Design Evolutions and Finalization
I started designing this bed quite a long time ago. Originally, it was a more arts-and-crafts style, but my wife didn't like the style and asked if I could make some changes. After looking at the bed Marc Spagnolo recently made we made some more changes and ended up with this design:
Essentially the headboard is a set of two frame-and-panel sections with rails set in the groove that the panel is in. We spent some time at a local plywood dealer looking over exotics and veneers and decided to go with walnut veneered plywood for the panels. The rest of the bed aside from the slats is going to be cherry.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but the posts are ~3 1/4" square and are tapered at the bottom. I'm not sure exactly how to characterize the design.
The next step after finalizing a design was to find materials.
A couple of months ago I spent a Sunday afternoon driving around to pick up lumber from three different sources I found on Craigslist. Going to three different people each at least 30m apart wasn't ideal, but I was able to get all the lumber I needed (around 50 board feet, including a lot of 8/4) for less than $250. I'd worked out that it would have been at least $400 had I bought the lumber from a dealer, if not more.
As with most of my blog posts, I'm starting this series while pretty close to done with the project. I find the blog series to be a good exercise in reviewing progress so far, and while I'm in the middle of working on the project I tend to not want to spend the time blogging.
I started designing this bed quite a long time ago. Originally, it was a more arts-and-crafts style, but my wife didn't like the style and asked if I could make some changes. After looking at the bed Marc Spagnolo recently made we made some more changes and ended up with this design:
Essentially the headboard is a set of two frame-and-panel sections with rails set in the groove that the panel is in. We spent some time at a local plywood dealer looking over exotics and veneers and decided to go with walnut veneered plywood for the panels. The rest of the bed aside from the slats is going to be cherry.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but the posts are ~3 1/4" square and are tapered at the bottom. I'm not sure exactly how to characterize the design.
The next step after finalizing a design was to find materials.
A couple of months ago I spent a Sunday afternoon driving around to pick up lumber from three different sources I found on Craigslist. Going to three different people each at least 30m apart wasn't ideal, but I was able to get all the lumber I needed (around 50 board feet, including a lot of 8/4) for less than $250. I'd worked out that it would have been at least $400 had I bought the lumber from a dealer, if not more.
As with most of my blog posts, I'm starting this series while pretty close to done with the project. I find the blog series to be a good exercise in reviewing progress so far, and while I'm in the middle of working on the project I tend to not want to spend the time blogging.