It's taken me a long time to build this thing. So long in fact, that I have a hard time writing up anything about it. I can't think of specific things that you might want to know. I'm just in love with how it turned out.
It was definitely lot of work. Countless trips to Home Depot. Many hours (although, altogether I think I only spent seven or eight days working on it).
We had one major set back when we built the first "bench" wrong. A couple pieces were just half an inch off, but since everything was glued together there was no way to salvage it. It wasn't a fun day.
Finishing it, however, was a very fun day.
I think everyone would want to know how much it cost to build. The short answer is: I'm not really sure. I'd estimate around $400-$500. That includes the big mistake we made (which definitely cost a good bit of money in materials). We made other mistakes too. They were smaller, but fixable. A king size Stratton Bed with drawers from Pottery Barn retails for $1800. I think the savings were well worth it.
Of course we used these plans produced by Ana White. And the corresponding plans for the drawers (then we added 1/2" trim to the faces). The drawers are HUGE by the way! Which makes them a pain the neck to build and haul around, but super for all the extra storage.
I was a little worried that our mattress would feel firmer when we put this bed in place. But it's fine. It sleeps great. Even the dogs approve.
Definitely a job well done. Have any questions you'd like me to answer?
It was definitely lot of work. Countless trips to Home Depot. Many hours (although, altogether I think I only spent seven or eight days working on it).
We had one major set back when we built the first "bench" wrong. A couple pieces were just half an inch off, but since everything was glued together there was no way to salvage it. It wasn't a fun day.
Finishing it, however, was a very fun day.
I think everyone would want to know how much it cost to build. The short answer is: I'm not really sure. I'd estimate around $400-$500. That includes the big mistake we made (which definitely cost a good bit of money in materials). We made other mistakes too. They were smaller, but fixable. A king size Stratton Bed with drawers from Pottery Barn retails for $1800. I think the savings were well worth it.
Of course we used these plans produced by Ana White. And the corresponding plans for the drawers (then we added 1/2" trim to the faces). The drawers are HUGE by the way! Which makes them a pain the neck to build and haul around, but super for all the extra storage.
I was a little worried that our mattress would feel firmer when we put this bed in place. But it's fine. It sleeps great. Even the dogs approve.
Definitely a job well done. Have any questions you'd like me to answer?
p.s. And of course I'll be sharing this finished product in a bunch of great parties. Make sure you check all the parties out in my sidebar so you don't miss any of the other great projects around the blogosphere!
Look at all that storage! NICE WORK!
ReplyDeleteIT looks AWESOME! So great that you posted this today, we've been talking about building a similar style bed for our bedroom for quite some time. Last night we discussed maybe just buying one from IKEA, but I'm reading not great reviews about it... you've made me think twice!
ReplyDeletewow, it looks great! congratulations on all your new found storage!
ReplyDeleteHUGE thumbs up! Wow! way to go!
ReplyDeleteWow! Seriously, a huge wow!!! It looks fantastic, I can't believe you built it, amazing!!!!
ReplyDeletethat is fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks great! x
ReplyDeleteThis looks great. And I love the drawers. What a great idea for storage.
ReplyDeleteI have been following you through google reader, but I just started following you through your blog, so you only need 2 more people to reach 100.
It looks amazing! Definitely a great job. Love the fabric choice!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is amazing! That original bed was so expensive, I love that you were able to make your own. And of course, I do love how the headboard looks with it. A job well done!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job! That bed is absolutely adorable! I almost want it for our bedroom! :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks so good! Well done! Super impressive!
ReplyDeleteIt looks gorgeous! I bet having all that storage at your finger tips is nice!
ReplyDeleteThat looks, FAN.TAST.TIC. Two T's, tasttic. Excellent work! And I totally agree, they're super comfy with the right mattress. Mine is actually my favorite sleeping bed in the house.
ReplyDeleteI just love the bed :)
ReplyDeleteKari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com
You did a great job! Congrats on the finished product!!
ReplyDeleteWowee!!! I can't believe you built that. That is SO impressive, and who cares if you made a mistake, after seeing that lovely result!
ReplyDeleteWow it looks great! Well worth the effort in my opinion. I'm sure guests...and the dogs will love it.
ReplyDeleteI love it. I wonder if I can convince my husband he wants to make one...
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you did all that yourself! It looks fantastic, like a bed I would find in a store. Better, actually, because it's not so standard in appearance. Can I pay you to make one for me?
ReplyDeleteunbelievable. i have a hard time even hanging paintings on the wall, and here you are, building a bed by yourself! kudos!!
ReplyDeletealeksandra
follow our foster: loveandaleash.wordpress.com
Wow, that turned out so great! Looks like a lot of work but so worth it. The headboard is great too :)
ReplyDeleteVery impressive! PB would be proud, or mad depending on how you look at it. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Looks like it was totally worth it!
ReplyDeleteHello! I just spent the afternoon browsing through your bog and absolutely I love it. Great job and keep up the amazing work :0) Cant wait to check in on your 1001 progress
ReplyDeleteYay! I got to be your 100 follower!!!
ReplyDeleteI love you blog you are very creative =]
Wow, you deserve major props for taking this one on! It turned out great and I'm so jealous of your storage!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, it is so beautiful and a savings of over 1,000.00 - remarkable!
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't tell us that you built it I would have never know.
WOW, I am beyond impressed by this!!! It looks amazing! I'd like to think that my husband and I could build something like this, but it would take a lot longer than 7-8 days! I'd love to have this type of bed and be able to eliminate a dresser. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHOLY COW! It looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteAnd I do know the feeling of a building project taking forever. My bedroom nightstands, simple though they were, were like that.
