Authored by Jeremy Siek in Furniture
Published on 12-05-2008

If you’ve been experiencing back pain because your mattress doesn’t provide the support you need, you might want to switch to a platform bed. This type of frame evenly distributes your weight so that sections of the mattress where you sleep most of the time don’t sag. But platform beds are expensive due, not only to its popularity, but because of the materials used to manufacture them. A bed frame from ordinary wood will already cost around $1,000.

If you’d like to build your own king sized platform bed, you will need the following materials. These are readily available in hardware supplies and various home depot stores. Lumber yards can also pre-cut your wood so that you don’t have to saw them yourself. You just have to make certain that the dimensions are right if you would like someone else to cut the wood for you.

Materials:

1. 10 pieces 2 x 4 x 96
2. 6 pieces 2 x 10 x 8
3. 2 pieces MDF 3/4 x 49 x 97
4. Some screws or nails
5. Power drill (or just a hammer if you’ll be using nails)
6. Wood glue (if you would like to glue the wood first before screwing them together)

You might not need any power tools if you are going to have the lumber yard cut the wood for you. But if you would like to cut the wood yourself, you will be needing mitter and circular saws.

The basic idea for the frames is a rectangular sand box. The 2 by 10s are for the frame’s lower base, and these have to be 1 foot shorter than your mattress. A king sized mattress is around 80×76, so the lower frame should be around 68×64. When you’ve made the rectangular frame, you should place two parallel wooden bars across the length of the frame. Add 3 (or more if you have extra wood) smaller planks across the smaller width of the spaces to create some sort of blocking. This will prevent your base from bending or disfiguration.

The topmost layer has the same concept as the base. Use the 2 by 4s and screw them together. Since this will be supporting the mattress, the dimension should be exactly the same as your mattress (which is 80 by 76), or an inch longer on all sides. This time however, you will need to install more blocking into the frame to support the weight of the mattress and the people who’ll be sleeping on it. Add 4 bars across the width and about 10 smaller ones across the length of the frame.

Attach the MDF to the top layer. Make sure the screws are a feet apart, and don’t forget to screw across the frame so the MDF stays in place.

The whole idea of making your own platform bed is to save on money while providing you with the much needed back support. The whole project will cost around $100, depending on the wood material you used, and take about 8 to 10 hours to build.