twin beds for gramma & grandpa's house, part I

The wife's parents asked me lately if I had any interest in building beds for the kids to use when they sleep over at their house. Apparently they're not fans of having two little space-heater-sleep-kicking machines in bed with them. Who knew? The only catch is that they are also thinking about moving into our neighborhood, so anything I build needs to be staging-friendly in case they go on the market. No problem, I think I can swing that.

Even better, I had some time off last week already, and even if I don't have any interviews since I accepted a job offer (!), I was more than happy to have a project to get going on. Nothing like finding yet another excuse to avoid schoolwork.

The goal for this project was matching beds with colors picked by the kids, simple and clean but strong enough to hold a twin mattress and a sleeping chunk of child. I wanted to make sure the mattresses were off the ground with some room for air circulation, and the frames need to be light enough that the in-laws could easily move them on their own if they needed to. You can imagine how this quickly started to seem pretty complicated for something so simple.

I started with a quick sketch and went from there. I thought a mix of plywood and construction lumber would keep things light but also paint-able and nicer looking if I put some prep work into it. I also wanted to use the router to try some joinery where the rails met the foot and headboards. It kept things budget friendly and meant I could get more done sooner since I was working with a simple plan with basic materials.

Buying enough materials for two beds ended up being an adventure. I can easily get one 2'x4' plywood into the dodge, but three was a bit much. I somehow ended up fitting 4 8-foot 1x4x and 3 8-foot 2x4s in around them too. Whew! Enough for the basic frames but I needed more 2x4s if I wanted something for slats to sit on later. 

I've got Ryobi stamped all over this project, I should just submit it there.

I had just cleaned up after finishing the door and started making another mess with the table saw. I trimmed off the rounded edges of the 2x4's to clean everything up and man, did they look way better just with straight edges. I was planning on just kregging the plywood to each for head and footboards, but why not get a 1/2 inch router bit and carve a dado for it? That would probably look a lot nicer. And I could buy another bit, always fun.

I also used a router to carve out space to attach the 1x4's for the sides, which was the original plan just with a smaller bit. Going bigger made it a little easier.

My god did I make a huge mess with this.

I did the runner dado on all four legs at once so things were lined up, b/c I doubt I would have been able to keep things straight otherwise. Holy god did I make a mess with these. Carving out 8 leg joints and 8 head/foot board joints meant I had piles of shavings all over the place.

I need better dust collection in the shop.

Hey, that almost looks like a bed.

Thankfully, one quick test fit later and I think we're in good shape. The plywood fits in the dadoes with a little persuasion, and the runner joints are level and balanced enough things stay up just in the dry fit. I know better than to say these will be done before I know it but I love how they've come together so far.