So I had a plan. But the question was, did I have the materials? The key thing that inspired
me was an old project that I took apart. Luckily I already had a structural timber frame that was
at the right depth of the cushion, but it was too long. So I undid the pocket hole screws.
Broke the wood glue. Ad marked where it needed to be attached further down.
Because it had already been put together in the first place with glue and pocket hole screws,
I continued that to be consistent. If you don't have one, of course
you can pre-drill, screw it, fill it, and paint it
Are you watching what I'm doing? Right.. on your bed, baby. No? All right then. Out?
Although be careful you don't get glue on your bum. Creative people are messy
people! That's my first square done for the top bed section. I made sure it was square
from either end with a tape measure and temporarily screwed some pieces on either side
to keep it that way. And repeat again, but I'm building the next one on top of it so I
could copy it. It does help to clamp them together while you're doing it.
Another test fit and I was happy. On the original plan, I had three
structural pieces of timber stacked up. I went for two instead and unfortunately, Hans
has been diagnosed with a heart murmur recently. It's very early stages, but as he gets older,
I didn't want him to struggle to get up. Before I screwed those two together, I wanted to cut some
mitered pieces on the top one so it was easier for Hans to get on. I'm marking an even distance from
either side. Then use my roofer's square to draw the angle. The first one I took to my miter saw.
Although it was difficult to do it on the reverse, so I used a hand saw instead.
And once I'd stacked them back on top of each other, I marked where my pocket holes were going
to be. I probably should have just pre-drilled and screwed from underneath so nothing would
be seen. But there's pocket holes all over this anyway. It's an old project.
And although I'll be touching up the paintwork anyway, I wanted to make sure that the excess
glue was gone. Now, between the last scene and this scene there's about half an hour of me sat
down trying to work out how I was going to do the drawer bit. So the whole project is me being
resourceful and not going out and buying anything new. So I decided with a couple of plywood pieces
like this, I'd mark the internal depth of the top bed piece onto this piece of plywood.
Cut it down to size and use my circular saw to get the height that I wanted.
And I needed two pieces like that to prop it up evenly.
It also helps to make a height reference line so you can line it up while you're screwing it to it.
Also, a lot of these pieces already had chamfered edges, so I made them consistent with my router.
To work out the remaining drawer box shape, I temporarily screwed both internal side pieces
to the frame itself. That would make it easier for me to work out my future measurements.
So now I'm sure you're getting the idea from this design now,
that the drawer is propping up the top section. But I still had my heart set on
just using this basket for his toys and not putting a drawer face on it.
But that would just be too easy. Anyway, for now, we'll get the internal width from the top
of the plywood prop up pieces. Find another offcut from an old project. The holes in the center I was
absolutely fine with. It was going to be hidden but I wanted to make them a bit more central.
Let's test it. Right... I'm now planning my next step using the basket... or not!
The bed itself was a lot wider and the basket was a bit tired. Plus, I had this urge to push my
limits a little bit in this project and practice some dowel joinery so none of the fixtures would
be seen. It's offcuts! I didn't have a lot to lose. And I drew a line with a combination square
for the height of my bottom shelf. I'm going to leave a great tutorial below from Peter at the 10
Minute Workshop on how to use this. And I opted for this one because it was the cheapest with
loads of extra bits with it. Although I did do a test the night before on an old off cut and it
worked perfectly, so don't let it intimidate you. It's also got measurements on the side of this so
you can set up your drill bit to the right depth. I'm using 6mm dowels but my plywood is quite
thin. This was 12mm thick. So I had to make sure I didn't drill too deep on the face of the wood.
Also, I used my own drill bits without a pokey piece on the end so it didn't show
through on the good side. Then clamped it in my vice and clamped the jig on the edge.
The only thing I would say about this is: the clamp is really useful,
but it can favor tightening on one side. So next time I'm going to clamp it from both ends.
My center ones went slightly off-center, so I did another one further along and it was fine.
No one's going to see any of these mistakes.
Then I could line the shelf on top of the short side pieces. Line the jig with a 6mm dowel slot
and line it up with the pencil line. And for a first-time project, this was so much fun to do.
And once I knew it was going to work, I removed them glued put the dowels back.
I slotted it all together.
Although when it came to clamping it with my sash clamps, I was worried about it bowing and staying
like that. So I positioned it upside down on top of my sawhorses with some straight pieces of wood
underneath. And that gave me time to then touch up the black paintwork on the top section. Again,
using anything in my cupboard - I used blackboard paint. Although I was surprised that this was oil
based, so I couldn't really do an awful lot until that fully dried. But after a few hours of where
the glue was dry enough for me to continue working with it, I then sanded off as many pencil marks
and blemishes that I could on the plywood. And rip down a couple of thin strips with a circular saw
to glue from underneath. Bit like a support, but I will be nailing these later. It's just
my nails hadn't arrived from Toolstation yet. But before I talk about how I instead built a drawer,
I'd like to thank Flexispot for recently gifting me one of their motorized standing desks. If you
haven't noticed already (and well done for those who have), all of the materials I used for Hans'
dog bed were from my old desk that I made a couple of years ago to function as a treadmill desk. But
since moving house and it being so big, I haven't found the right space for it. Also, I knew what to
expect with the quality because my husband had bought one of theirs in the Summer from Amazon
and I've been jealous ever since. They come in various styles and colours. We bought our first
one without a top and we know it lifts up and down with a 1.5m kitchen worktop. However, mine came
with a stylish 25mm maple coloured top and they come flat packed. It's a doddle to put together.
