A few weeks ago I began work on what I call a pedestal or riser for my bed I've been using for the past 9 months. Since getting the bed and mattress from Overstock.com I've known that it sat too low for me. I'm a kinda tall guy (6' 2"), but even so, I'd think that any adult would find the bed a bit low for them. Maybe a child would be comfortable with it the way it came, but not adults, as I sit at only like 1 foot off the floor.
So, I'd always wanted and thought about lifting it up a few inches somehow. The how was the puzzler. Exactly what method or design I'd make or use would be really important because I'm also a heavy guy (about 260+ lbs.), so it needed to be strong and well made. I know about the little 4" lift plastic feet you can get that only cost like $5 to $10 or so for a set of 4. But I'd need 6 of them, not 4, due to the way my bed is designed. (there are 2 support posts in the center of my bed frame that holds up the middle structure, so I'd need 2 for those in addition to the 4 outer feet. This alternative, however, left me feeling unsure about if it would be wobbly & fall over. So I rejected this plan.
Without another solid plan I lived with the bed as it was like I said for the past 9 months or so until I saw a video on youtube.com. It was of a guy who built his own bed frame to hold his king-size mattress. It was a clever design & sat up off the floor like 6" or so using 4 sturdy feet. You can see his video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDjPqZ_Gtmw
in addition, you can see complete details on how he built his bed frame
on his facebook page here:So, I'd always wanted and thought about lifting it up a few inches somehow. The how was the puzzler. Exactly what method or design I'd make or use would be really important because I'm also a heavy guy (about 260+ lbs.), so it needed to be strong and well made. I know about the little 4" lift plastic feet you can get that only cost like $5 to $10 or so for a set of 4. But I'd need 6 of them, not 4, due to the way my bed is designed. (there are 2 support posts in the center of my bed frame that holds up the middle structure, so I'd need 2 for those in addition to the 4 outer feet. This alternative, however, left me feeling unsure about if it would be wobbly & fall over. So I rejected this plan.
Without another solid plan I lived with the bed as it was like I said for the past 9 months or so until I saw a video on youtube.com. It was of a guy who built his own bed frame to hold his king-size mattress. It was a clever design & sat up off the floor like 6" or so using 4 sturdy feet. You can see his video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDjPqZ_Gtmw
in addition, you can see complete details on how he built his bed frame
https://www.facebook.com/KevinHagerty/media_set?set=a.552281930614.2071539.19304077&type=1&l=e9d5dda6e7
Inspired by Kevin's video I designed a pedestal to lift the bed frame that I had. After careful measurements of what I would need to build I gathered my materials: I used 9 of the wooden 8' 2"X4"s as the 'bones' and a sheet of 4'X8' plywood as a 'skin' to cover them. The 2"X4"s I cut to size and notched so that they could be interwoven into a kind of latticework, which I then glued and screwed together. The plywood was cut into 4 perfectly fitting boards and screwed down onto the top
of the framework. Then it was onto the feet, which were probably the most demanding part of the build. I created 4 feet from the remnants of the 2"X4"s by gluing 3 pieces of wood together (1 short piece sandwiched between 2 longer pieces). This way I wouldn't need to cut a notch out of one large 4"X4" or something (which is what Kevin did & said had been really tough for him). Gluing and clamping the boards together for a couple days was all it took & they were stuck
permanently. After some finish work on them to cut off the 'flash' some might call it I went about the tough job of attaching them to the underside of the pedestal framework. This involved positioning the 5 legs in place and locating drill holes. Needless to say this was tough as my drill bit was only like 3" long and the holes drilled needed to be like nearly 6" to pass all the way thru both the legs and the
undercarriage. I ended up using a pattern drawn on paper that would position where to drill the holes. It still was a kind of trial and error experience, but not too taxing. And eventually, after about a
week of work in my spare time it was completed.
The finished pedestal was rather heavy when me and a helper carried it to my upstairs room, but we managed to get it in. I didn't want to mess up the bedroom with sawdust & stuff which was why I didn't work on it in there & why I built it on the back porch. It did fit the bed frame quite well, though it was a tight fit, and ended up lifting the bed exactly the height that I had wanted. Bully!
The total cost of supplies for the build (wood, bolts, nuts & washers, and wood glue=I already had screws & the tools I needed, which included a jig saw, circular saw, hand saw, 2 drills, 2 large clamps, a ratchet set, hammer, & screwdriver) came in at well under $100 from Home Depot.
The total cost of supplies for the build (wood, bolts, nuts & washers, and wood glue=I already had screws & the tools I needed, which included a jig saw, circular saw, hand saw, 2 drills, 2 large clamps, a ratchet set, hammer, & screwdriver) came in at well under $100 from Home Depot.
Here are a couple photos: one of the bed I'd purchased from Overstock.com & one after it was lifted. Also one photo of the underside where you can see a bit better the framework & feet beneath the bed.
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