As my "thinking out loud" posts have indicated, I was working on converting the crib I built about five and a half years ago to a bed. My oldest is a very graceful sleeper and is fine in my wife's old daybed. My youngest is a hot mess and sprawls out every which way, making a giant mess of herself, the sheets, the comforter, the pillows, her stuffed animals, everything. She has always seemed to sleep better in a real bed, so I figured it was time. For reference, here was the crib:
Step one was fixing the headboard and footboard. I didn't take pictures, but the front and back were counterbored for screws to hold things together. Bubinga is very hard and dense, and even with pilots drilled screws would snap quite easily. This was fine while it was a crib, but I knew at some point I would have to fix it. With everything disassembled, all of the holes were plugged from both sides. Screw holes were again bored using a drilling jig, and dowels inserted and glued. This at least gave a consistent finished appearance, and I would have a story to tell as to why they were there (should anybody ask). Danish oil was the original finish and being easy to fix was a huge plus - it was not hard to drill new holes (or plug the existing) with dowels, sand, and refinish. I did all of that before building the "platform box" and doing the fasteners.
The plan was always to use drawers. It's a lot of space (seriously, do the math - drawers in a full-size bed is roughly the same storage space as an ordinary chest of drawers). I used two full-length rails with wider "spacers" in between on the edges and in the middle, providing optimal glue contact. Fasteners to the headboard and footboard were Domino Connectors, and I used three on each joint. They are, like most Festool offerings, incredibly easy and appear much stronger and more stable than traditional bed rail joinery. I have zero complaints with this. Here's a preliminary dry fit sort of picture of the build in progress:
I used plywood and pine for the interior construction, save for the front board (which would be visible). Not wanting to use a rather expensive bubinga board for this, I opted for a piece of African mahogany I had that was very nice (and I know was not that expensive). You will see later it fits in almost perfectly. As the rails (at least the appearance side) are all bubinga, the drawer fronts are all single-board bubinga. I used to use radiata pine from Home Depot for most drawers, especially drawers of this size, but lumber pricing, especially at box stores, is absolutely insane at this point. So the drawers were constructed of poplar (from the mill, about $3 per board foot) with 1/2" prefinished plywood for the bottoms. I did not finish the drawers since I wanted the most "natural" option for clothing storage and the like. Normally I use shellac and oil scrub, but I thought I'd try something else here. Seemed to work out well.
Here's the finished product without full decoration. The slats are just 1x3 knotty pine (cheapest available) which I keep a good supply of. I always pick things to be as straight as possible, so I'm not overly concerned with warping. Especially not with pine bed slats. The finish on the rest is Danish oil with oil scrubs (a mineral oil / mineral spirits / Danish oil mix I use, applied with Scotch-Brite pads), while the drawer boxes (not the bottom) and the slats are unfinished, sanded to 220. If I had to do it again, the drawers would probably be replaced by heavy-duty slides - at this size, even full-extension ball bearing slides are a bit sloppy. They are rated for 50 pounds, but heavy-duty slides go up to 200 pounds or more. At roughly 32"x25"x7", they are pretty big, and could definitely benefit from heavier-duty hardware. They aren't bad, just have more play than I'd like. In any case, here's what it looks like all ready for a three year old's destruction:
Some closer detail on the drawers.
And finally, the front visible board that's mahogany and not bubinga.
I doubt anybody would even notice that, much less care. I'm glad I went with this option rather than sacrifice what would be an almost impossible to replace board for something that isn't front and center. But in any case, it's all done and has been in use for over a week. My wife has pictures of the little one happily using it, and I'm happy to report that the "I need something" bed departures have seemed to decline significantly since she sleeps in this. It's a little sad that my three year old has a nicer bed than I do, but isn't that why we work?
Step one was fixing the headboard and footboard. I didn't take pictures, but the front and back were counterbored for screws to hold things together. Bubinga is very hard and dense, and even with pilots drilled screws would snap quite easily. This was fine while it was a crib, but I knew at some point I would have to fix it. With everything disassembled, all of the holes were plugged from both sides. Screw holes were again bored using a drilling jig, and dowels inserted and glued. This at least gave a consistent finished appearance, and I would have a story to tell as to why they were there (should anybody ask). Danish oil was the original finish and being easy to fix was a huge plus - it was not hard to drill new holes (or plug the existing) with dowels, sand, and refinish. I did all of that before building the "platform box" and doing the fasteners.
The plan was always to use drawers. It's a lot of space (seriously, do the math - drawers in a full-size bed is roughly the same storage space as an ordinary chest of drawers). I used two full-length rails with wider "spacers" in between on the edges and in the middle, providing optimal glue contact. Fasteners to the headboard and footboard were Domino Connectors, and I used three on each joint. They are, like most Festool offerings, incredibly easy and appear much stronger and more stable than traditional bed rail joinery. I have zero complaints with this. Here's a preliminary dry fit sort of picture of the build in progress:
I used plywood and pine for the interior construction, save for the front board (which would be visible). Not wanting to use a rather expensive bubinga board for this, I opted for a piece of African mahogany I had that was very nice (and I know was not that expensive). You will see later it fits in almost perfectly. As the rails (at least the appearance side) are all bubinga, the drawer fronts are all single-board bubinga. I used to use radiata pine from Home Depot for most drawers, especially drawers of this size, but lumber pricing, especially at box stores, is absolutely insane at this point. So the drawers were constructed of poplar (from the mill, about $3 per board foot) with 1/2" prefinished plywood for the bottoms. I did not finish the drawers since I wanted the most "natural" option for clothing storage and the like. Normally I use shellac and oil scrub, but I thought I'd try something else here. Seemed to work out well.
Here's the finished product without full decoration. The slats are just 1x3 knotty pine (cheapest available) which I keep a good supply of. I always pick things to be as straight as possible, so I'm not overly concerned with warping. Especially not with pine bed slats. The finish on the rest is Danish oil with oil scrubs (a mineral oil / mineral spirits / Danish oil mix I use, applied with Scotch-Brite pads), while the drawer boxes (not the bottom) and the slats are unfinished, sanded to 220. If I had to do it again, the drawers would probably be replaced by heavy-duty slides - at this size, even full-extension ball bearing slides are a bit sloppy. They are rated for 50 pounds, but heavy-duty slides go up to 200 pounds or more. At roughly 32"x25"x7", they are pretty big, and could definitely benefit from heavier-duty hardware. They aren't bad, just have more play than I'd like. In any case, here's what it looks like all ready for a three year old's destruction:
Some closer detail on the drawers.
And finally, the front visible board that's mahogany and not bubinga.
I doubt anybody would even notice that, much less care. I'm glad I went with this option rather than sacrifice what would be an almost impossible to replace board for something that isn't front and center. But in any case, it's all done and has been in use for over a week. My wife has pictures of the little one happily using it, and I'm happy to report that the "I need something" bed departures have seemed to decline significantly since she sleeps in this. It's a little sad that my three year old has a nicer bed than I do, but isn't that why we work?