What's up guys, I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and today
I'm gonna show you how to make a DIY bed with a ton of storage.
It has simple joinery and materials that you can get from your local home center stay tuned. I'll show you exactly how I did it
The bed has four main parts to it the headboard footboard back in the storage base
I started off by ripping the plywood down and cutting the panels for the assemblies.
The headboard and footboard are mirror images of each other with a frame and panel look and the frames are made of two by fours
Which I'll clean up later on the table saw for a more refined look.
But first I cut all the parts to size on my mobile miter saw station
there are a lot of repetitive cuts here and
Using a stop block is a huge help to make sure everything fits. Just right during assembly
Above the panel's there are some short 2x2 accents
Which I'll be making from the shorter lengths of 2x4 as I'm cutting here for smaller cuts like this
I use a 10 inch spacer on my miter stop since the stop can only go down to 14 inches.
I went ahead and cut the parts for the back assembly as well before the next step
The long stretchers are a little bit longer than the capacity of my miter station so I clamp them together and I can cut them
to make sure that they were all the same size.
I don't really love working with two by fours because they tend to be wet knotty and it's just hard to find straight boards
But with a little patience you can find some decent stock and to get good joints on the board
I like to rip them down to three and a half inches wide to three inches wide and remove that rounded edge
You also get some really nice kindling or shims from these off cuts
To get the two by twos, I make the same initial cut to get one straight edge
Then I set the fence to an inch and a half
And I make two cuts to get two pieces out of each of the two by fours you get nice clean edges
But man they are sharp !
so to round over the edges quickly I clamped a hand sander down to my bench and
I ran each edge over the sander a couple times. If you don't have a router
this is a great way to get quick round overs especially on softer woods
I also wanted a nice soft corner on the headboard and footboard
I laid out a curve on the uprights using a fender washer
And I took the boards to my oscillating spindle sander it made short work and gave me that rounded corner
I'm using pocket hole joinery for most of this project so I set up my jig and went to town
I'm using the cave floor pocket hole jig from Kreg, the sponsor of today's video,
If you have a lot of pocket holes to make the K4 or the K5
are gonna save you a ton of time versus using those less expensive handheld jigs .
With the parts ready, I started assembly of the head board
I joined the top and the side first and then I put the two by twos in place to position the middle stretcher and
Screwed it to the side next I came back and attached the two by twos
and used a small spacer to get consistent spacing between each piece
and secured them to the top rail using a square to make sure everything was aligned
I came back and secured them to the bottom rail using the same spacer as well
The bed will rest on a half-inch MDF panel on top of the storage frame
I went outside and I cut the panel to length in the driveway using the Kreg a key cut track and my cordless circular saw
I cut this part now so that I could use the offcut as a spacer for the panel of my headboard
I put the half-inch MDF offcut on the bench under the plywood panel
I started in the corner
And I worked my way around the panel
securing it to the frame making sure that both the panel and the frame pieces were clamped flat
I added the lower rail, and I attached it to the panel then I finished off the assembly by securing the other upright to the side
The foot board is made the same exact way here
So I'm not going to show that but I did need to take care of all these pocket holes
And this is a painted piece
So I knew that any of these exposed holes would be filled and I did a video on different ways to fill pocket holes
I found that bondo was a great option for painted pieces
I mixed the bondo, then I overfilled all the visible holes and I came back and sanded them down flush after it dried
With the bondo drying I started on the back. The back is just a large plywood panel framed by two by fours
And I cut the panel to size and I drilled pocket holes around the perimeter of the panel and in the horizontal stretchers
from there, I assembled the panel similarly to the headboard.
I started with one corner of the 2x4 frame
then I added the half-inch MDF spacer to position the plywood panel just like I did on the headboard
I clamped everything firmly in place and then I secured the panel to the frame with one and a quarter inch pocket screws
With the back panel assembled the reveal the front was exactly the size of that half-inch MDF
to add some detail to the back panel I cut two pieces and used them to match the size of the frame boards.
I used glue and Brad nails to secure the MDF to the back of the panel
And when it's finished off it gives the appearance of three separate panels
The last part of the bed is the storage base.
I made the base from two by fours to keep the weight in the cost down.
The base is basically a large frame box with three sections for the drawers
I cut all the parts to size on the miter station
using clamps and gangue cuts for the long pieces and my miter stop to make repeated cuts, just like before.
