Made our bed

We needed a new bed. We'd been using a hand-me-down metal contraption with a saggy box spring for some time, and the mattress was lumpy enough that both of our backs hurt in the morning. After scavenging shops all over Reno and realizing yet again that good furniture is very expensive, I decided to make my own. My dream bed is a platform, low profile type bed, kind of like this:

Bed I want

I like how zen it looks... clean and simple. I looked at the hardware stores for fancy, expensive wood, like walnut or something... but that would make a fancy, expensive bed. This is not in my budget. So, I chose redwood, because that was the size and shape of wood that Lowes had. I started making it one day when the hubs was at work, and when he got home he took one look at it and asked why I was making a double size instead of a queen. Um, oops. I guess I measured wrong. Somewhere along the line I forgot to take into account the width of the side rails, which are 2-inches each. Duh. That's what you get for winging it, which is what I always do. The bed was now about 4 inches too short, and 4 inches too narrow. 

So, either we take another trip into town for more wood, or some up with a creative solution. I had stated with 4x4 posts on each corner, and he suggested using instead the 6x6 posts from the falling down, decrepit retaining wall in the front yard. I laughed. But then thought again-- replacing a 4x4 with a 6x6 would give us two extra inches on each side of the bed, bringing it back to a queen size. And, they are free, and they are redwood. Hmmm...

Bed skeleton... made from redwood

 It was not a bad idea... I am very into re-using stuff, the cheaper the better. The retaining wall is probably 30 years old and literally falling down. He dug one out and knocked it over, and we dragged it into the garage. It took a lot of sanding. A LOT of sanding. With the belt sander. I sanded through layers of stain, worm holes, nails, and other gook that had been on there for decades, and finally revealed a beautiful, smooth, redwood post. Well, not so smooth. It does still have the worm holes and nails, but it adds to the rustic nature of everything I make. I often use my "rustic" style as an excuse for sloppiness, as well, so this is convenient. The size of the posts also gave the bed a heavier presence that I really like. It really doesn't look homemade!

Retaining wall post, before.

The finished bed is below, and is awesome! Very sturdy, and solid wood. I used some sort of dark reddish brown stain and satin varnish. What would RC Willey charge for a solid bed like this? $1,000? $2,000? The only drawback so far to using redwood is that it is very soft and does scratch easily. Not a problem if you are going for rustic.

Our bed, finished!

Our cost was under $200....try even finding a deal like that on Craigslist! I refurbished the nightstands next to the bed too. That was a separate project. They were just open shelving-type stands, but I got creative with thin redwood strips and pretty much veneered the whole thing, and added redwood tops that are bigger and sturdier. They really look like a set now. Voila!!