Since we succeeded at making a beautiful headboard for our new bed, we couldn’t just put it on a regular old frame. We live in a small home and we have to make the most of every square inch so we knew we needed a bed with storage. We had yet to find a storage bed we loved that was right for what we wanted or right for the price. And storing sweaters and linens under the bed in storage bins works, but how many of you will admit, once it goes into the bin and under the bed you completely forget you own it. Out of sight, out of mind. That’s why I urged my husband to tackle building our own bed with great custom storage that is not only beautiful but useful as well.
We did a lot of research on building platform beds online. And drafted several versions of what I wanted with my husband’s handyman knowledge. We eventually came up with the idea to build two large boxes with dividing walls and shelves for storage on either size and layed two large pieces of plywood on top to connect them and form the platform for the mattress. Check out homebeautiful on flickr for more photos of the project.
How we did it:
1. We measured how high we wanted the bed (35”), subtracted the mattress height (11”) and then factored in the materials for the box. We used eight 18” tall 2x4s joined at angles to form the corners of each box. We nailed these to the corners of a large sheet of 1/2” plywood (for our king-size bed, we made our boxes 24” deep by 81” long).
2. Next, we measured where we wanted the middle shelves and attached 4 more 18” tall 2x4s to act as supports for the box and to attach the middle shelves to later in the process. Attach a second piece of 1/2” plywood to the top. This created a box with three open compartments, two measuring roughly 34” wide and the middle shelf area which is about 12” wide.
2. Next, we measured where we wanted the middle shelves and attached 4 more 18” tall 2x4s to act as supports for the box and to attach the middle shelves to later in the process. Attach a second piece of 1/2” plywood to the top. This created a box with three open compartments, two measuring roughly 34” wide and the middle shelf area which is about 12” wide.
3. We used six 3/16” tempered hard board pieces as the walls of each of the three sections formed by the two by fours in our boxes. We later attached a 1/2” inch plywood piece to the center of the smallest compartment creating the two center shelves. We also used this same material to close off the back of the shelves.
4. We spray painted the frame a satin white recommended for painting furniture. I didn’t want a glossy reflective look. I like the satin because it gives it a less store bought look and is a little more rustic. Some of the edges we painted before we assembled so that we wouldn’t have runs in the cracks of the pieces of wood.
5. Last, we set up the boxes at the right spacing in the bed and attached two sheets of 1/2” thick plywood to create the platform for the bed. We painted the edges of these before attaching. While there is a gap between the two boxes, it is very sturdy. We have a memory foam mattress so there is no need for a box spring.
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