1. Home

The pregnant lady builds a king-sized farmhouse bed!!!

Submitted by mamalaura on Sun, 01/23/2011 - 21:05

Yes, it's true. I built it. I am so proud of this crazy, imperfect, HEAVY thing that now dominates my bedroom. My husband and I have been wanting a king bed for a while, so we made the crazy decision recently to sell off our queen bed (along with a few other items) in order to afford a brand new latex king mattress. Let me tell you, if you haven't heard of latex mattresses yet, do check them out! They are amazing. But I digress...

I am 7 months pregnant. And we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a few weeks. Did I mention we have two little girls who need bathroom visits in the night? Can you picture me getting up off the floor and taking them to the bathroom? Not a pretty sight.

SO, it was time to build. To shorten the story, because there are many details to share but so little time, I built it in a few weeks! (I know, that sounds long compared to Ana's 3-hour projects, but I'm a little restricted by this belly of mine!) When it was done, my husband and I carried it (in pieces) up the stairs and assembled it in our room. The result? One seriously pulled muscle in my leg, and one extremely happy couple!!

A question for you though, anyone who has built the farmhouse bed, or Ana herself: The joints where the 2x4 cleats attach to the 4x4 posts seem weak and they don't hold tight. When I get in and out of bed they squeak and the whole bed shakes a little. I put 3 screws in each of them but somehow it still seems to not hold tightly together. Any suggestions on how I can secure it a little better?

Now to post some pictures... hey, how do I post pictures?

Forums
Show Off Your Work Here

mamalaura

Sun, 01/23/2011 - 21:10

I think I figured out how to post photos...

darlintxmomma

Wed, 01/26/2011 - 16:02

Awesome bed!!! I too have planned to build the farmhouse king size bed for hubby and I and now that I have turned up pregnant, I was afraid it would be too much of a task for me to tackle now. Apparently its not. Thanks for the inspiration.

claydowling

Wed, 02/02/2011 - 13:20

Looks great.

A couple of tricks that might make the cleat less creaky:

1. Cut a length of 1x4 to fit snugly between the cleat and the floor for each leg, and screw it securely to the leg under the cleat.

2. Secure the cleat with a bolt through the leg.  Use a route machine head bolt, with the head on the outside, and a healthy washer between the nut at the cleat. Also put a lock washer in there. Beds when properly used get a fair amount of vibration that can cause a nut to work loose and ruin a good night's sleep by depositing you suddenly on the floor.

Guest (not verified)

Thu, 01/12/2012 - 11:21

On mamalaura's blog, someone posted about no-mortice bedlocks to be used instead of screwing the 2x4's to the 4x4s. Will this method work better? Thanks in advance!

emetric (not verified)

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 11:41

I have used dowels in the past. Get yourself a 1" hardwood dowel and bore a 1" hole through the 2x4 about 1" from the end. coat the dowel with a thin coat of glue and insert the dowel into the hole. Drive your screws through the 4x4 into the 2x4 and through the dowel. If you need more clarification let me know and I will post pictures.

The end grain butt joint is inherently one of the weakest joints you can make in wood. By inserting the dowel you effectively convert the joint to a preferable long grain to long grain joint. This method is super strong even more so if you opt to use lag screws.

Hope this helps.

marvinn (not verified)

Wed, 07/11/2012 - 02:50

Great! You are so brave to build a king-sized bed. I love to build small things for my baby, like a little cradle or a changing table. I am also 7 months pregnant and my body mobility has started to fade. From now on I am wearing only trendy maternity clothes and I have decided to stop building things. It's to danger for my pregnancy.