If you are thinking of trying your hand at building your own bed the first thing to do is find an accurate set of woodworking bed plans. Not even an experienced woodworking pro would think of beginning any project without some good woodworking plans. An old pro would either use the same plans they used before or if a different design had occurred to them that they wanted to try they would start that project by drawing another set of plans.
There are many great reasons that woodworking projects always begin with a set of plans and if you are new to this craft that is the best reason of all. You see, a great set of woodworking bed plans would not only give you a guide with step by step instructions on how to successfully navigate your way through creating a sturdy and safe bed with your own hands it would also give you a list of the materials you will need so you can gather all that stuff before you start and it would tell you which tools will be needed to complete the project.
Believe it or not, coming up with a design idea, sketching it out, and then creating a full set of plans is probably the hardest part of every woodworking project. It’s pretty easy to cut boards to specific dimensions and attach them together in a specific manner and then paint or stain any type of wooden furniture. But a lot of the real work goes into the actual design of something like a bed.
How the bed looks is pretty important but you also have to consider many of the practical aspects. You have to work out how high the mattress will be above the floor, how tall the headboard and footboard will be, the correct dimensions of the mattress and box springs for the correct fit, and even more critical, the sturdiness of the construction.
How high your bed is off the floor is more important than you may think. Your bed should be the perfect height for however tall you are. That will make it easier for you to get in and out of bed. It should also be the correct fit for whatever size mattress you will use. Get the bed frame too small and the mattress will not even go on it and get it too big and there will be some hard surfaces for you to get across when you are getting into and out of bed.
The sturdiness of the construction will determine not only if the bed holds you up when you are sleeping on it but also if it will hold up over time. Almost everyone changes position in their sleep and your bed will have to withstand that without flexing and swaying or it could weaken over time. It would be pretty bad if you rolled over or changed positions while you were asleep and your bed caved in. Someone could get hurt pretty bad!
One thing a lot of professionals understand about woodworking that a novice would not know is the principle of stack framing. This principle is all about stacking wood up in a manner that the wood itself is holding the majority of the weight instead of how the wood is attached.
When you build a house you start with a foundation and girders. You put the floor joists on top of that, then lay the plywood floor and then stand the walls on top of the floor and so on. This way the nails are not the primary thing that holds everything up.
The basic design of a bed makes it seem like a pretty simple project but the only way a novice woodworker can successfully build a strong, safe, and beautiful bed is to start with a great set of woodworking bed plans that have been drawn by a professional. In fact, unless you have some experience with woodworking it may be a smarter move to begin your woodworking craft with something a bit easier and less critical to your safety than a bed.
If you were to begin with something simple like a bench or a table you would learn a few of the basics of woodworking. Each successive project you finished would possibly teach you a different way to attach two pieces of wood together and you could quickly work your way up to the knowledge it would take to create a beautiful bed. Of course, if you wanted to skip that and go straight to building a bed you should start with a fairly simple one and the very first step is to find an accurate and well diagrammed set of woodworking bed plans.