Twin Bed

With the news of a new kid along the way, I wanted to build a bed for my oldest so I could free up her convertible crib for the new arrival. This idea came to me after seeing beds on the Ana White website. Originally, this was going to be made with reclaimed wood. After pulling apart the first pallet, I decided against this for her bed, however, I am planning more builds around pallets in the future.
I had only been building toys up until this build, so I put a little extra planning into this bed.
The sides are made with 2×4” which I ripped slightly shorter to remove the square up the edges. I used 3/4” Wainscoting panels for the backboards to the headrest and the foot rest. I placed quarter round for trim throughout. I used the standard twin bed measurements when planning this bed.
I wanted an antique look to this bed, and it had to closely match her dresser which was a darker color. My wife and I agreed on Red Mahogany. Prior to putting a layer of stain on, I distressed the wood using a hammer, screws, awl, and anything else I could find. That was surprisingly a lot of fun! I added dowel plugs in random spots, as well as in places to cover the screws that I used to reinforce the bed. I put a pre-stain layer on it. A tip from my next door neighbor, Werner, was to use a sock to apply the stain. That was an awesome tip! Thank you Werner, and If you stumble across this, we miss you and Maria! We hope you are doing well and sorry we lost contact! We changed our numbers when we moved and didn’t tell enough people.
In the end, I build it 8” too high and about 8” too long. I had to cut the legs down so the mattress and box spring wasn’t 3 1/2’ in the air. The picture that you see of it is without the final cuts and without the box spring. I think a bunk board would have been better suited, but I wanted to not have the box spring in my workshop any longer.
I was worried that the pine wouldn’t hold up against my daughters abuse, but I built it very strong, and it doesn’t even creak or squeak. It could be said that I over built it, but it’s a solid bed. She loves her bed!
I think the best compliments I received was recently when the movers were putting it together was one of them said “Wow, this is a really old bed.”