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Close to standard plan

Submitted by woodje12 on Tue, 01/30/2018 - 04:04

This is fairly close to standard other than I raised up the sides and footboard 2" from the plans. I also used a plywood platform in place of slats and a standard box spring (there are 3 2x4 supports under the plywood). This saved some money since we just bought a king size Casper mattress and we prefer the look.

The other modification is that I purchased "bed rail fasteners" from Amazon. These "clips" enable us to easily disconnect the side rails from the headboard and footboard (like you might find on a purchased bed frame) for when we decide to move or redo our floors or whatever. I thought that was better than having a semi-permanent connection with screws. 

Built from Plan(s)
Modern Farmhouse Bed Frame
Estimated Cost
~$200 not including new DeWalt drill and Kreg jig set!
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
The stain is two parts as we thought that the special Varathane product that Anna used had a blue or purple tint to it once we tested it (look into it, others had the same comments on Home Depot/Lowes sites). So instead we used the regular Varathane Weathered Gray stain as the base (we tested which looked better going on first) with a light top coating of Minwax Special Walnut brown stain to give it depth. Good luck and thanks Ana! 
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

woodje12

Tue, 01/30/2018 - 04:12

I went back and added another modification I forgot. I bought bed rail fasteners from Amazon in order to be able to quickly disconnect the rails from the headboard and footboard. I prefer this versus having to disassemble the whole thing when we move/redo the floors/whatever. I'm happy with that decision even though it made the alignment a little trickier.

canuck

Tue, 01/30/2018 - 09:42

I love how you raised it.  What height does your mattress sit at?  I'm thinking of raising the rails by 2 or 3 inches as you did, but using 1x10 or 1x8 for the rails instead of 1x6s.  In your opinion, would this look good?  Or make the clean lines look too heavy?

woodje12

Fri, 02/02/2018 - 08:25

Sorry @canuck I tried to reply to your other post but it never posted apparently? I was going to do the same thing with 1x10's but then I lifted one at Lowe's and thought it would just be too heavy and cumbersome. As it is, the bed feels like it could take a direct mortar hit! Then I looked for 1x8's and they weren't in stock so I ended up just using the stock 1x6's. 

I think you could raise the rails/footboard another inch or two easily (I did 2" higher so 16.5" for the footboard posts because my wife wouldn't let me go higher) and still be fine aesthetically. The plywood platform sits a tad below the top of the sides of course and then the mattress is 10" tall so I think the final result is just above 25" from top of mattress to floor which was close to other beds in our house (our last bed was slightly higher [with a full box spring], at 26.5"). 

Thanks for the compliment and good luck!

emcgill05

Fri, 10/15/2021 - 06:10

We too have used the same modifications as you. However the bed fasteners I have bought seem to be too wide for the male connector ends on the 4x4.

Can you provide a link to the fasteners you bought?! I thought I was going to get this together today but doesn’t look like it.

Thanks,
Liz

nellerzicious

Thu, 06/18/2020 - 09:31

I also purchased bed rail fittings for the bed. How did you line everything up? Did you attach it to the cleats or the 2x6's on the side rails? I really wish that they came with instructions for installation, but they didn't, do you have any advice for me? Thanks!