Diy podium bed: easy, fast, cheap

Recommendation points

• Materials and tools
• Frame fabrication
• Headboard making
• Bed upholstery
• Assembling the bed frame

From the article you will learn how to make a do-it-yourself podium bed. The frame is made of pine timber, followed by upholstery with fabric and foam. The design of the bed is extremely simple, so even a beginner who knows how to use a jigsaw and a screwdriver can cope with this task.

Everyone can make a podium bed with their own hands, spending a minimum of money and time. Below is a step by step instruction with photos.

Attention! You can adjust the size and depth of the mattress yourself. You just need to make a drawing and calculate the dimensions.

Materials and tools

The following materials were used for the frame under the 2000×1800 mm mattress:

1. Pine timber 40×40 mm – 32 meters (8 pcs. 2200 mm and 8 pcs. 1800 mm).
2. Pine boards for the base 100×25 mm – 16-17 pcs. 1800 mm each.
3. Sheet foam rubber for the backrest 2200×1000 mm and 40 mm thick.
4. Plywood cut for backrest 2000×700 mm.
5. Upholstery fabric – 4 meters (width 1.4 meters – standard).
6. Self-tapping screws for wood 75 mm – 100 pcs. (+/- 20).
7. Corners – 10 pieces.

To work you need the following tools:

1. Jigsaw.
2. Screwdriver.
3. Drill.
4. Construction stapler.
5. Corner.
6. Roulette.

Please note that the timber and boards must be dry. Pre-soak them with anti-mildew. If this is done, then you can start cutting lumber. For straight cuts, use a corner to make the cutting line exactly at right angles.

Frame fabrication

The size of the frame is 2150×1880 mm, so if we subtract the width of the timber, we get an area for the size of the mattress inside. The length is 150 mm longer than the mattress, since the width of the beam is 80 mm and 40 mm is the thickness of the foam rubber on the back, against which the mattress will rest.

Using a jigsaw, we cut the timber into: 4 pieces. 2150 mm each, 4 pcs. 2070 mm each, 3 pcs. 1800 mm and 1 pc. – 1880 mm (for the backrest – you will further understand why such a difference is 80 mm). The longest and shortest are the sides of the frame, respectively, and the middle ones are central to support the base boards and the inner side ones to fasten.

When the long beams are ready, we cut short partitions: 11 pcs. 150 mm each, 3 pcs. 80 mm each and 4 pcs. by 120 mm.

The height of the frame will depend on the height of the intermediate partitions. We made them 150 mm each, so the bed height is 230 mm without the mattress. You can do above.

We begin to assemble the bed: first, three sides and an inner partition, and then the back (we’ll talk about it further).

As a result, you should get:

• two sidewalls 230 mm high and 2150 mm long;
• one side 230 mm high and 1800 mm long;
• partition with a height of 160 mm and a length of 2070 mm.

In order to avoid cracks and breaks in the wood, it is necessary to first drill holes in the bars, where there will be screw caps, and only then screw the screws.

The drill should be slightly smaller in diameter than the self-tapping screw. If your screws are too short, we drill first with a thin drill, and then about a centimeter in depth with a thicker one in order to sink the cap as deep as possible. Since we had few long screws, we just twisted the short ones deeper. When all the sides are assembled, we proceed to assembling the back.

Headboard making

The height of the back of our bed is 700 mm. We cut with a jigsaw: 5 bars of 620 mm and 2 bars of 430 mm. Putting it together: a base of 1800 mm, we attach five bars of 620 mm to it – two along the edge and three evenly distribute in the middle. We fasten the upper 1880 mm so that four centimeters remain on each edge. Now we attach 430 mm blocks to the protruding 40 mm.

Since we do not have a single piece of plywood, we screwed three bars onto the backrest frame for rigidity, connecting them at the corners for strength with self-tapping screws, and fastened them with a construction stapler on the sides. You can use OSB or chipboard for rigidity, but keep in mind that the sheet thickness should not be more than 10 mm, otherwise the mattress may not fit in size. So the back is ready.

Bed upholstery

Before the bed is assembled, we make the upholstery of each detail separately. First, lay out the fabric and distribute all the parts of the bed on it (or draw a scale rectangle (your fabric) on a piece of paper and distribute all the parts of the bed on it). We fit everything on four meters of fabric.

Important: count the fabric with a 15-20 mm margin to secure it with staples on the back.

Before tightening the back of the bed, first nail the foam rubber with staples, and then carefully pull the fabric.

Assembling the bed frame

When all the details are ready, you can assemble the frame. First, we connect the three sides, without a back (we fasten it last). We fix the corners of the frame with the corners at the top and with a long self-tapping screw through and through from the inside.

Note:you can fix everything with corners, but we had screws and few corners.

Next, we attach the back. Here you will need an assistant who will hold and help to press it tightly to the sides. We fix it in the same way as the rest of the parts, but since we miscalculated and hammered the plywood too low, we had to screw in a self-tapping screw from the outside, right along the upholstery.

Now we expose the parts of the frame at 90 degrees (despite the fact that they are held together by corners, the sides still float). When the frame is installed in a strictly rectangular shape, we fasten the partition in the center.

We install four 120 mm bars in the corners and attach them to the frame (again, you need to drill holes first).

We lay a timber with a length of 2070 mm on them and fasten it with corners or self-tapping screws.

Now you can lay the boards under the base, evenly distributing them. The gaps between them should be no more than three centimeters so that the mattress springs do not fall through or deform. We fasten the boards with self-tapping screws, pre-drilling the holes. The middle five crossbars can be left unattached so that you can fold something under the bed.

For the base, you can also use an OSB board with a thickness of 8 or 15 mm. But don’t forget to drill holes in it for ventilation. If you choose this option, you will need 2 or 3 slabs, and the rest of the slabs can be used on the back.

In total, about $ 70 was spent on the bed: about $ 40 was spent on the purchase of processed wood and $ 30 – on furniture fabric. Foam rubber, plywood, corners and self-tapping screws were available.

So, at a minimum cost, we got a strong podium bed that fits perfectly into the overall space of the bedroom.