I searched for a bed like this but didn’t find anything I liked that was well-built and affordable. So, I’m building this one out of solid wood for about $450. (Except I had to buy a new miter saw, because my old one was stolen out of my garage about two years ago, so that was another $250.)
Edit:
You’ll need the Measure It addon installed and enabled to see the dimensions. The gray boards are the blank stock pieces I bought. It’s in inches, because I’m a stupid American.
Here’s a screenshot of the blender file:
Edit 2:
I have most of the pieces cut to size. I’ve already made a small mistake, but it wouldn’t be my project if I didn’t. Nothing a little wood filler won’t fix. The side walls of the headboard with the angles I’ll need to cut with my circular saw. Or, maybe I could do it like this. I’m not sure my table saw is big enough. (Also, it was either woodworker or piano player for this guy, I think he made the right choice.)
Edit 3:
I’m stuck waiting for the Vevor pocket hole jig I ordered, and the bed rail hardware. I didn’t get the Kreg, because it’s plastic and more expensive than the more versatile Vevor jig.
Op you absolutely need cross boards/slats.
You should not use a flat plywood platform to accomplish the same outcome, it will be more expensive, less stable over time and contribute to eventual mold in your mattress unless you live in like Death Valley (and maybe even there too depending on how you humidify your house!)
Again, you without any qualification need to use slats or cross boards to support the mattress and will be unhappy if you attempt to use ply for that.
If you want the “clean look” of a plywood platform, use an overlay of decoratively cut (50%+ negative space) 1/4” wallboard (freedom ply here in the us!) on top of your slats. When someone asks for a plywood platform over their slats, which has happened twice now, I usually set the saw in a jig and rip a bunch of four or five inch strips off some 1/4” and put them an inch or so farther apart than their width (so a bunch of 5” strips would be 6 + inches apart each) and join the whole thing together with a thinner strip across the top and bottom underneath held together with countersunk screws that have either acorn nuts on their bottoms or something else. You need countersunk so stuff can not get caught on the top and acorn nuts on the bottom so hands and cats don’t catch any strays fishing around under that thang. You can’t use glue because you need the whole apparatus to go parallelogram when the bed frame does.
E: oh yeah, if you can tolerate it, check the dump/your local listings for a busted ass metal frame with rails long enough for your design (or close enough not to matter). Those steel L brackets are a super good way to make sure the wood doesn’t pop apart over time. Use some kind of a poly product where wood supports metal to make it even better.
E2: reclaimed metal parts look really sick when you sand and repaint them a loud color that no one will see until they take the mattress off.
E3: if you bake enough slop into your overlay strips you can actually glue them in the case that you trust yourself to glue square and true. Okay I’m really done this time.
I live near Death Valley--New Mexico. I’m not at all worried about mold, in the summer humidity is typically about 10%, in the winter it can rise up to 60%--yes, it’s backwards from most places--and it only gets really high on rainy days. (EDIT: I just checked humidity is currently 10%.)
Also, the mattress is approved by the manufacturer for a solid surface.
Finally, I already bought the plywood and cut the pieces, I’m not buying more wood.
I hope I’m the wrongest I’ve ever been.
It’s a very cool design! Did you use some kind of a plugin or panel to do woodworking measurements in blender? I never used it for cad in any serious way.
I use the Measure It addon. It adds dynamic dimensions between two vertices, just for visualization for the cut list.
For this simple bed, I just add a cube, enter the dimensions, and then rotate and snap each piece into place. Vertices, faces, and meshes can be selected and moved any arbitrary distance along any axis as needed to tweak the design.
I’ve used FreeCad and Fusion 360, but I don’t really need either for what I do, I’m comfortable in Blender as I’ve used it for ~15 years now.
Ever used one of the sheet goods addons for a cad package? There’s an ominous zcode router in my near to middlin future…
Sorry to barge into the chain, but does it add fractional measurements? Its one of the things I miss most about using 3dsmax. Its not the worst, but i do hate converting decimals to fractions on the tape measure when measuring lumber.
No, just decimal, I think. I’ll check.
Nope, just decimal.
