Platform bed

I’ve never understood the justification for a box spring under my bed’s mattress. A box spring is so damn stiff, it doesn’t seem to serve any useful purpose other than raising the mattress up to a suitable height. The existence of platform beds, in which the box spring is replaced by an unyielding, wooden platform, kind of confirmed my suspicions. After a positive experience building my futon couch, in spring of ’04 I decided to build a top-quality platform bed, again using solid oak.

I don’t know why, but this project took a ridiculously long time, about six months from start to finish. That said, it came out very well:

Instead of just wasting the space under the bed, I built three long drawers that open to one side. Their faces are flush with the legs on one side of the bed, and their back ends are flush with the far side:

I bought some extremely long drawer glides from www.woodworker.com – 30 inches long – to allow the drawers to slide out as far as possible:

Each platform plank is bolted down onto a set of felt pads to ensure that there is no squeaking/creaking of wood against wood during movement:

When the platform was done, I bought a Symbol “memory foam” mattress (a knockoff of Tempurpedic), and in the three years since, I have had no regrets.

Well, OK, maybe one regret: it’s only a queen-sized platform and mattress. In August 2007 my wife and I ordered a king-sized Tempurpedic mattress, and I replaced the top planks with longer ones to support the new mattress, which is 16 inches wider. With 8 inches more of overhang on either side of the bed, the drawers are less usable, but that’s a fair trade for more room up top.

Questions?  Comments?  Email me!