Build your own “Platform Bed & More”.

Posted by Mariela Campbell Photography on December 12, 2011 · 15 Comments 

I am a mother , a wife, an artist as my daughters kindy teacher calls me :), a Photographer, a crafty mom, and a builder of many things I am “MOM”.. I don’t mean to brag, gloat or parade in any form or manner, but Oh My!!  I am proud of ME…lol  I hold my head high and proudly say I made THIS” my Bed, & side tables. yay for me!..  but it came with  bruises to the legs a few on my arms, an aching back and headaches…lol  but all worth it.. of course a skilled experienced carpenter would breeze through it.

I am also a rustic, modern industrial combination kind of girl. so finding anything remotely to my taste was hard, and quite expensive when I did find something I liked, it was always in the thousands!!  OUCH!

I have been literally pondering about making my own bedroom set with my hubby for over a year.  I found this really great DIY site……  to follow and every so often I would pull it out, but I was very scared to dive into it, as I have never really built nothing big like that, except for my Moroccan table but I got help from a good friend of ours so it wasn’t all on me.

We bought our house  18 months ago, and when doing so we went on a DIY renovation frenzy, we painted, built a pony wall, I added crown moulding, base boards, Wood floors,  I made decorative frames for the windows, added back splash glass tiles in the kitchen, revamped my file place with a mosaic tile and added to the mantle, the list goes on and on,  and 18 months later we are still renovating….  but with all that being said I never got a chance to get a new bed 😦    why the heck could I not make a bed right???  We decided to downsize, from Eastern King to Queen, and my  DIY Journey begins. Hubby totally has my back and absolute faith in what I do, more so than I do ..lol

I followed the above DIY instructions, and the Idea was to spend under $100.  which I managed successfully for the bed with extra,so  with the addition of two side tables and a bench, with extra tweaks & personalized additions here and there.  I  spent under $160.  it helps if you have materials lying around 🙂  I will give step by step directions & details. I hope to inspire you as much as the lovely family that put up the DIY blog Post  that inspired me 🙂

Materials I used for a Queen size platform standard (I will add remaining materials I used for my tweaks further along)

• 2 x 4 x 96 – 10 pieces ($2.o5 ea)
• 2 x 8 x 8 – 6 pieces ($5.23 ea)
• 5/8 in. x 4ft. x 8ft. Oriented Strand Board Square Edge  ($10.97 each) x2 pieces or you can use MDF (a little more expensive)
• deck screws ($9.37)
• wood glue ($3.42)

The tools I used

• Miter saw
• power drill/driver
• drill bits for pilot holes

I did everything and just changed up the base from 10×8 to 8×8 so it wouldn’t be so tall. and I used the strand board opposed to the MDF, to stay within budget, as I was tweaking it anyways

I drilled pilot holes in everything before the screws, to avoid the wood splitting.

My Dimensions are as follows

My Queen Mattress we bought measured   60″ W x 8o” L

I allowed 6″ extra on each side except for the headboard side for the platform overlap

Queen Bed (Platform):- 68″ Wide x 88″ Long for the Oriented Strand Board

The other thing I did differently is a bit of a cheat 🙂 I had “Home Depot” do all my cuts 🙂  totaled an extra ($6.55) for all the cuts inclusive of my side tables and bench

I found the base to be easy, the structure is put together with the same concept of a wall frame.

Place the top and bottom base together….with the larger piece above sitting on top, in this instance I didn’t need to glue or screw anything down, as it was heavy 🙂  below taking a photo break with the kids

Time for the Oriented Strand board 4ft x8ft, I had one cut by home depot to make the 68″ width

Now this is my complete job unfinished of course.  my tweaks begin, with a border around all three sides left right and bottom to prevent the mattress from sliding and for cosmetics ……..I purchased 12, 1x3x8,  ($1.55 each ) 1 Quart of dark walnut stain ($7.95), 1 Quart of Shellac ($12.98), and x2 black stool from Ikea for my side table legs ($5.99 each) ( more info below) I attached the borders with two pieces to each side (left & right) and to the bottom, with an additional two to the bottom front panel, this gives it a clean finish and secures the mattress from future slides 🙂

Now  for the side tables… and bench which is not pictured here, cause I have yet to make its legs, which I have opted to make thick wood legs.  I will update with the picture once it is complete.

Materials I used

2x8x8 ($5.23 each) total of 5

deck screws

wood glue

drill

I screwed in pilot holes for everything, and put them together like a box with no lid pretty straight forward.

Burning for the rustic burnt look I am going for… my Son Malik took this photo of me working with my phone 🙂  I used a regular wood burning tool, and I ran a propane torch over the wood.

My bench top I  used the scraps from the 2×8’s  making it 56″ long x 13″ wide.  I laid them out over  a 2×4,  50″ long,  piece of wood I had in the garage,  glued and drilled together with the deck screws making pilot holes first, I then attached extra support with 1×2 strips on either side.

I did some sanding in between stages, to smooth out the edges and unwanted stains etc.  I then stained the three pieces

and finally Shellac, I placed the legs on both of my side tables with the  black stool from Ikea  I removed the legs and placed them on the bottom of my side tables centred. I plan on using the top of the stool for my head board decoration 🙂 I will include that with my bench update.

My new mattress is 12″ in height which makes it a perfect height in all, totaling, 24″ in height

The Bed Frame took me 2 hours. with the tweaks and finishing touches it took a total of 4 hours.

the side tables & bench took me 3 hours in total from start to finish. (note I am not including time factors for stains and shellac drying time)

thank you for looking, if you have any questions please feel free to ask, I am sure I have not covered everything, I am new to the DIY instructional side of things, but I am happy to answer anything 🙂

Filed under Bedroom Furniture, DIY, Platform Bed, Queen bed · Tagged with DIY, DIY Wooden Platform Bed, Queen wooden platform bed, Rustic style platform bed, wooden platform bed