| Project by Ben Griffith | posted 573 days ago | 399 views | 3 times favorited | 7 comments |  |
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We ordered a new queen mattress (replacing a full) and all I had ready to put under it by the time it was delivered a few weeks later were the poplar support rails and slats. So for several months we had a very low bed. What a relief when it was finally done a couple weeks ago!
Mortise and tenon for the head and foot board, the slats are in grooves with spacers glued between them so they almost look like I cut 38 little mortises ;-), and the side rails and center support rail are held on with bed rail hardware from Rockler.
The legs, slats in the headboard, and the bottom horizontal board in the headboard (the one hidden by the mattress) all were from reclaimed red oak from a staircase railing that my in-laws replaced in their house. The finish is five coats of beige shellac followed by a coat of wax.
Oh, and if you look at my buddy icon you’ll see my son doing his part to help build the bed!
7 comments so far
Dusty56
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3466 posts in 583 days
posted 573 days ago
Beauty …can we get a pic of the entire frame ? how about a close up on the finish ?
-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .
Scott Bryan
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20668 posts in 717 days
posted 572 days ago
Griffith,
You did a nice job with this bed. I am a fan of Arts and Craft style furniture and I don’t blame you for expediting the mortises. That was the smart route to take. Great idea to get your son involved in the project as well.
Thanks for the post and the story behind it. I appreciated looking at this.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
Bradford
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787 posts in 717 days
posted 572 days ago
That’s a great looking bed. All it need now is a couple of pillows and a sleeping pet.
-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.
CharlieM1958
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7638 posts in 1113 days
posted 572 days ago
Great looking bed!
-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"
Ben Griffith
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45 posts in 574 days
posted 572 days ago
Thanks for the compliments! I’ve got a picture without the quilt, so it shows more of the frame. I’ll add that one now. If I get chance I’ll wrestle the mattress off of there to get a picture of the whole thing, but that may be a while. The shellac finish isn’t much to look at up close but I’ll try to get a picture of that soon. It’s not bad, but it’s certainly no “mirror” finish or anything. I’d never used shellac until recently, and the bed was the only time I used it as a top coat. I had to go back and sand out a lot of runs before the last two coats… I originally only planned 4 coats, but I kind of felt like I was just getting the hang of it on the 4th coat and with the sanding it needed one more. Luckily shellac is pretty easy to go back and fix though.
jeanmarc
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1751 posts in 611 days
posted 571 days ago
beautiful work congratulations
-- jeanmarc manosque france
Craftsman on the lake
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817 posts in 332 days
posted 246 days ago
Nice clean lines. This bed would fit anywhere. Love it.
-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html