Bed ideas requested

[Ray Schafer]

I am going to make a bed for my daughter. It will be sort of a platform bed with a trundle underneath. I say a platform bed becuase there is just enought room for the mattress to fit between the wall and the door, and so I don't want the bed to take any extra room (it should be no bigger that the mattress in length).

Because another matress will need to fit underneath on the trundle, the "footing" of the bed must take as little of the space as possible. I am thinking plywood under the head and foot of the bed -- to have as little profile using the trundle space as possible. I don't know how to configure it so that it will be strong enought to handle the weight.

Does this make sense? Can you help me?

Ray

[rob mason]

I made a platform bed with no trundle. It is basically a large box with storage space underneath. My wife found one in a Pottery Barn catalog that she liked. PB is kind enough to include dimensions, so I was able to make one out of MDF. I will never do that again - MDF is extremely heavy.

Anyway, you might check out some of the catalogs for beds and get dimensions - they may help with your design.

[Ray Schafer]

Rob,

I am assuming that you had a bottom of the box on the floor. I am trying to avoid this, unless I can come up with a good idea on how to get the trundle bed in and out. I would normally put it on wheels, which would be slightly problematic when putting the bed back in. Maybe I could devise some kind of slider that would liet the bed slide out. Would have to be pretty heavy-duty.

[rob mason]

Exactly - the bottom sits on the floor - here is the one I made with some slight modifications:

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p6722/popup.cfm?tool=vLarger&page=1&summary=&fromrgl=0

Here's one with a trundle:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p10348/popup.cfm?tool=vLarger&page=1

I really cant tell from the pic how the trundle works. I suspect that it just has some casters and just slides out when needed.

Hope this helps - like I said, PB has dimensions listed for all their furniture.

[Jamie Buxton]

You're struggling with the bed support because you want the trundle mattress to be the same size as the upper mattress? You could make the trundle mattress a little shorter by getting a custom-cut piece of foam. It is quite straightforward -- for instance www.foamorder.com will make any size you want.

Another possible approach is to hang the bed from the walls and ceiling, and have no support underneath the bed at all. I grew up in a bed like this. One long edge and one short edge of the bed fasten to the walls. The opposite corner of the bed is supported by chain from the ceiling, or high on the wall.

[Ray Schafer]

Yes, something like one of those. The trundle in the picture has casters and rolls out. That is exactly what I am looking for, but I think that I may have to go with a simple box so that I minimize the length that I lose from the headboard and foot board. As you see in the picture with the trundle, the frame that is used will use about 4 inches of my length for the trundle.

I don't mind making the trundle smaller, if I can find a reasonable priced mattress that is small than standard length.

Do you see the problem I am trying to solve? If I do the simple box, then I can use 3/4 inch plywood and only lose about 1.5 inches. It is the conflict between the size of the space for the bed and the size of the trundle mattress that is causing me the problem.

Ray

[Ray Schafer]

You and I must have been typing at the same time. Yes, I could custom order a mattress, but they seem to be very expensive. I will look harder at the website that you sent to see if there is a reasonably priced alternative.

Thanks.