And once you've built it, plugged it in, you can adjust the height in seconds depending on how you
want to use it. I was originally going to position mine in the middle of the room so I can swivel my
laptop round and have my chair behind the desk, but the treadmill is quite large. So in the end,
I decided to position the old one next to the new one. Anyway, if it's something that you're looking
for, I'll leave a link in the description and if you've got any questions about it,
feel free to drop me a message. Right.... let's get back to showing you how I built the drawer and
installed them on some euro slide runners because I've salvaged loads from old furniture that I've
thrown out and never found the time to reuse them until now. So first, let's screw the plywood base
back to the top bit and work on positioning the euro slides. Obviously, I didn't have any
instructions for these because I'm recycling them. But a few videos on youtube suggested setting it
back by 2mm and either prop them up on some shims then mark where your screw hole is going to be,
then fix the rails to either side. I'll show you what could go wrong later. So if I was going to do
this again, I would totally just use a framing square instead. And if I found out I needed to
later adjust my rails for any reason, I didn't put all of the screws in immediately. And that paid
off! Now let's talk drawer measurements. My rails were 45cm (450mm) long, so I matched the sides to
that length. But for the width of the drawer you need to take the internal opening's measurement,
then deduct measurements for the two side rails that I've already attached. Then deduct
the thickness of the two sides of the drawer. That then gave me the width measurement for the
front and the back sections, although I wasn't too concerned about the height of them. They're
just offcuts. Hans hasn't complained, let's put it that way. And depending on your euro slide runner,
it may have a lip facing upwards where you've got to create a rebate with a router for the base of
the drawer. But I went for an l-shaped one that I had instead. But because this was my first time,
I didn't want to use dowel joins for this, just in case I had to adjust it again.
So I just drilled and screwed these ones. I'd clamp another piece on the edge allowing me to
use it as a stop piece and screw the corners perfectly. I've got it square by the way.
I've measured from each angle and added some corner gussets. I'm just gonna test it out.
I'll put the base on. But I think it's gonna be more scraps. Hans' toys tend to be tennis
balls and teddy bears, so nothing's going to fall through these. However, the euro side
bit that attaches to the drawer... the way they fixed to the drawer wasn't symmetrical.
So I temporarily screwed it to a scrap piece of wood. Clamped it in my vise and drilled some holes
through the lips. THEN I could screw them directly from underneath at the bottom of the drawer.
Anyway, before I put the rest of the slats on, I just wanted to see if this worked.
I'm not keen on that being a bit angled. And after a closer look, I noticed that the back of the
right side rail and needed to be lifted slightly. So I unscrewed that one screw that I put in.
Let the drawer naturally go where it wanted. Then I could see where it dropped
and put the screw back in. This worked. Oh, thank god for that. It was driving me insane!
NOW I felt content enough to put the rest of the screws in.
I like it... I love it! So let's continue the rest of the slats at the bottom with more offcuts.
It made me think creatively and the whole project didn't cost me a penny.
So the drawer front... another plywood offcut which I'd cut to the same length.
But I didn't have a deeper piece, so this was the only height that I could get.
And there was a big enough finger space at the top to pull it open without a drawer knob.
But before I work on any of that, I'm chamfering off the bottom edge.
Then propped it up on an off-cut and tried my hardest to line it up with the sides.
I just had enough space there to trap the clamp through the top
gap and pre-drilled and screwed it from behind. We're getting there!
That's cool. I do need to sand that. One of the things that I love and was really looking
forward to was the bed slats itself. I screwed another strip on the inside.
And that'd give a platform for them to rest on and cut and nail them on top. Although
the assorted material that I use here didn't look as pretty as I thought it could be. And
to save me painting them all black, I cut down a thin piece of plywood to sit on top.
Yeah! For a finish - again, I'm using what I had in
and that was sanding all the plywood and giving it a coat of teak oil before wiping the excess off.
I wanted something a bit special and unique for the drawer knob and I had a light bulb
moment. Are you trying to get into your drawer? Okay.... look.... watch.... watch this!
This is a bit rough and ready, but it works. I hammered a ball on a rope from the inside,
leaving it hanging out. Before I show you how Hans opens it, don't forget to give it a like and
subscribe if you want to see more and hopefully, I'll catch you in my next one. Good boy!
He got a toy!
Good boy!