All Replies on Some Designs you just need to Sleep on - What do you think?

You’re off and running to a great design, Mike. Are you thinking of adding some interest to the inside of the headboard’s center panel (and outside of footboard’s) by either cutting boards to arrange a vee pattern or by using an intriguing veneer?

You may want to add pillows and a bedspread to your CAD to see what it will look like in the bedroom. Doing so may lead you to consider making the legs as deep as they are wide with, perhaps, tapers on two sides below the rails.

-- "I dream of a world where a chicken can cross the road and no one questions its motive"' - Anne Nonny Mouse

MNgary thank you for the input!

I am thinking about adding some flare to the design but really haven’t come up with anything in particular. I am playing around with maybe a color stain, making the panels in a different color, or just painting the bed.

I am seriously considering making the posts thicker for more support with the tenons and mortises. Perhaps reduce the stock size once it gets above the bed rail, but I’m not sure.

-- look Ma! I still got all eleven of my fingers! - http://www.termitecrafts.com

Looks like you have a good plan. Well thought out.

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

How about different woods? Maybe a darker wood for center panels or the vertical slats. So, wood combos like maple/walnut, or maple/oak

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://gagnerwebsite.com/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Craftsman thank you for the input. Did you mean something like this?

-- look Ma! I still got all eleven of my fingers! - http://www.termitecrafts.com

Basically, I like your latest rendering. I would consider making it more G&G style, by adding cloud lifts to the top of the head and foot boards. I guess that I think the design is a little plain, even with the color variation, and would use the cloud lifts to create additional visual interest. FWIW

-- Art

Art,

Thank you for the input. I’m not familiar with either G & G style nor cloud lifts. Do you have an example or two?

Mike

-- look Ma! I still got all eleven of my fingers! - http://www.termitecrafts.com

I like the wide splat, and pairs of slats. That makes good use of the negative shape between spindles. I wonder if a cap on the headboard would add some depth, and an interesting shadowline?

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

I just played around with making a decal of a fish on the head board. Let me know how it looks.

Here is a larger version

-- look Ma! I still got all eleven of my fingers! - http://www.termitecrafts.com

I think a darker center board would look better than the dark slats.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

the center is going to be a panel, you could make it with a couple of different types of wood to throw in some contrast, or go with what you got for a more traditional style.

-- The mark of a good carpenter is not how few mistakes he makes, but rather how well he fixes them.

Thinking more along the lines of construction. Instead of mitering the top rail to the leg, I would make it a cap piece. With the mortise in the rail and the tenon on the leg (maybe haunched to the outside edge), or use a bridle joint. For assembly, you would insert the lower rails and panel into the legs, then your spindles and upper panel and finally the top rail.

I like your prior design better, I think the reality of it in wood will be all the ‘interest’ needed. I would make the center panels in 1/4 sawn veneer over ply.

I might make the legs and cap rails out of heavier stock and also make them a bit narrower.

Mike, I apologize for not replying to you sooner. We went away for Christmas and I am just getting caught up. Greene & Greene were great architects that designed houses, furniture, etc. Their work is very often characterized by cloud lifts, which are basically a couple little step ups along the sides. Here is a picture that illustrates what I am attempting to describe. I hope you like it.

-- Art

I’m personally against foot boards. They make it harder to make up the bed and my feet would always touch the foot board preventing me from straight legging.

Well I figure I should update the status on the bed frame project. I have now fully completed the BOM, cut list, budget, and CAD drawings. Within the next few weeks I’ll be picking up the lumber and hardware to get the build started.

Art -

The bed frame design is actually the one I modeled the project after.

I hope to take photos of this project all the way through, but you know how it is. Sometimes you just forget to take the photos.

-- look Ma! I still got all eleven of my fingers! - http://www.termitecrafts.com