I used to have down to 1/16" in decimal memorized. Got me within 1/32, which was enough. I only have 1/8" decimal still memorized, I don’t need it as much as I used to.
- 0.0625
- 0.0125
- 0.1875
- 0.25
- 0.3125
- 0.375
- 0.4375
- 0.5
- 0.5625
- 0.625
- 0.6875
- 0.75
- 0.8125
- 0.875
- 0.9375
You can use your cheap piece of shit $2 calipers to convert d>f and vice versa. Just dial your measurement and push the button till it becomes the measurement you want.
Or you can use a tape measure with tenths (decimal) on one side of the first foot or so and use that side to find your near fraction so you can mark over or under it.
This is a good tip, but now I have to find 51/64ths on my tape measure. LOL.
Get a load of this guy, doesn’t even have a vernier tape measure!
ahh, the ol’ trap of “It will save money to DIY” :)
Give us some pictures of the wood working!
i agree with cubism_pitta@lemmy.world, WE DEMAND PHOTOS OF YOUR WOOD, OP!
We all want to see their wood
We do these things not because they will save us money but because we thought they would save us money!
Him " I need a new miter saw. " wife “no you fuckin dont” him “we need a new bed frame” wife “good idea”
I mean isn’t it?
You just have to compare apples to apples.
If you’re trying to compare an IKEA bed to what OP makes. Op would DIY this out of cardboard.
Actual wood furniture is expensive af
True.
I bought an expensive as shit handmade bed (extra long) and it isn’t showing a single weakness after over 25 years and at least 10 moves (it’s M13 bolts, you could have a tank for sleepover).
Only if you compare it to custom bespoke pieces. It would probably still be cheaper to buy a bedframe that looks close tot his and work from there.
And this one, for example, does look very close to the Ikea Tarva.
OP said solid wood, that alone would put a premade bed frame like this easily over 2k, not even bespoke.
Depends on the wood. The Ikea one is solid pine. Well, as solid as pine can be.
Boy math
Hopefully OP can achieve the “design I like and well built” parts. 2 outta 3 aint bad. And if it is well built it should last a life time and then it’s cost-schmost.
Agreed on build pics!
As with any DIY project, I think the extra cost is worth the knowledge you gain… Unless you’re doing DIY tree removal next to your house.
Funny you should mention tree removal next to my house. But, no way I’m trying that job myself. I love that tree, but ever since I noticed it’s leaning a bit toward my house, and the wind we have around here… I can’t wait to get it gone. I’m looking for something short to put in its place.
Pro: I did my first tree removal
Cons: I did my first demo work
No worries my back remembers all the cutting and staining
For a bunch of dull people y’all do some cool shit.
Looks good! Don’t forget to add a mattress on there.
sleeping while balancing on a 2x6 builds character
I have a recurring dream I’m bivvied and balancing on a ledge with no anchors/rope, then I wake up petrified and disorientated.
Rock climbing and mountaineering has given me many joys, though bad safety setups has apparently become my nightmare fuel.
And my slats
Optional.
I left the plywood platform out of the render to show the structure.
I’ll post some progress pics. All I’ve done so far is cut a few sticks to length.
The red bit is a foam pad covered in corduroy upholstery. I’ll be sewing the cover too.
Make sure the mattress you’re buying can use a platform.
More than half require slats because they must breathe
I used plywood for under my tempur pedic but drilled 4" holes along it to give it breathing room. Also upholstered it with an old sheet to help with breathing room.
No mold or sagging after a couple years! No huge box spring or cheap, noisy slats.
That seems like a lot of work compared to just using a couple 1x4 but glad it’s working for you.
You cannot just use a tempur pedic bed on slats without their box spring. It’ll sag between the slats.
Neat
Maybe it’s the angle but it looks like this is woefully lacking in box spring/mattress support.
Those look like 2x6s that is more support than any old bed frame would give to a box spring.
I don’t think his design has the box spring sitting on the sides of the 2x6s, or else the legs of the headboard would get in the way of it sitting on the top most crossing board. The center board seems to be recessed, which leads me to believe that the small blocks on the header board and some smaller boards on the inside of the side boards are holding the box spring, which if the main side boards flex or bow the box spring will fall past.
