Compact Living - Queen Size Bed with Storage Drawers

[Oyvind]

Hi all,
here are some sketchups of a bed I plan to make for my house.  It is not a big house, and practical storage is always appreciated so SWMBO wants a bed with large drawers underneath.  I've looked over the current offerings from IKEA et al, and promptly dismissed them.  Besides, this is a great excuse to order a router, Domino and some other goodies  [wink]  FWIW, I already have the TS55, 1.4 and 3m guide rails and MFT, and waiting for my new parallel guides  [smile].

My background is strictly amateur DIY, but I do have a passion for precision and quality tools.  I purchased a secondhand TS55 for putting new siding on my house.  This is briefly described here, I will eventually put up a new thread on the siding project.

Anyways, here are some jpgs of the Sketchup plans.  Click to see a larger version:





Our bedroom is not large, and space is further constrained by a window on the wall behind the bed on the right hand side.  Thus, the bed has to be placed fairly close to the left hand wall so drawers are smaller on this side and correspondingly larger on the right hand side.  My intentions are to make the bed from laminated carbonated bamboo panels.  There are some very nice examples of oiled carbonated bamboo cabinetry here:  http://www.hustvedtgruppen.no/?div_id=18&pag_id=18&art_id=1051  An advantage of these panels is that there is no need to band the edges.

I plan to use 20mm for the bedframe, drawer fronts and nightstand.  Headrest is a 40mm panel.  The 'plank' - or whatever you'd call it - around the mattress is 40mm x 140mm.  Not sure that I'll use bamboo here, though, since this requires another panel just to rip these three planks.  I'll investigate using some other wood for this part, but I'm anxious that it is a nice match - I'm not looking for great contrasts.  Bed base will be IKEA - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60125969 , but I'm uncertain how much support - if any - it will require down the middle.  I don't want a beam that interferes too much with the drawer underneath, so may put a steel or aluminum 'U' beam here instead of wood if this is an issue.

This is my first attempt at cabinetry so any and all feedback is appreciated.

 

[peter halle]

Great Drawing!

Interesting project.  Regarding support, you might want to think about running a support from the headboard to the foot of the bed that goes from floor to the top of the ledge that will be supporting whatever the mattress sits on rather that a steel u channel.  You can make it out much cheaper wood or panels.  If you were to use 20 mm you would only lose 10 mm from the depth of each drawer.  Won't even notice that.  One of the reasons that you don't see drawers as often in these style beds is due to the fact that if you omit them, then the bottom becomes a cheap wooden box.  Easy to build.  I know drawers are a major part of your design - necessary in fact.  Really think about how much wood will be there to support two people and the mattress.  Like if the drawers weren't there.  Beds tend to want to spread side to side and front to back.

While you are designing - which is free - think about playing around with the design of the headboard.  It will be such a prominent part visually that you could have fun with it.  Of course you have other furniture to coordinate with - I assume.  Also you might want to think about edges and corners details.  Sharp is not good in an bedroom.

And of course, you can always look at installing led strip lights - IKEA - underneath the cantilevered top section of the main bed.

Just food for thought.  I am sure the others will chime in and give some more ideas.

EDIT:  If you can get your hands on a yachting magazine, you can get some great ideas for this style of bed also.  Almost every one is designed in this style with storage underneath.  might give additional ideas.  Shoot me a PM with your email address if you want and I'll try to scan and send some pictures.  And no, I don't have a yacht.  I've been thinking about doing the bedroom in that style.  [big grin]

Peter

 

[justinmcf]

if you are going to the trouble of making your own bed, make a king size, thats what i did, you wont regret it.

regards, justin.

 

[bobbobbob]

Another idea could be to orient the drawers 90 degrees from what your SU drawing shows, of course depending on the amount of open space in the room.

 

[Tom Ryan]

I want to underscore peter halle's point about sharp corners.  My wife had a platform bed with sharp corners, and I couldn't tell you the number of painful shots to the shins I suffered walking around the end.  It's much more dangerous than a conventional bed where the footboard comes up to within eyesight, or a mattress and springs on a frame, where the corner is just the corner of the mattress and springs.  One possibility would be to stop the boards that contain the mattress about 6" shy of the corner, and round off the corner of the platform board to match the mattress.

Tom in Central PA

 

[JPatrickWinstead]

I build and install kitchens, so one of my routine considerations is how delivery and installation will work.  Will the large headboard panel be attached to the wall?  If so I recommend Z-clips.  Attach it to the wall and then butt the rest of the bed up against it.

