Our Farmhouse Bed

I mentioned in my last post that the Husband and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this fall and decided to forego a getaway in favor of decorating our Master Bedroom. The centerpiece of our new decor would be a new bed. Handmade. By us. I must say that the extent of my building skills was assembling laminate bookcases or a simple Ikea side table. I did put together a grill once, while I was 8 months pregnant. But I have never built furniture. Kinda scary, huh? But after months of stalking following reading Ana White's Knock-Off Wood, I was feeling a little more confident. It's kinda like following a recipe (which I know how to do), only with wood and huge power tools and it's more expensive.

My husband and I have never owned a new bed. Never. I realized that when our Pottery Barn knock-off Farmhouse Bed was close to completion. They have always been hand-me-down beds. Never something that was us. And these last few years, we didn't even have a bed frame at all. Just some king sized mattresses on the floor with a queen sized headboard pressed against the wall. So this bed, our bed, would be very special.

Let's get started, shall we?

::piles of wood::

:: my plans & tools ::

:: the very crucial drink (Chai) in one of my fave mugs ::

 
:: laying out the footboard ::

:: footboard complete! ::

:: repeat everything you just did, but make it taller. voila! headboard complete! ::

:: now, prime, paint & paint some more ::

:: more priming & painting for the headboard ::

:: now haul the whole project up the stairs and build a frame from for the mattress. we don't have a one piece boxspring, otherwise we wouldn't have had to do this step. we only would've had to add cleats for the boxspring to rest on. ::

**not pictured: realize at 10:30 pm on a weeknight (yes, I was impatient) that you didn't buy enough plywood to cover the bottom for the mattress to rest on. put the mattress in there anyways. thank God that it fits. go back & forth with dear Husband about who will get on the bed first to make sure it's safe. Wife sits on it first. It's holding up! Decide that you don't want the mattress in there by itself because it will sag through those slats. Put in the boxsprings too. Stare wide-eyed at your gigantic new bed. **

:: feel free to break into a chorus of "Isn't She Lovely?" ::

The total cost for the wood in this project was around $110. We also needed screws, liquid nails, wood filler, primer and paint. The headboard called for 1x8"s to make the planks, but somehow in between Menard's and home they metamorphisized into 1x6"s, so we just went with it. I sanded around the edges and applied a light stain to make the distressed areas a little warmer.

I found the plans, made my list (checked it twice), learned how to use a compound miter saw (with laser!), cut ALL the wood, laid out the pieces for assembly, sanded, primed, painted, and distressed. The Husband did most of the assembling.

The best part, besides the fact that we made a $1500 bed for about one-tenth of the price, was that we did it together.