How To Make A King Size Bed Frame

Do you desire to give your sleeping room a new wait? We'll bear witness you how to make an like shooting fish in a barrel DIY platform bed frame with footstep-past-stride instructions.

How to make a platform bed frame

We recently got a new mattress and decided information technology was time to upgrade from our box springs to an actual bed frame. However, when I started looking at prices for a wooden platform bed (my dream!) I decided it would be much more than affordable to make our ain. And so began our foray into making an easy DIY platform bed frame!

I honestly didn't know where to get-go, so I looked on Pinterest for some guidelines. I found this gorgeous bed and thought information technology would exist the perfect starting point for our projection. We modified a few things as we planned out our own bed frame, but that was a corking guide for us to begin. Our new mattress is 79x75 so we planned our dimensions around that, but you'll desire to measure out your mattress before you brainstorm. It's important to note that we have our mattress sideways then information technology'due south 79" wide and 75" long. If your mattress will be longer than information technology is wide, you lot'll demand to switch the dimensions. We did this because we co-sleep and needed a few more inches for the extra bodies in the bed!

DIY Platform Bed Supplies

4 - 2x6x8 Pine Boards (outer frame)
4- 2x4x8 Pino Studs (inner frame)
15 - 1x4x8 Pino Boards (slats)
1 - 4x4x8 Douglas Fir (legs)
Box of ii ½ inch screws
1 Quart Rust-Oleum Ultimate Woods Stain (Night Walnut)(or see other shades)
1 Quart Minwax Satin Cease Polyurethane
Sand newspaper- Fine grit for sanding betwixt poly coats, coarser for sanding the outer boards (we used 320 and 220, respectively)
Wood glue
4 Foam Brushes

Other DIY platform bed necessities:

Miter or circular saw to cut boards
Ability drill and drill bits
Power sander
Square
Clamps

After making a list of supplies, we headed into town. Permit me tell y'all, information technology's SO fun to pick out perfect wood pieces while your kids are climbing around like they're at a jungle gym (non!). Luckily we were able to find nigh of our supplies at one store. Nosotros did accept to brand a special trip for stain, but we loved one specific color and then it was worth the extra stop-Walmart was the only place nosotros could observe it locally. Click here for a printable list of supplies and tools you'll need.

Starting the Platform Bed Frame Edifice Process

A few tips before we go into the instructions. When picking out boards, wait for perfectly directly pieces. It took u.s. about an hour to find the lumber for our frame because we didn't desire bowed boards or wood with besides many large imperfections. Also, don't buy treated woods! You don't want to sleep on that stuff every night.

Make sure you measure your bed to get the correct dimensions, as not all male monarch-sized beds are exactly the same. Our inner frame is 79 inches wide by 75 inches long, and our slats are cut to 79 inches. You could definitely modify it to make a smaller frame besides! Earlier cutting, double bank check your measurements. My married man is great at constructing things, but even he cut ane board too brusque (actress trip to get some other board, bank check!).

Final measurements for all boards:
13 Slats: 79"
One 2x4: 79" (Inner frame footboard)
Three 2x4: 75" (inner frame length and eye support boards)
Ii 2x6 (for head and foot of bed): 81 ⅞"
2 2x6: 76.5"
Eight 4x4 feet: six"

Cutting the boards

Later on cutting down the outer frame boards, use a power sander to get rid of any stamping or imperfections. This process took longer than we expected because we did purchase the cheaper pino boards. If nosotros did information technology again, I'd shell out the extra cash to get smoother boards! Then cut the inner platform bed frame boards, slats, and legs. If yous want to sand the inner frame or legs you lot tin can. My motto is 'work smarter, not harder', so we didn't. The boards we bought for slats were fairly smooth merely we did sand the tops a bit where the mattress will sit.

After sanding the boards (big thanks to my husband for that!) it was time for staining and finishing with polyurethane. Our garage isn't heated so I had to do this in our basement which was not ideal. The ceilings are much lower than a garage ceiling and I wore a mask since it's certainly not well-ventilated. But, it worked fine! I did 1 coat of stain on each outer 2x6 and the legs and three coats of polyurethane.

You'll have a bit of dry out time betwixt coats. I let the stained boards sit for 24 hours earlier applying the polyurethane. Nosotros bought quick-drying poly and then I probably could have done a coat every 2-3 hours. However, I waited 24 hours between coats only to make sure we had the best end possible. My kids are hard on things 😉

DIY Platform Bed Assembly

Assembly took less than 2 hours which I felt was comparable to the fourth dimension it would take to put together any other bed frame. Information technology went together adequately hands with the assistance of two little helpers!

We framed upwards the inner 2x4s offset, and then screwed the legs into those. The legs and 2x4s are flush at the tops.

Nosotros chose non to have an inner 2x4 at the head of the bed for a couple of reasons. First, we didn't desire the platform bed frame to be any further from the wall than it already was going to be with the 2x6. One of my biggest pet peeves is losing my pillow behind the bed! 2nd, we didn't feel it would add much for structural support besides weight, then nosotros skipped information technology.

Nosotros screwed the 2x6s into the 2x4s with 2 ½ inch screws and the bottoms are flush. The slats sit on top of the 2x4s, merely I wanted to prove a close-up of this so you could visualize it. We did three screws between each foot, drilling pilot holes so the wood didn't divide.

Adding the slats

Our fiddling gymnasts took no time testing out the bed frame before we put the slats in! We chose to go along our slats 2.5" apart. The mattress we were getting recommended no more iii inches between slats for support. Nosotros laid out the slats, measured two.v" betwixt them, and screwed them into the 2x4s.

I was then excited to see our things coming together! I haven't done whatsoever woodworking since middle school (a LONG time ago!) and I was a little nervous about how things would go. Our DIY platform bed frame really didn't take much fourth dimension and was WAY more affordable than purchasing a pre-made equivalent.

We spent less than $100 on the wood, stain, polyurethane, and screws. Plus, we have over ½ the cans of stain and polyurethane left for other projects.

After nosotros finished our platform bed frame, we decided to make a headboard also! Check out our tutorial for our DIY wooden headboard, which cost less than $50 to make.

We're loving our new bed, and I would absolutely recommend making your own platform bed frame and headboard if you're considering information technology. It wasn't hard, and I'd say the results are worth the work for sure! The bed frame feels very sturdy. Nosotros assembled information technology in our room because it wouldn't fit through the door frame otherwise, and then only a tip in instance you have small doorways like nosotros do! If you're curious well-nigh our mattress, it'south a Natural Escape from My Dark-green Mattress and information technology's SO comfortable.

Our room is really meeting at present with our bed, mattress, and new bedding from Cariloha. It's MUCH improved with our new DIY platform bed frame and headboard. I wish I'd taken a earlier motion picture with our old box springs so y'all could see the deviation! Nosotros've actually gotten the DIY bug now, and are dreaming up all kinds of things nosotros desire to build next. Click hither for step-by-step instructions on building a bed frame!

What practise yous call back of our DIY platform bed frame and headboard?
I'd dear if you'd share your thoughts with me in the comments!