I’ve got a lot of different design ideas for beds… many of which require carpentry and fabrication skills far greater than my own.  So I chose to design a bed that even I could build… with a hand saw, a circular saw, and a drill.  Because we live in a small studio cottage, the bed needed to utilize the space around it as something other than ‘bed’… essentially buffering the sleeping area with a sitting area.  Likewise, the bed couldn’t be too tall, else it would cramp the space.  So it had to be a platform bed, with an extended bench coming off the foot.  Additionally, it had to be made out of reclaimed lumber.  Or at least as much as possible.  These were the design constraints.

I decided on very big and bulky 4″x12″ wooden beams as the main frame for the construction.  They had several that looked usable at Reuse Hawaii, so I spent a good deal of time picking out the ones that would work the best… and look somewhat uniform.  As it turns out, I was able to find two of the length I needed that were both pretty much all white.  One extra long piece for the head of the bed and one completely bare beam for the foot.  I also found a ton of 1x2s that I would use for the surface of the bench area.  In the end, I found pretty much all the lumber I needed for the job, and the bed is made up of almost 100% reclaimed lumber.

Long story short, I scraped, steel brushed, and sanded all the wood to get rid of all the loose paint, dirt, and as many of the splinters as possible.  Then I spent the weekend and the early part of the week actually building it.

Once I was done with the major part of the construction, I wasn’t happy with the way our current blankets/pillows looked on the bed.  So I decided to create something new for the new bed.  Why not.  I went and chose the fabric, my Mother gave me a quick lesson on her sewing machine, and I was off and running.  I managed to make the duvet cover all by myself, but when it came to the pillows, the machine started acting up and my Mom had to step in to save the day… or night rather.  She and I ended up working until 3AM Sunday morning…

KPICASA_GALLERY(CloveBed)