Trash-to-Treasure Bed Bench

So my wife’s mother saw a bench one day that was made from an old bed frame. She knows that I like to have a project, and thought that it would look good in our home. I thought it was worth tackling, and committed to start looking for an old bed frame. Before I could even start looking, my beautiful in-laws came to the rescue. My wife’s mother saw a bed frame in a pile of junk driving home. She sent her hubby to go get it for me. He swallowed his pride and dug it out of the trash, and delivered it to my house! (did I mention that they’re great)!!

It’s pretty simple to convert. I cut out a middle section of the footboard, turned the ends in and attached them to the headboard. I first had to perform a little surgery though. The height of the pieces was such that the turned portions of the posts would meet up. So I cut a portion of the footboard “feet”, and re-located them to the feet of the headboard. This allowed the spindle of the arms to now meet up on the square portion of the headboard posts. I then added a rail accross the back and front, attached a 1X2 runner along each rail (3/4” from the top), and dropped in a 3/4” section of birch ply resting on the runners.

The wood is real light, and had the look of pine. The finish is a minwax black stain/poly mix. It was like brushing on syrup. We still have to make a seat cushion for it. I think it turned out pretty good. I’ve got to come up with something special to build for my in-laws now. They deserve it.