Beds with Storage: My Journey in Building a Set of Platform Beds for My Children
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Over the past year and half I have been working on building a set of beds with storage underneath for my children. So far I have completed the first one for my eldest daughter, who enjoys her ‘tall’ bed. I have completed construction of the second bed for my middle daughter. The bed is now ready for stain and varnish.
The goal is to get it finished and moved into her room by early October. I like to give the varnish about three to four weeks to cure and harden before putting the furniture to use.
Design / Style of the bed
The platform bed is designed so that a standard sized twin mattress will fit comfortable on top of it. I designed a 1 1/2 inch deep recess for the mattress to sit in. This prevents the mattress from being able to slide off of the platform. That would make for a bad night’s rest.
One of my many grips about mass manufactured cheap platform beds is that they do not provide good use of the space beneath the bed. While looking at several furniture stores for inspiration for my design, I noticed that many beds had three drawers that where 18 inches long. The rest of the space under the bed… collected dust, no storage, no access just wasted.
My design consists of two rows of three drawers on each side. Yup, the platform bed has twelve drawers total, six on each side! I decided to go with a sixty / forty split between the drawer lengths. The ‘long side’ drawers measurements are 23 inches wide by 24 inches long by 8 1/2 inches deep. The ’short side’ drawers measurements are 23 inches wide by 15 inches long by 8 1/2 deep.
There is a 1 1/2 inch gap between the long and short drawers under the bed. Not a lot of wasted space.
When I designed the drawers, my wife’s requirement was, I want the bed to be able to store a lot of stuff. I explained the dimensions of the drawer and she wasn’t to sure that they would be big enough. I told her to have faith in the design. While building the first platform bed I showed her the small drawer. She thought that was big, until I showed her the large drawer. Then she was quite pleased with the amount of storage.
The tall bed
Remember my eldest’s daughter’s comments about liking her tall bed. Well… I tend to go big with my designs, or in this case tall.
In order to fit the very spacious drawers in the platform, the platform bed stands 24 inches tall. Then put a 14 inch thick mattress on top of the platform for a grand total height of 38 inches.
That is pretty tall for a six year old who is just barely 41 inches tall.
We have a small step stool next the foot board so that she can easily climb in and out of the bed.
My daughter loves her platform bed so to do her siblings.
About a month after my father-in-law and I moved the platform bed into her room my middle daughter started to ask when she would get her big girl bed.
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