I don’t usually discuss projects when they’re in the concept or design stage of the process. All of my projects go through those stages to some degree unless it’s a repair or something very ad-hoc. I guess I don’t write about the design because I still might not actually go forward to construction. I figured I would change things up this time and see what happens.

My beautiful and talented wife and I have been discussing the shortcomings of our current bed and bed frame. The bed on my side is a bit too soft for me, which is just right for my wife. The frame creaks a lot. The mattress plus box spring plus frame height is a little high for us. It would be nice to have a little more space, it is currently a Queen size. We have a bunch of low plastic boxes that store winter/summer clothing under the bed, drawers would be better.

I measured the space available in our bedroom and a King size bed 80” x 77” would fit without significantly impacting movement around the room. I also learned about Twin XL mattresses which are 80” x 38” and two of them put together are referred to as a “split king.” This would allow us to have two different firmness mattresses on one king frame. I decided to make a platform bed frame so we could get rid of the box spring and have a solid structure supporting the mattresses.

Another practical requirement is that I need to build this bed frame in my shop in the basement and get it to the bedroom on the second floor with only my wife’s assistance. I decided to make the frame modular and construct four frames for each quarter of the bed and they would be bolted together on the inside upon final installation. I also intend to put leveling feet on each sub-frame so I can get the whole surface level.

I decided to hide the frame that actually supports the mattresses behind decorative panels. After some discussion we decided on raised panels which are in keeping with our colonial style house. ( see the first image in this post ) Since you won’t see the frame I decided to make it out of Poplar to control costs and manage the overall weight of the bed. Slats will sit on top of the frame hidden on the sides by the decorative panels.

Each frame module will be a mirrored version of the one in the image above ( several views). The panel face frame will probably be glued to the face or faces of the module as needed. The headboard will be a separate construction which will frame a decorative padded fabric element and will be attached to the wall not the bed frame. The foot-board will be attached with screws ( perhaps concealed by decorative covers or plugs) to the end modules at assembly time. The end modules will contain two large drawers taking up nearly their entire internal space that pull out on heavy duty long drawer slides.

The drawer faces will echo the panels on the sides of the bed.

The rest of the furniture in the room is made from cherry and is in the Mission style. We didn’t want more cherry and after looking at a number of possible other woods we chose Sapele for it’s color and nice grain patterns. As for finish I’m testing a few different ones on a 4’ piece of Sapele that I sanded to 320. The current contenders are Natural Danish Oil, Wipe on Polyurethane, and Hard Wax Oil.

This design has been through a few iterations. Each iteration I look to see if I can simplify something or understand any important details like exactly how the panels will fit together or respond to feedback from my wife. I try not to be too attached to any given element of the design and step back and try to evaluate it as a whole. The good part about iterating on drawings is you can just make a new drawing and it is cheap and relatively easy.

The next step for me is coming up with a cut list based on the “final” design and figuring out the materials cost estimate. That process might generate some design changes as well.