How I Made My Own Bed Part I

I've had it in my head for a while that I wanted to make my own bed, it seemed like a big feat at the beginning. It would be the biggest thing I've made yet but knowing I made my own kitchen table last year gave me more confidence to try to make my own bed. I gathered inspiration from magazines and pinterest and sketched out what I wanted it to look like in the end. My main inspiration ended up being this photo and this photo. I definitely wanted to make sure I had room for storage underneath because my closet is pretty small. I first thought it would be cool to keep my bed close to the ground, but after having my mattress on the ground for a few days I realized that was not my style.
I didn't start building my bed until I moved into my new rental home just to make sure it would fit in my room. I measured my room and my mattress and settled on making the bed four feet wide by seven feet long. I sketched out my bed and urgently got to work. My brother-in-law Aric let me use his tools at his shop to work on my bed and give me direction when I got stumped. He also stripped the pieces of wood if I needed them cut long ways by a table saw.

 First I built the middle structure by cutting three boards that measured 1 foot high by 4 feet long as well as a board that measured 1 foot high by five feet long. I used a kreg to connect the boards to match my sketch. I cut one of the 1x4 boards in half to make the middle piece. I stained the middle piece before connecting anything else so it would be easier to get to.

 The top piece was built by putting 1x3'' boards together until they measured 4x7. I used wood glue and a nail gun to secure the board in place.

 By this time, I realized my bed was really heavy...the original plan was to make the bottom piece just like the top piece, but that would double the weight of the bed. After some thinking and talking it through, I decided on using fewer boards on the bottom to make slats instead of a full piece. This way I could still fit the baskets underneath for extra storage as I originally planned.

I used 3 1/2 inch caster wheels on the bottom and an inch wide piece of wood in between the bottom piece and the wheels for extra height. After sanding down my bed with a sander, I stained it with English Chestnut brown and sealed it with two coats of polyurethane and finished it off with a quick sand by hand.

Tomorrow I'll post the finishing details and photos on my bed!