A quick follow-up on my previous post regarding:

A) Foolishly taking on two family projects simultaneously (a bed for our son and 12 frame and panel cabinet doors for the laundry)

B) Filling the garage with the +150 board feet of Poplar needed for both projects.

Below are some pictures of the completed bed. The pictures came out poorly because there wasn't enough light in his bedroom, but I'll be damned if I was going to disassemble the bed and carry it outside for better pictures!.


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This platform style is what my son chose. It seems like overnight he grew to 6’2” and somehow no longer fits in the bunk beds we got him when he was eight!


It's modeled after one by Matthew Teague in the July/August 2011 edition of FWW. It's simple construction with M&T joinery for the headboard and slip tennons attaching the headboard to be angled riser block on the bedframe. I used dowels and hanger bolts for the knockdown joinery.

I'm posting this here (rather than in “projects” where it probably belongs), primarily because the Poplar was so fun and easy to work with hand tools and I thought other Neander's might be interested.

This was my first project using Poplar and I chose it primarily because it was affordable. (however the project budget went right out the window when my wife vetoed my choice for the accent panels on the headboard and selected zebrawood at $22 a board foot! The small accent pieces are ebony).

The Poplar was a pleasure to work using hand tools - incredibly satisfying to work with hand saws and planes. Based on price and workability I will definitely consider Poplar for future projects. I'm going to experiment with some different finishes to see if I can get closer to mimicking Walnut for some larger scale case pieces.

Based on some advice from the folks in the finishing forum, I finished this one with the General Finishes pre-stain conditioner, oil-based gel stain (the “Java” color is a little dark for my taste but again what the family wanted) and several coats of wipe on varnish. The Poplar took the stain very evenly with no blotchyness and the natural green color didn't bleed through.

I am just about finished with dimensioning the stock for the 12 frame and panel cabinet doors that will also be built with Poplar. Nothing like "a lot of practice" to improve my speed and accuracy in dimensioning stock by hand. After the large scale work on the bed, it's a pleasure to have workpieces that will fit on the bench! My hats off to the boat builders, joiners and others that work on large scale projects -- this was definitely sweatier work than I anticipated!

All the best, Mike