If the panel will be attached to the rest of the bed assembly, make sure you can disassemble it in some way, otherwise you'll never get it through doors or down a hallway.  For that matter, if there is a way to break up the base you might do that too.  I imagine that thing will be quite heavy.

Whatever you do, trace a path and take some measurements and make sure you can negotiate doors, hallways, stairs, etc.  On more than one occasion I've had to perform surgery in a client's living room.  Not a good feeling.

Just my thoughts.  Looks like a neat design.

 

[Dane]

Couple of thoughts.  First on the center support- Ikea often sells components of it's products separately and if you look carefully you can find some really useful and high quality stuff for not much money.  They sell these galvanized, extendable square stock center supports for their beds which work really well on platform beds.  Might not matter since your design has an enclosed base and you don't really need to clearspan that space, but it might be useful nonetheless if only so you don't have to mess with varying floor heights and adding another contact point to fiddle with.  Amazing how the slightest bump in a mattress can make for a lousy bed.  

Second thought is that if you look at woodworkers warehouse, they have a mattress lift mechanism that basically lifts the entire mattress platform like a lid and gives you access to the whole underside in one lift.  Useful if you are putting the bed in a narrow room and don't have enough side clearance to pull out drawers.  Not so useful if your wife is in bed and you need to get something.

 

 

[Oyvind]

Thanks all,
I was thinking that the lateral panel that supports the drawer slides should be sufficient to tie the sides of the bed together.  WRT to longitudinal support, I'm more uncertain.  Problem is that with the assymetric drawers, which is a peculiarity of the physical constraints of the room, I can't have a vertical longitudinal panel and at the same time maximize drawer real estate.  The left hand side of the bed really can't accomodate an 80cm drawer, since there is only 40cm to the wall on this side of the bed.

As much as I'd love a king size bed, there is not enough room (literally) for that.  The placement of the drawers are also dictated by the constraints of the room.

Tom's remark about sharp corners is something I need to give careful thought.  As much as I like the idea of an oversize matress board, that may quickly get old if I keep banging my shins against it.  I will of course chamfer or radius all edges, but that may not be sufficient to keep the pain away.  An alternative solution may be a padded board instead of solid wood.

There is no way I can move this bed when assembled so, yes, it will have to assemble the bed in situ.  Dunno how much effort I'll put into making it convenient for disassembly, though.  I was thinking of attaching the headbard to the wall, and in that case the bed is, in the eyes of the law, a permanent fixture that will go with the house in a sale.  Nevermind, if I've made one bed I can always make another one in case we ever sell the house.  Besides, SWMBO also wants some other matching furniture so it will really become an integral part of the room.

Ineresting point about the IKEA center support.  I'll look carefully into how the beds are constructed next time I'm there.

I've been playing a little with the headboard as Peter suggested.  I'm sort of a minimalist, but that doesn't mean it has to be dull.  The idea is to embed five uniform panels in the headboard.  I'm not quite sure what to put there, but suggestions so far are:

- Five small miniature display cases, 10cm x 10cm, lit with an LED or fiberoptic and fitted with glass pane.  I'm actually more prone to use fiberoptics in this case, since it has been my experience that LED, too, does fail and it would be a pain to replace a burned out LED.  Fiberoptics give you a centralized light source that is much easier to replace.

- Glass panels of the same size, embedded in the headboard.  I would have these made by a local artist and backlit as above.

- Ceramic plates of the same size.  I would commission these from an artist also.

 

[BMH]

Oyvind,

Have you considered going up in height. That would give you the space for two drawers. Our current temporary bed that I made to test the concept sits at 110 cm at the top of the mattress and we are average height. Using a post at the four corner to tie in your side panel and would eliminate the sharp corners of your design that are a toe killer. Storage system integrated to the top of your headboard for books etc is a nice touch in a small room. Can the drawers directed toward the foot of the bed or not enough space?. I added a small bench at the end of our bed as a trial concept and it is the most used piece of furniture in the room after the bed.

Bruce

 

[Oyvind]

I'm aiming for a mattress height of 70cm, which is at or a little above standard height.  110 cm seems a little tall to me.  I'd definitely need to do a mock-up to see if that would work, but it's an interesting idea.  We are both above average height, BTW.

