to a twin size... Presumable to make more room for shoes and clothes on the floor.

Seeing as my husband, Angus, now has a shop bot, I approached him about making her a twin platform bed. Something minimal and simple. He laughed at me and said there is more to making a bed than nailing some legs on a piece of pine board, then suggested I come here to educate myself.

So... How hard is it to make a twin platform bed? What kind of wood would you use? How long is the process for the inexperienced? Apparently I'm on my own in this project, lol.

Help!

[Jamie Buxton]

Jeez, he has a shop-bot, and you're the one who must build it?!

He's right that there's more to it than nailing legs to plywood. If you just nail legs to plywood, they'll just wrench themselves off when anybody pushes sideways on the bed. However, it is possible to make quite simple and sturdy platform beds.

One approach is to make two plywood boxes, and rest the mattress platform on them. You can use 3/4" ply. In the case of a twin bed, which is 39"x75", the boxes might be something like 36"x 18"x as tall as you want -- maybe 18". The boxes don't really need a top and a bottom. Fasten strips of wood to the underside of the mattress platform to outline the position where the boxes will go. This will keep the platform from sliding around, but will allow you to disassemble the bed without tools.

To build this, you'll want a circular saw to cut the plywood, measuring and marking tools, and screws or nails and glue to fasten the box together, and the tool to drive those screws or nails. I could build it in a couple of hours. A novice might take a couple more. In fact, getting the plywood home from the store might be your biggest problem.

[Jacqui Hines]

Thanks!

any suggestions on what kind of wood to use? I want something durable but not too expensive.

[James Biddle]

Here's a sketch of a platform bed I'm building right now. Made of maple and maple plywod and will be stained dark.

[Jacqui Hines]

That's perfect! Are you going to have drawers? Are they hard to do? Keep in mind I'm a novice, lol!

[James Biddle]

No drawers, this one will have baskets to slide in and out. The mother wants to make it easier for her daughter to pick up her room and yet be able to get to everything quickly (don't understand it, I just build it). The actual construction is pretty easy. Dados for the plywood interior and some type of joinery for the headboard, footboard, and sides. I used Dominos, but dowels, biscuits, pocket holes would all work for this. Glue, screw, and sand and you're ready for your favorite finish. Send me a PM if you're interested and I'll forward design drawings and progress pics.

[Bob Johnson2]

http://www.knottyplans.com/index.php...033&ref=webdeb

Just made the one above, worked out fine and the grandson loves it. Took a good 2 weeks to do the set. You can get just the bed plans as opposed to the set. Nothing is cheap though. Especially when you tack on $300 for the mattress alone.

[Marlin Williams]

Thanks!

any suggestions on what kind of wood to use? I want something durable but not too expensive.

Some cheap but strong woods are Ash and Oak(prefer white but red will work as well). Look for a local sawyer and see if they have anything "onsale".

[Angus Hines]

I'm try'in to learn her something....I told her if she wanted to get into wood working the SHopBot was not the place for her to start.

But she is competent in PartWorks and learning Aspire !!!

Jeez, he has a shop-bot, and you're the one who must build it?!

[Rod Goodin]

Here is a picture of the bed I guess could be called a platform bed that I just finished last month for my son. I used simple construction of 3 boxes 25" X 38" using cabinet grade ply the height of the boxes were determined by the requested drawer dimensions from the wife, total of 4 8x22x36 drawers on 28" full extension acurride slides in two boxes and a door on the box at the foot of the bed(son's request). Used poplar face frames. Of course I chose the wood based upon the son's requirement that the bed had to be black. Total build time was ~ 16 hours including paint. I came up with the design in my head after visiting a furniture store with a tape measure and a cell phone camera.