Full size approach

First of all I want to Thanks Ana for such a great website and projects and all she do. Its amazing how a person can do all of that for free. If all Americans were the same we would be the greatest Nation by far (anyways we still great!).

     I wanted to make this bed full so I had to re-scale the dimensions and I wanted to share leasons learned.

First: The legth for a full size is the same.

Second the width for a full size will be 52 inches (I would make it 53in); if you are going to follow Anas design and use a 2x6 as a side rail then then the width of the header could be 53in.

I made a design change at the last minute (and paid for it at the end :-s). Instead of follow Ana's design I decided to use railing hardware in this link to be able to take the bed appart without any problem.

 Using these mortises I was able to change the side rails for 1x6 which in my opinion look way better. The problem is that now with those mortises the bed frame is going to be wider (56in), so instead of an extra 1in for play with the boxspring I have 3.5in :-(

My wife is nice enough and tried to gave me moral support and she insist that is not a big deal because the gap is toward the wall and my doughter can't care any less; she has her big girl's bed and thats all she wanted; but I know is there and I hate that gap!

Summary:

If you stick to Ana's design 53 inches for headboard is perfect; but if you want to use the mortise then 50.5 should work fine.

To paint the bed I did two coats of primer and two cotas of semi-gloss white paint; in my opinion for furniture I probably would go gloss next time, but this doesn't botter me.

I used prime pine wood so the price went to the $300, if you choose mid-grade pine (it has a lot of knot) you can probably drive the cost down by good 25%.

Time: took me one full day to build the bed and since I had to go to work every day and I was doing one coat of paint every afternoon after work (so "five" days total); maybe you can do the painting it in one day if don't have to go to work and the weather is right!