This is a seriously rocking space saver.
Congrats on finishing it!!! The bed looks AMAZING!!! =)
ReplyDeletexoXOxo
Jenn @ Peas & Crayons
oh my!! That turned out fantastic!! You did a wonderful job!
ReplyDeleteawesome!
ReplyDeletejust one question: when are you coming to my house to build me one?
absolutely gorgeous! you did an amazing job, and i'm sure it was worth the tears & sweat!! thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHats off to you! Well done!
ReplyDeleteOMG! This looks like it should be in the PB catalog. GREAT job!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Lisa
I love this! I totally need to talk my hubby into doing this for our master bedroom!
ReplyDeletebut those hours of work were WELL WORTH IT! Amazing job! Great execution! Thanks for linking up!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty amazing! Very pretty. :)
ReplyDeleteKudos for a great job on the bed! I LOVE how much storage it added to the bed. I came here from the CSI Project.
ReplyDeleteWow, amazing job! I just found your blog through the CSI Project. I'm your newest follower :)
ReplyDeleteWow! You did a fantastic job building this bed, I'm so impressed!
ReplyDeletewowowowowow!!! that is stunning!!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! It looks absolutely amazing! I love it!
ReplyDeleteVisiting from Knock Off...fantastic bed. Looks very sturdy and well built. Your bed is probably much better constructed than the one at Pottery Barn and will last longer too. And you have your pup's seal of approval.
ReplyDeleteMonique
Beautiful work! Just one question, I want to make this bed but my husband refuses to give up the box spring--thinks it will be too uncomfortable. Do you notice the difference?
ReplyDelete:)
Karin - I didn't notice any difference at all not having a box spring anymore :)
ReplyDeleteI am building this right now (queen size) and I have a question for you. I LOVE how you trimmed out the drawers. It's gorgeous. Did you shorten your drawer depth by 3/4"? Or did you use trim instead of the additional board on the front as the drawer face?
ReplyDeleteChelle - I did not shorten the drawer depth, but honestly you may want to do the math and see if you want to try that. It might make it a little easier. The trim on the face of the drawers is 1/2" instead of 3/4".
ReplyDeleteAnd here's something else I wish I would have known before starting: The drawers are insanely heavy! I think you could get away with 1/2" for at least the sides of the drawers too (not sure about the bottoms, use your own judgement there) and it would have been much lighter. Hope that helps and good luck!
Hi Kate. BEAUTIFUL bed. You are tremendously talented, and I love looking at all the things you accomplished here. Do you possibly have a link to the plans (with the good pictures) for this bed? The ones on Ana Whites website are too small to read, and I found a link in the comments to click on for better pics, but they take me to "page not found". Could you please help me? Thank you so very much.......Chris
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Unfortunately, I don't have a separate link to better pictures. One thing you could do to see the measurements on the pictures more easily is to copy and paste them into another program (like PowerPoint) or save them as photos (you could save them somewhere like Picasa) so you can make them bigger and/or zoom in to see the numbers more clearly. I just tried it with one of the photos and when I made the image bigger the numbers were very clear. I hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Kate. Gorgeous bed!! I have just finished the storage boxes and am working on the drawers. But I'm not clear on how you trimmed the drawer fronts. You didn't shorten the drawer nor eliminate the additional drawer face that the plans called for - correct? Sounds like you added 1/2" trim to the drawer face. Does that mean that you had a total drawer thickness in the front of 2.5" (1"-front, 1"-face and .5" for the trim)? As a result does the trim stick out past the front of the storage box?
ReplyDeleteAlso do we really need to use a drawer front and then a face. Could we not just have a 1" front/face and the trim on top of that? Thanks so much!
Anonymous - The MDF I used wasn't 1" thick (I think it was 3/4" for the drawer "frame" and 1/2" for the trim and face) so those measurements aren't quite the same, but what you describe is basically what I did. I didn't want the trim to stick out, so that's why I used thinner MDF (1/2").
ReplyDeleteYou might be able to not use both a "front" and a "face" but the benefit to having both is that if something isn't perfectly square, you can fake/correct it with the additional layer (although the trim helps with this too). If you're really on top of your measurements though I suppose you might not need it. I think the extra thickness does make the handle more secure, but again it might be okay with it.
It's a good idea to set up storage on an otherwise empty space underneath the bed. You did a good job in constructing it.
ReplyDeleteI've (finally) finished building the benches and I'll be attempting the drawers soon. Could you please share what type of drawer slides you used and where you purchased them?
ReplyDeleteAnon - Yay! I used bottom drawer slides (as opposed to side drawer slides) from Lowe's (I couldn't find bottom drawer slides at my Home Depot, but it's possible you can find them there too). The slides I used looked like this. They come in different lengths, so just make sure you get the right size. I also used two slides per drawer because they are so big. Since my bed is a king, I used longer slides for the drawers at the foot of the bed since those are deeper too (if you're building a queen though you don't need to do that). Hope that helps! Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteIs your husband pretty handy? I'd say my husband is average. We really want the Pottery Barn Stratton Bed in King size. I stumbled across this and see you built your own! I'd like to suggest this to my husband, we likely have all the tools.
ReplyDeleteHi Holls! My husband is actually not very handy at all, I'm the handy one, haha :P It did take some time to build this, but it wasn't that difficult. If you have the basic tools you can definitely DIY!
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