DIY How to Build a Bed Frame – a Queen for my Guest Bedroom

I’ve been planning in my head how I was going to build a bed frame for a long time now. I had no idea the bed frame I’d be building first would be a queen for here in my new guest bedroom. I had actually been making plans to build a king for the basement. Yes, a king is over kill for the basement (though there is plenty of room for it) but my king mattress upstairs is nearly ten years old so I figured if I was gonna buy a new mattress then shouldn’t it be for myself? So the basement will get my king and I’ll be getting a new mattress for upstairs. Meanwhile, I now have a guest bedroom and it needs a bed!

(Bed frames are very affordable now but I already had all of the materials so, this is free to me minus my labor. I used a lot of materials though and, considering the weight of it too, I’m definitely going to just buy a frame for the basement… probably this one.)

I learned some things when I built the bed frame for my master.

I built it to the exact size of the mattress and I’ve regretted that ever since. I’ve had several moments in the middle of the night cussing out the corner of that bed and clutching my poor pinky toe. I’ve even scraped my knees accidentally on the way by over the years.

So I know the part the mattress lays on will be at least two inches shorter on every side and the frame (the feet) of the bed will be several inches inside of that. No more broken pinky toes in the night!

When I built that frame for my master it actually ended up quite a bit taller than I had intended and I regretted it literally until I started using it.

I had wanted a true platform bed where they are generally lower than the usual bed but with the mattress it ended up 24 inches tall. But I don’t at all feel like I’m climbing into it and I’m pretty short.

In fact, an even taller bed would be just fine so I’m going to go ahead and do that here. This bed is likely going to be used by my dad more than anyone else and he’s over 6 feet tall so an extra high bed for him would be ideal. This will also give me lots of room for storage under the bed which I’m going to be glad for.

So a queen size mattress is 60×80 and I’ll be building it out of 1x6s straight from my brother’s sawmill so I’m working with true-to-size boards.

Here’s my list:
10 Slats at 55″
2 Frame boards at 50″
2 Frame boards at 74″
8 Feet at 12″

The mattress will over hang the slats 2 1/2 inches on either side and 3 inches at the foot of the bed. The slats will overhang the frame 5 inches on either side and 2 inches at the foot of the bed.

The entire bed will be 19 inches tall and I will be topping it with an 8 inch thick mattress for an overall height of 27 inches.

Considering the distance to span is only 4 feet across I decided I didn’t need a center support on the frame and now, after its built, it is VERY strong. However, if I hadn’t been using rough sawn boards but normal 1x6s, I think I would have added that extra center support.

These rough sawn boards are considerably more heavy duty than a “normal” 1×6.

I had help the day I built this so I did things a little differently then if I had done this build by myself. By myself I would have cut all the boards, sanded and sealed them all, and then hauled them into the room individually and assembled it there.

But I had help!

And that was super awesome because working with these 12 foot boards by myself is a bit stressful because of their weight and all of them need their ends squared off first.

I cut everything on my miter saw and assembled the whole bed frame right there in the garage.

Then I did a quick sand using my orbital sander over everything. These are rough sawn boards (so they haven’t been planed) but they’re not terribly “splintery” I just wanted to make sure all the ends were nice and smooth.

I put a clear coat on the entire base and all the edges of the slats. I also added velvet stickers to the bottom of the feet so it won’t mark up any floor and will be easier to slide around.

It is quite heavy!

We took it through the dog kennel and in the back to the bedroom. (I might not like having an exterior door in there but it sure was handy for this!)

The overhang across the end of the bottom is an inch less than across the sides. Because that slat is length-wise I was concerned about how strong it would be if someone were to sit on the end of the bed… which we all do from time to time.

I’m not happy that its in front of the window but this is the best I can do in this room for now and still provide an end table on either side of the bed. Eventually I plan on taking the door out completely and will probably move the head of the bed to that wall then.

Its finally time for the mattress!

This is the one I purchased from Amazon and I think for the size I got a really good deal at $150.

I don’t want to cover all my hard work up! I love how this turned out!

If I hadn’t had these materials anyway I absolutely would have just used plywood for the top because you won’t see it anyway.

This room is slowly taking shape even though new projects do seem to keep cropping up for in here… I happen to have an extra TV that’s quite a bit bigger than my living room TV so I’ll be bringing my living room TV in here and hanging it across from the bed.

So I’ll need to install an outlet behind it like I did in the living room. (This is the awesome TV mount I’ll be using – the same one I used in the living room. It only cost $20!)

I picked up a couple of lamps at the thrift store when I got the mirror for the closet in here and I need to give them a makeover and pick up two new shades for them.

I am getting there!