I drill pocket holes in the vertical and horizontal supports to prep for assembly
Two of the long stretchers and four vertical supports go together to make the back frame of the base
Clamping everything firmly in place and making sure the parts are square will make things much easier later
The front frame is made the same way except
I left the outer vertical supports off and this was purely for aesthetics
And it gives the drawer bank a nice clean look when is it assembled, which you'll see later.
From here I had to move to the floor for the rest of the base assembly and this thing is big.
I added the lower supports to join the front and the back frame
I joined the top supports to the base frame next and these are laid flat
And these are going to be supporting that half-inch MDF platform that the mattress is going to go on
The final piece of the base is to add two small vertical supports to give the front frame support on the ends
With the base frame done I moved on to the drawers the drawers are made from 3/4 inch plywood
Because they're so wide I decided to use a 3/4 inch bottom as well
I ripped the parts to width and then I cross cut them to fit the drawer openings
I'm using pocket holes for the joinery like I do for most of my drawers
And each of the fronts and the backs gets pocket holes on the outside faces
then I glued and clamped the sides to the front and the back and I screwed them all together.
I typically use a quarter inch captured bottom piece, but I cut an exact fitting 3/4 inch bottom for these drawers
Then I could use the bottom as a lever to pull the drawer in to square and use the front edge of the drawer
to lock it into place with a brad nail.
I secured the perimeter of the drawer bottom with screws
and it gave me a nice square beefy drawer that can hold a ton of weight.
I wanted to paint the base before installing the drawers
So I went ahead and applied three coats of spray on latex paint to the headboard footboard back and front of the base
After the paint was dry I drove pocket holes in the ends of the front frame which I'll used to connect it to the head
And footboard and then I set up to mount the drawers. I made some temporary supports from the half-inch MDF and 3/4 inch plywood offcuts
The temporary support holds the drawer slides in place and it also acts as a spacer at the same time.
The drawers will have false drawer fronts so I used a scrap piece of plywood to set the position of the drawer slide.
The temporary supports hold to the drawer in place while I secure the slide extensions to each side of the drawer in two spots
Then I pulled the drawer out and secured the back of the slides with another screw on each side
I'm pretty happy with how well this little temporary support worked out.
I repeated the same process in the next two bays and installed all three drawers pretty quickly.
I measured each drawer opening
and I ripped the drawer fronts to height and then to the width on the table saw and gave them a paint job before assembly.
The drawer fronts are inset so I used playing cards to get a consistent reveal around the drawer.
I pre-drilled eighth inch holes in the front's of each of the drawers which gave the screws a little wiggle room for minor
adjustments once the bed is in place.
Then I attached the false fronts to the drawers with one and a quarter inch screws.
I laid out the drawer pulls by marking the center of the drawer front on a piece of painters tape.
I'm using the Kreg cabinet hardware jig to drill the holes and it makes it very easy to set the size of the pull
and the height that I wanted.
I clamped it in place using a scrap block on the inside of the drawer to prevent blowout.
Then I drilled the holes for the hardware and install the drawer pulls with the longer of the two screw types included with the pulls.
Now that's it now. It's just time to assemble.
I moved the parts up to my daughter's room and I laid the base down.
I used two by fours under the corners of the base to get a relatively flat reference surface versus the carpet that it could be sitting on.
Then I raised the base another three and a half inches by propping it up on two by fours on edge.
I put the footboard in place and then secure them with pocket screws and two and a half inch wood screws
Along the bottom and back of the frame
Then brought in the back panel and is secured to the base frame and sides with pocket screws from the back
We brought in the half-inch MDF
And I laid it down on the bed frame to hold the mattress in the MDF sheet in place I attached a 1 by 3
To the front edge of the frame, I finished up by installing the drawers.
My daughter is absolutely ecstatic about her new big-girl bed.
The large storage drawers down below can hold a ton of toys for quick cleanup when it's time to put things away
I want to give a big thank you to Kreg Tool for sponsoring today's video.
There's links down below in the description to all the different Kreg tools I used that made this project a lot easier.
If you want to build your own storage bed, there's a link below in the description
That'll take you to the plans
They have detailed instructions with 3d diagrams parts list and everything that you'll need for the build.
If you're not subscribed to the channel already I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time guys
Get out there and build something awesome!