DIY

How to build your own bed

Why would you want to build your own bed? There are various answers to this question. One reason could be to save costs. You’ve seen a beautiful bed in the shop but it’s too expensive. Thus you may want to re-create it by building your own bed. Or perhaps you want to build your own bed because you haven’t found the bed that fits nicely to the style of your home. Or because you have certain requirements regarding dimensions, materials and functionality. Or, another reason to build your own bed is just for the pleasure of creating and building your own, unique bed design.

Build your own bed: Which tools do you need?

Regardless of the way your homemade bed is going to look like, here we are going to assume that it is made of wood. The following tools will come in handy when constructing the bed:

Step 1: the design

The nice thing about building your own bed is that you can adjust the bed to the room according to your, or your families, wishes. The first recommendation is to carefully look and consider the exact location of the bed. What do we need? What are the options? And also consider looking further than the near future. A bed lasts a long time. What requirements will you have in five or ten years? Children are growing up. Maybe you’ll move to another house. All these considerations play a role in the type of bed you choose for. After all, there are quite a few possibilities:

  • Single bed
  • Double bed
  • Box spring conversion
  • Children’s bed
  • Bunk bed
  • Loft bed
  • Box bed
  • Fold-away bed
  • Loft bed with desk or storage space
  • Pull out bed/guest bed

Step 2: choosing the type of wood

Pine, spruce, scaffolding wood, multiplex or more expensive decorative types of wood such as oak, cherry or merbau…almost all types of wood are suitable. You can even make a bed with a modest material such as pallets. There are three things that determine your choice: the appearance, the firmness of the construction and the processability. Spruce and pine are for the less experienced DIY’ers out there, as they are the easiest types of wood to work with.

Tip: Buy the slatted bed base. The most important part of the bed – the mattress – you’ll need to buy, or you may already have one. But you can also consider buying the slatted bed base. A slatted bed base is not expensive and it is not visible, so you might as well buy it and save your energy for constructing the rest of the bed.

Step 3: the construction drawing

Now you’ve gathered all your ideas and wishes. The next step to build your own bed is to make a construction drawing. Mark all dimensions accurate to scale and make your design as complete as possible. All details, such as all the spots where you need to drill the screw holes, the necessary screws, dowels etc must be included in the construction plan. With this construction drawing you can go to the hardware store or timber trade. If you have done a good job at preparing everything, you can have all materials custom sawn, which will save you a lot of work.

Tip: On the internet you can find many construction drawings that can serve as an example or source of inspiration.

A few things to remember:

  • Measure using inside dimensions and take the thickness of the wood into account.
  • Make sure to keep an open space between mattress and conversion. A guideline: 10 mm on both sides in the length and 5 mm in the width.

Step 4: time to build your own bed

After sawing the wood – either by the timber trade or by yourself – and finishing off (sanding and possibly painting or staining) you gather all elements and check if you have everything. The next thing to do is to mark the spots where you need to drill holes (for the connections) using a pencil.

Everything should now fit together and thus it’s time to assemble all the parts. Start with the head or main frame. In many cases this is the part that has the most creativity, because there are all kinds of decorative and functional possibilities.

After the head frame, the next thing to mount is the foot frame and afterwards the sides. Now test whether the construction is solid, otherwise it will irrevocably creak. And keep checking whether the connections have a right-angle. The way of the craftsman is to measure ‘diagonally’. To do this you need two measuring tapes, which allows you to measure the bed diagonally from corner to corner. If the result is a perfect X with equal lengths, then the construction is completely right-angled.

The laths on which the slatted base will rest are attached using a spirit level on the sides. If you are building a double bed you will also need a support in the middle.

Tip: A convenient way to give an existing bed a completely new look is by creating a beautiful head frame.

Tips against creaking

How do you stop your homemade bed from creaking and making squeaky sounds? After all, wooden beds have that inclination. The first culprit is an improper construction. If the materials and the connections are not sturdy enough and there is movement, the bed will start creaking due to the friction of wood on wood. It is better to avoid rushed work and sloppiness. Do not attach laths for the slatted base at the head or foot of the bed, but only on the sides. Also make sure that the slatted bed base is not too located too tight against the conversion.

Does the bed, even after all your sincere and attentive efforts, still make squeaky sounds? In that case there are various things you can do to try to fix it. If the squeaky sounds are due to the contact between the conversion and the slatted bed base, then you can, for example, attach weatherstrips, coasters or pieces of the inner tube of a bicycle on the laths. If the squeaky sounds are due to the wood on wood friction, then you can reduce it by using some talcum powder, oil (or even sunscreen), soapy water or silicone spray between the creaky parts.

A wardrobe that suits your homemade bed?

Your bedroom or the children’s room is complete when you add a close made of the same material and style as your bed. In our blog How to build your own DIY closet you can find inspiration and professional tips.

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