# Bed Frame Ideas



## laadams85 (Mar 21, 2014)

So I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to woodworking, but I tend to be decently handy. For my first project I would like to build a bed frame. I have purchased Jeff Miller's book "Beds" and it has been a great resource, but I was wondering if I could solicit some ideas from the rest of you. The basic idea is going to be a mission style bed with raised panels for the headboard and footboard. The rails will be attached to the corner posts with mortise and tenon joints. I'm doing something similar to what Brinks did with his bed build with the tenons crossing over each other. Instead of using wedges from the outside however I'd like to use hidden bolts so that the outside look is smooth. The reason I want to do this is so that the bed is easy to take down but will still be very tight. As far as wood goes I'm leaning towards cherry and maple. Cherry stained darker for the outlines and maple for the raised panels and the rails. This should give a dark outline with a lighter inlay. Since it is a california king I have a center support rail going along the bottom, but I am also thinking of doing dovetailed slats that go from the rail to the center support.

So looking at what I have now, I think the side rails are too wide. Right now they are 10" and I think they should probably be closer to 5"-6". Any thoughts on that? I plan on them being 1-1/4" thick so I'm thinking that my tenons would be 3/4" thick and 5" to 5-1/2" tall. The corner posts I'm hoping to be as thick as possible without having to laminate, so maybe 12/4 planed down to 2-1/2". AFAIK it would be difficult to find cherry in larger sizes.

Lastly, anybody have some ideas about how to do the head/footboard caps. I'm thinking I could get a router bit for that, but I'm not really sure. Is there any other ways to go about this?

Well that is it for now. Thanks so much for your time and ideas.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*fastening the side rails and ends*

Your sketchup is not clear to me on the method to secure the sides and ends. They appear to be "blind" mortises, which don't allow for pegs or plugs. You mention draw bolts, so you might want to make another drawing as to how you would do that.

I see that your construction is similar to Brink's design: 
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/started-building-bed-26840/index4/
  



I used simple walnut plugs to fasten the headboard to the legs in my design: http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/mission-headboard-build-37911/


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## laadams85 (Mar 21, 2014)

Jeff Miller calls it a hidden bolt joint. My idea is based off of this and would be a double hidden bolt joint. I am planning on doing the tenon on the rail longer at the top and shorter on the bottom. Then the head/foot board tenon would be the opposite, so longer on the bottom and shorter on the top. That way the long sections of tenon would cross over each other. Then the bolts would have their square nuts seated in the opposite tenon so that the joint could be tightened. I plan on doing a mock up in dimensional lumber to make sure it would work.

Yes, I was just looking through some of the build up threads and saw that Brink did something very similar. That made me feel not so crazy.


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