bedframe with builtin drawers - wood or metal rail?

[Jeremy Patrick]

Putting together my plans for a King size bedframe with built in drawers on either side (no box spring so lots of extra room to work with)
I've come across multiple perspectives of what to use for drawer rails. Some say things like non-office type pieces such as dressers should stick with wooden rails for a few different reasons. But some go right to the different type of metal slides.

I'm certainly interested on tackling the all wood approach as all of my current furniture is on the antique side and not a single metal slide is in use. Quite like the feel of that!

But for those with far more experience, what is your suggestion?

[Cary Falk]

I hate wood slides. I vote metal.

[Jim Morgan]

Don't know that I have "far more" experience, but I have built a couple of platform bed bases with storage - one for a regular mattress, one for a waterbed. I used Blum Tandem undermount slides for both. These work very smoothly and are not visible.

Under-bed drawers are recessed and close to the ground, so you are often opening them at a bit of an awkward angle. I was concerned that wooden runners would bind under these circumstances.

[Jeremy Patrick]

Good info James, thanks.
I had the same thought regarding opening angle, stress points on the rail design. Would be just my luck I spend the time to make something like that and one wrong instance of opening it and something breaks!
Just searched for the BT slides and saw the sizes offered. Have heard others also favor this brand.
The largest appears to be a 21". Was going to try and make 25" drawers since there is so much wasted space underneath the mattress, but I'll have to tailor my design a bit.

First two search results were Rockler, and wwhardware. Did you have a particular store that had better prices or are they fairly the same across the board?

[Jim Morgan]

I got my slides from Lee Valley - they had a good in-quantity price at the time. YMMV.

[Jeremy Patrick]

got it, I'll check them out and compare.

[Jamie Buxton]

Blum Tandems go up to 30". 569.7650B. They're in the paper wwhardware catalog I have in the shop.

[Jamie Buxton]

Beware of the room size. Do you have room for the king width plus two fully-extended drawers? Plus furniture like dressers?

[Andy Giddings]

As you're going for full depth, I'm assuming the drawers are also going to be quite wide? I'd also recommend Blum Tandem but you might also need to consider their Lateral Stabilizers if you go wider than 24" to avoid any racking. I believe they work on the 569 series up to 27" long

[lowell holmes]

I got my slides from Lee Valley - they had a good in-quantity price at the time. YMMV.

Which of the 38 choices on the Lee Valley web site did you select? I'm just curious.

[Jim Morgan]

Which of the 38 choices on the Lee Valley web site did you select? I'm just curious.

Lowell, I went with the 550 mm Tandem Plus slides, without Blumotion (no need for drawers that are not opened very often). I see that these are no longer available from LV, don't know if they are available elsewhere. Once you get over these 22-inchers, it looks like the price accelerates quite rapidly.

[Andy Giddings]

I found that Build.com has a good range of Blum products and their prices tend to be among the lowest. They have the 569's up to 30"

[Jeremy Patrick]

the way the bed is arranged all drawers could open to full depth and be fine. I grabbed the wrong set of papers from my office so if course all my numbers aren't with me. But I think my drawer width is getting close to what you mentioned Andy.
I don't have any need to have drawer size that big, just trying to come up with a decent layout given the fact that some kind of night stand will block the first 17-20 inches or so from the head side.
If I also make nightstands I can control the blocked distance a bit more, but I hadn't planned on it.

[Jim Morgan]

In the platform that I built for our king-size waterbed, I divided each side into thirds. The two thirds toward the foot of the bed are drawers. There is a fifth drawer at the foot of the bed, in the middle. The third toward the head of the bed on each side had a hinged door. Even with nightstands in place, these open about halfway, allowing access to cubbies for rarely accessed items.

[lowell holmes]

Jeremy, it sounds like a fun project you have going.