There is not much room at the end of the bed, so drawers will have to be as drawn  [wink]

 

[EcoFurniture]

Can't attach pics here...
Send me your email address per PM and I will send you a couple of pics how we build our bed frames. Super easy  [tongue]
Cheers,
Andreas

 

[JeromeM]

Thanks all,
I was thinking that the lateral panel that supports the drawer slides should be sufficient to tie the sides of the bed together.  WRT to longitudinal support, I'm more uncertain.  Problem is that with the assymetric drawers, which is a peculiarity of the physical constraints of the room, I can't have a vertical longitudinal panel and at the same time maximize drawer real estate.

Why not? there is no rule that says vertical longitudinal panels have to be in the centre nor do they have to support the mattress

 

[bruce-ter]

Oyvind,
Your design is very close to what my wife and I have been discussing, including the built in side tables.  I would consider a little bit of a toe kick space (have the mattress layer a few inches larger than the base on the sides), just eases the job of making the bed.  While that would make the drawers a little smaller I think that little change would make the bed more user friendly.  When it comes to mattress height, do you use the mattress as a seat for dressing?  If not, I have found the higher mattress height preferable.  Set your current bed on some blocks for a couple days and find out how that works.
Bruce

 

[Oyvind]

Why not? there is no rule that says vertical longitudinal panels have to be in the centre nor do they have to support the mattress

My concern is about support for the bed base.  I intend to use one of IKEA's offerings (pic below), but I would think the frame needs support down the full length of the frame on either side.  FWIW, I'm more north than south of 200lbs, so adequate structural support is a concern...

Details: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60125969

Toe protection is something I will give some more thought.  Regarding height, my plans give me a mattress height of ~70cm.  That's just 5cm, or 2", short of our dining table.  Seems plenty tall to me, I'd really have to do some tests to go any higher.

Anyways, #1 son's been home with the swine flu and it was my turn to nurse.  He's quite OK, BTW.  Had some Tamiflu laying around the house after I traveled in SE Asia during the avian flu scare a few years back.  Got him started on it immediately and after just two days in bed he was back in business  [smile]  Definitely get some Tamiflu ASAP if you're hit with the flu, it makes a world of difference.  

But I digress.  Point is that I had plenty of time to play around with Sketchup.  Measured the bedroom (I LOVE my Bosch DLE 50 laser rangefinder) and placed the bed in context.  Also added a few more pieces of furniture by request from the missus.  The shallow cabinet on the right is intended as a shoe cabinet.


The big white box at the bottom is the wardrobe.  Entrance is through the door in the lower right corner, the door to the right leads to the bathroom.


One more, in perspective and with the south wall and wardrobe removed.

 

[peter halle]

Oyvind,

You really don't have much room as well as design obstacles.  I would like to compliment you on the sketchup illustrations.  They really put things into perspective.  Earlier you mentioned your plans for the headboard.  I don't know IKEA works there versus here in the states or if you have one near you, but once a year we make a pilgrimage and also end up buying a type of lighting.  We can get many items in the store that are not on-line or in the catalog.  We bought last year a set of led pucks (4) that can be programmed to one of several colors that is designed to stick to the rear of a TV to give some ambient light.  Those might be an inexpensive idea.  When I built my tv stand a year ago I used plexiglass for the panels of the doors and sanded the back side to give a frosted look.  The lighting makes an interesting effect.  I'll post pictures tomorrow if you are interested.

Thanks again,

Peter

 

[Oyvind]

Peter,
I'd love to see those pics.  Pls post!

/Oyvind

 

[peter halle]

I'll get the camera.  One thing I learned is that you can never have enough spaces to plug things in in a tv cabinet once you add such things as cooling fans and lighting.

Peter

 

[peter halle]

Oyvind,

Hard to take pictures of a light source - but you'll get the idea.  The system is 4 led disks with their own transformer.  The disks are 2.25 inches in diameter.  There is a separate push button controller mounted on the cord that controls on / off and toggles thru the colors.  They were designed to mount on the rear of the TV to give some background lighting in the room.  They appear much brighter in the photos than in real life.

The cabinet door center panels are .375 inch plexiglass sanding on the back side with a rotex sander to give a frosted effect.  I took one of the pucks loose to show the effect thru the plexi but in real life I would have mounted them out of view so that you wouldn't have the lighting hot spot.  I have a similar setup in the cabinet that will constantly gradually cycle thru the colors.

Sorry about the picture quality.  Hard to shoot directly at a light source.

Hope this gives some ideas.

Peter
[attachimg=#]

[attachimg=#]