Children's Bed Frame

As my son outgrew his crib he needed a proper twin-sized bed, so we built one together. Built partially from reclaimed wood from my favorite source: bed slat kits that people throw out when moving out. Only the perimeter frame pieces and parts of the legs were made from newly-purchased lumber. 

 used the opportunity of making a bed frame from scratch using reclaimed wood to instead acquire some wood working tools for the amount it would have cost to purchase a ready-made bed frame. This included:

• Hand-held circular power saw (I should instead have bought a miter saw, as making accurate cuts with a hand held circular saw is very tedious)

• Ergonomic sanding block (at $18 this seemed like maybe an excessive expense, but was well worth it in the end)

• Regular clamps

• Right angle corner clamps

I wanted the bed to have side walls, but those are also annoying for story time and when he grows out of the need for them, having them be removable will surely be appreciated. I took inspiration from my nephew's bed frame design which featured shortened, side walls that could slide along the frame to any desired position. While I'm not particularly a fan of including metal brackets in wooden furniture, I think this was the right application as I wanted it to be strong and stiff, without being obnoxiously thick, as the upper bracket had to fit between the frame and the mattress, and the lower one had to wrap around the bottom of the frame. Some custom-made aluminum brackets with a brushed finish did the job nicely. It helps to have access to the right tools for the job.