Need help designing a Captains Bed

[Bryan Berguson]

This will be a bed for my son. Full sized mattress of 54"x75" x 12.5"high.

My original thought was for 2 boxes 24x75 (with a 3" spacer in the middle)but have also considered 3 boxes 25x54. Ultimately, there will be 6 drawers total, 2 at the footboard and 2 on each side.

So, should these boxes be made like I'm building cabinets with 5 sides solid 1/2" plywood and face frames on the front(s)?

The 2 boxes will be much larger and harder to move around but I'll have a lot less plywood to buy because the 3 54 boxes will have much more left over pieces. Money is a consideration but I don't want the bed to be "cheap".

I'm not worried about a headboard or footboard yet, just fretting over these darns boxes.

Any help would be appreciated.

Bryan

[Jamie Buxton]

I've built several queen-sized beds with drawers underneath. I've modularized them in several ways -- two boxes, six boxes, and three boxes. From that experience, I say that the best approach is the 2-box version. The boxes are big, but they're still small enough to get through doorways, or even up stairs. Two boxes takes less material, and makes a bed which is more rigid.

Two boxes also has the nice feature that the headboard and the footboard can be used to tie the two boxes together. Three boxes takes some additional fastening scheme.

I'm a little curious -- why not make your two boxes half the bed width? That is, why are you putting that 3" spacer in the design?

[Bryan Berguson]

Jamie,

I was thinking of 24" boxes as part of the cost issue. Cutting the plywood to 27" inch widths leaves just a 21" piece left so I'd be into several more sheets for the job. My original thoughts are for solid plywood all the way around. Is this overkill? The insides of these boxes will never be seen since there will be full extension drawers in all the openings. Do I need to make the insides solid or can I skeletonize it?

Bryan

[Jamie Buxton]

The 21"-wide piece may be able to turn into other parts -- for instance the walls going the short direction across the bed.

Yes, you can skeletonize the interior parts. Of course, you need enough vertical parts to carry the weight of the bed and occupants.

[Bryan Berguson]

Structurally, the only thing the bottom will do is sit on the base and hold the "walls" in place. The only thing the top will do is hold the mattress up and the top of the walls in place. Skelentonized will take longer to build but with less material...

Let's see, if I make each box 27x75x12 I'll need the following cut list (size approximated)
1 bottom 27x75
1 top 27x75
1 back 12x75
3 sides 12x27
That's 2 sheets per box. I guess I need to stop being cheap, get 4 sheets and stop trying to save 45 bucks....

I'll need at least 3 sheets if I cut corners and it's going to take longer to build.

Thanks for helping me "mull" this around Jamie. I just need to talk about it with another woodworker.

Bryan

[Jamie Buxton]

You're right, the bottom doesn't need to be solid. You really only need it to stop the sides from flapping around, so it could be 3"x75".

If you have three drawers per box, don't you need four sides, not three?

[Bryan Berguson]

You're right, the bottom doesn't need to be solid. You really only need it to stop the sides from flapping around, so it could be 3"x75".

If you have three drawers per box, don't you need four sides, not three?

Yeah, you're right. I was thinking that with the drawer on the end, it will be just face frame but forgot about the panel for it's side. I'll have a 48x21 piece left over on the end from each sheet so I can still do it with 2 sheets per box.

Well, that was easy...

Would you put this on castors? Hard wood floors but will still be tough to slide around to re-arrange the room.

Bryan

[Jamie Buxton]

Casters on a bed on hardwood floors? No, I don't think so, but that's just personal opinion, not woodworking wisdom. I think casters would let the bed walk around the room, and/or dent the floor. How often are you going to rearrange the room anyhow?

[Bryan Berguson]

Who knows how often it would happen, my boy is almost 6 so he has lot's of time to do it. Of course, if it can't be moved, it can't be rearranged either! The floors are hickory. They would hold up fine. The finish will take a beating from sliding something but probably felt "buttons" would be best.

[Bert Johansen]

Felt pads--no, the bed would slide all over the place on a hardwood floor.

Actually, I think casters would be the best solution. However, I would place something under the caster that would prevent it from putting a dent in the floor. I have seen small round lipped glass pieces used, but in today's world perhaps you could find something in ABS plastic.

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

Bryan, I just finished a bed for queen size mattress. I call it
a platform bed but captains bed would work too.

DSCN14462008-02-15-214904_resize.JPG

I got the plans from http://www.knottyplans.com/

I did modify the plans from the original in that I already
had a headboard so I didn'g build that and I also
built the base in 2 pieces so that I could move it
from the shop to the bedroom other wise I would
have had to build it in the bedroom. Really didn't want
to do that since I sleep there now and then.

This bed has 12 huge drawers, 6 on each side that
are a full 6" deep and 24" wide and 25" deep.

Since we had a small bedroom we eliminated all of the
chests that were in there with us and our head board
had 4 drawers on each side along with 4 large shelves with
doors so our storage is now very adequate.

The plans are in PDF format and if you would like a copy of
mine I will be happy to let you have them.

Hope this might help.