Dataguy
Well-known member
So, my daughter off at college has run short of room in her apartment. (Shocking, I know). Anyway, she had been looking at storage beds with drawers underneath the mattress and asked me if I could make one because she thought the ones from Ikea and such looked cheap and likely to fall apart.
After completing the project, I think it might have been cheaper to hire some downstate Amish to buggy on up here and build it by hand.
Despite that, it came out pretty well. Here's a few pictures. Forgive the messy basement in the background. I was doing this in the garage, but it's too cold out this time of year to do the staining/finishing so I brought the carcasses into the basement for the finish work.
Here's a carcass without the top cover, showing the drawers:
Here's a drawer extended out:
And here's a carcass with the top on:
This one shows the 3 carcasses put together on the floor. Each one is 60" x 20", so the total area is 60" x 80", which fits a queen-sized mattress. On the inside is a 2x4 mounted to each carcass with oak risers. The ladder structure both supports the middle of the mattress and serves to tie all 3 units together.
This shows the ladder structure in place:
And here it is with the plywood cover in place. The pressure from the mattress holds it all in place:
And this is the overall view (no drawers in place):
It took a while, but a very satisfying project overall. It's mostly made of 3/4" cabinet-grade birch plywood, but the drawer fronts and trim were made of 1" solid birch board planed down to 3/4" and glued together using biscuits.
She's been using it for a couple of weeks and it hasn't collapsed yet, so I'm declaring success.
After completing the project, I think it might have been cheaper to hire some downstate Amish to buggy on up here and build it by hand.
Despite that, it came out pretty well. Here's a few pictures. Forgive the messy basement in the background. I was doing this in the garage, but it's too cold out this time of year to do the staining/finishing so I brought the carcasses into the basement for the finish work.
Here's a carcass without the top cover, showing the drawers:
Here's a drawer extended out:
And here's a carcass with the top on:
This one shows the 3 carcasses put together on the floor. Each one is 60" x 20", so the total area is 60" x 80", which fits a queen-sized mattress. On the inside is a 2x4 mounted to each carcass with oak risers. The ladder structure both supports the middle of the mattress and serves to tie all 3 units together.
This shows the ladder structure in place:
And here it is with the plywood cover in place. The pressure from the mattress holds it all in place:
And this is the overall view (no drawers in place):
It took a while, but a very satisfying project overall. It's mostly made of 3/4" cabinet-grade birch plywood, but the drawer fronts and trim were made of 1" solid birch board planed down to 3/4" and glued together using biscuits.
She's been using it for a couple of weeks and it hasn't collapsed yet, so I'm declaring success.
)