I’m a cabinetmaker by trade, so I’m thinking in terms of what I’ve seen go wrong in builds with long, unsupported boards. But like I said, maybe the angle makes it look like the inner supports are super thin.
For a moment was wondering how the hell you’re pulling off somethingthat big… I thought I was reading from the 3dprinting community.
Would need a big bed for such a big bed
My Prusa MK3 could do it in pieces. I’ll just glue it together with superglue. I’m sure it will be fine, and within about 2mm of design.
Which filament for the mattress? TPU? Or do I use a cloth bag of printergore and torn off brims as mattress?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTSLLKixwSQ
I mean, this madlad printed a couch frame
What do you think of Blender as a design suite?
I’m not OP but it’s not the best. Like, it’s possible to use it for this purpose but a proper CAD tool will work much better.
Blender seems like a decent fit for this project, as the geometry is fairly simple and there shouldn’t need to be a ton of precision anywhere. Anything where geometry doesn’t need to match any already existing hardware particularly well, it is usually much faster to prototype in Blender in my experience. For certain things though, especially when you get curved surfaces involved, blender becomes the much harder option. Parametric obviously has many other advantages, but the stuff you can do with curved surfaces, booleans, and bevels in CAD tools is often extremely difficult to recreate in Blender.
Yeah that’s pretty spot on in my experience. I’m not designing as much these days but booleans in particular were a nightmare in blender and something that’s really handy for making parts that fit together. And of course parametric.
Blender has been improving booleans, but they still aren’t perfect. So, yeah, that’s often a hang up.
I love it, because I know it. No, it’s not the best choice if you’re starting from zero, but already knowing it from when I was a graphic designer, means I can make it work for this.
What kind of wood and joinery are you using?
I’m no fine woodworker. I don’t have a planer or jointer, etc., no way to mill boards. It’s all straight from Lowe’s, with more expensive boards for clear finish parts, less expensive for the painted, and plain kiln-dried 2x4s for the structure. I’ll be using pocket hole screws and glue for much of it. The three long rails mount with bed rail hardware so it can be broken down. I have some experience with this sort of thing, my main concern is wood warping and finishing. I got some tips from a cabinet painter.
I take my time, and redo what I need to so it comes out the way I want.
how are those 2x4s working out?
So far, so good, still as straight as when I dug them out of the pile.
Make sure you wait a week for the wood to acclimate to your workshop. And never store the wood without air flow on all sides. That’ll reduce warpage. I suspect there will be some warping though.
Seconded. Also, doees the maroon segment in the headboard move side to side? Also, are you willing to share your plans?
The red part will be a foam pad I’ll custom order, and I can handle the upholstery myself. No it doesn’t come out, I thought about it but, I don’t need what little space there is back there. The shelves are plenty. I’ll post what plans I have, it’s the 3D model and a cut diagram, plus I can include a shopping list.
Consider some cross boards, it’ll help with sinking if you don’t use a box spring.
Totally awesome to do something properly like this yourself. Good luck with the build!
ugh that looks low.
I like my bed low. The top of the mattress is like 23” high I think. I have some foam steps leading up for my dog so he doesn’t have to jump off the bed and I’m able to sit on the edge with my feet flat on the floor. I know some folks prefer their bed to be up high but it’s never been my jam.
its an age/disability thing. Anything where you don’t have to fall into nor climb into becomes prefered. Basically between thigh high and the butt.
Mattress is 14.5" tall, the platform is 10" tall. My current bed is 24" off the floor, and is just right for me.
New project New tool mantra is the rule
Man. I tried to buy the cheap one ($150), but the reviews scared me. I went with the cheap DeWalt at $250 on sale, plus a $50 blade. The worst part is, I’ll probably rarely use it again. I might sell it after, but I doubt it. I do love tools.
You need not justify it to no one here. We’ll all do the same every time…with every new project… hahaha .
But for sure you’ll have to find projects to get some use out of it at least in the beginning 🤣
Neato.
