After just about every woodworking project I finish for our home, my wife is generally pleased with the result, but not so happy with the film of dust covering our entire basement.
Since I’d rather spend any disposable income on tools and materials than a shop door, I decided to go the “soft” route and use an old shower curtain.
Shower curtains are cheap, are easy to pass through and even easier to install, especially if they have grommets.
The only downside is that shower curtains typically aren’t tall enough to cover the height of a door opening. So, although I’ve gone forward and installed the curtain, I have not tested it’s effectiveness. How much dust makes it way underneath the curtain remains to be seen.
Buy your wife a new shower curtain, then use the old one!
Measure the distance between the holes in curtain.
If the holes are not grommetted, you can optionally purchase cheap grommetting tool for a few dollars.
Use roofing nails if possible along the top of the door frame, spaced on-center to each curtain hole. Roofing nails have larger heads and will not slip off as easily.
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I’ve made drawer boxes in a few different ways throughout various projects. Admittedly, I’ve never taken the time to learn how to create dovetail joints. I typically go for the pocket hole joinery method. The drawers I’ve made using this method have been in regular service for almost 4 years now, without the slightest indication that they’re not functioning 100%.
For a novice, drawer construction is probably the most time consuming and thought provoking process of a given project. If not the construction itself, making sure the dimensions for the drawer opening, box, front and glides are all correct adds a level of difficulty that takes almost any simple project to the next level.
When I start thinking about how the drawers will fit into the project, I take one of two approaches:
The drawer opening dimensions are more important than the dimensions of the drawer.
For example, if the only deciding factor is that you need to have the drawers centered and equally “padded” from all sides of the frame.
In this situation, frame out, or cut out the drawer opening first.
The drawer box dimensions are more important than the opening dimensions.
For example, if you need to fit a certain size object in the drawer, the dimensions of the drawer box itself should be the deciding factor in the design.
In this situation, build the drawer first.
A seasoned woodworker may not take either approach, as they can easily conceptualize how everything will fit together. For the beginner, it’s usually easier to have one piece of the puzzle in place first, before working on the next one.
In my current project, the platform bed, it is more important that the drawers fill the width of the opening provided by the bed frame. So, I cut the drawer openings first. Having this done, it’s much easier to come up with the dimensions of the drawer box itself.
Now that we have our opening, the dimensions of the box is simple arithmetic:
Now, let’s explain. The height is pretty simple, we want 1/4″ clearance on the top and bottom of the drawer, so it doesn’t rub against the frame. The width, however, depends on your drawer slides. You’ll need to know ahead of time what glides you’ll be using. I have used the Accuride 22″ Full Extension Self-Close Slide in just about every one of my projects. Accuride is a trusted name, they’re affordable, the full extension is well worth it and the self-closing action “grabs” the drawer and pulls it shut when you get within about an inch of the frame. Not to mention, 22″ will fit a 24″ depth opening very nicely; 24″ is one of the most common opening depths.
The Accuride slide is 1/2″ thick, which is enough to give it that 100 lb. rating, while not being so thick that it significantly reduces your drawer width. I like to give the drawer slides a combined extra 1/16″ to work with, as seen in the formula above. They seem to slide more smoothly that way.
Drawer Sides, Front & Back
Now that the dimensions are out of the way, let’s get to the construction. If you have a lot of boxes to make, be smart about how you cut your plywood (assuming you’re not using solid wood). Drawer boxes use a lot of material (4 sides, a bottom and a face), so it’s important to get the most out of your 4×8 plywood sheets.
The drawer front and back will width will be determined by the thickness of your wood, typically 3/4″.
Cut your pieces then join them with pocket hole joinery. Screw into the rear of the back panel, as it won’t be visible. How you attach the front depends on your drawer face. If you are using a frame and panel face, you’ll want to screw into the outside face of the front panel, as it will be covered by the drawer front finishing piece. However, if you’re using a simple face frame method, as I am, you need to screw into the inside of the front panel. They’ll be visible on the inside of the drawer box, but that’s not a big deal for most people.
Drawer Bottom
Wait! Before you screw the sides, front and back together, you need to consider how you’ll be joining the drawer bottom to the box. The method I like best is to rabbet a groove around the inside perimeter of the drawer box, which the drawer bottom can “slide” into. If using this method, you need to cut the groove with a router, then slide the bottom into place before you completely screw the box together. This method is more intermediate, takes time, and requires router skill. If this is your first project, I’d suggest taking the easier route and simply screw the bottom to the box.
You can create pocket holes on the underside of the drawer bottom, then pocket hole screw it to the box. Or, if you cut the bottom to the full width and depth of the drawer box and wood screw it directly to the bottom of the box (through the plies). Remember, if you take this approach, your drawer sides, front and bottom need to be 3/4″ shorter than previously calculated.
Drawer Face
And finally, the finished face of the drawer. Unless your guests have a bad habit of walking in and opening all of your drawers, this is the part that most people will see. There are so many techniques to creating drawer fronts, I’ve used only a few. By far, the easiest method is to simply create a face frame and attach it to the drawer front panel. The frame stiles and rails need only be thick enough to cover the visible plies on the plywood and the drawer opening. 2″ stiles and rails is typically enough for this purpose.
I prepare the face frame parts, then put them together with pocket hole joinery. Once that’s complete, I choose to attach the face frame with biscuits and pocket hole screws. If you don’t have a biscuit joiner, you can always attach it with wood screws drilled through the inside of the front panel and into the back of the face frame, perhaps coupled with pocket hole screws on the sides.
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Building the headboard involves many of the same techniques as used in creating the platform bed footboard. The primary difference will be how it is attached to the platform bed frame. The footboard is fastened to the bed frame itself. The headboard, however will be raised a good two feet above the top of the mattress. Instead of using a large backer panel that starts at the floor and goes to the top of the headboard, we’ll use posts to raise the headboard off of the ground.
The headboard will consist of the following:
Two posts, each approximately 48″ tall.
I used an 8′ 2×3, cut in half to create two 4′ posts. However, knowing that these posts would be visible when viewing the sides of the bed frame, I wanted to make them more appealing than your typical framing stud. I used a thickness plan to plane down the rounded edges of the 2×3 essentially squaring it off.
A plywood backer that would be placed in-between the posts, not on top of them. We do this so the plies on the plywood are hidden. The plywood backer will be the finished width of the frame, minus 5″ (the width of two 2×3’s).
The face frame.
The face frame will be identical to the footboard faceframe except for two things:
It may be taller, depending how tall you want your headboard to be.
The two outside stiles will be 3″ wide, to cover the joint where the post and plywood backer meet.
Our post on creating the footboard details how to attach the face frame to the plywood backer. The challenge with the headboard is fastening the large backer between the posts. Since the face frame will provide stability once attached, the method you use to fasten the backer to the posts does not have to be “rock solid”.
You can drill pocket holes into the sides of the plywood backer, then fasten it to the posts with pocket hole screws.
Many woodworkers will suggest using a coarse screw thread for soft woods, which is what you’ll most likely use for the posts (considerably more cost effective). However, I’ve used fine thread screws on all of my projects, whether it be through soft wood, hardwood or plywood. Fine thread screws also work well on MDF. so if you were to purchase a bulk batch of pocket hole screws, I’d recommend going with a fine thread.
On another note, if you do wish to purchase pocket hole screws in bulk, 1-1/4″ length will work in almost every case. I prefer to join with 1-1/2″ whenever possible, but 1-1/4″ avoids the risk of poking through the face of the material when you decide fasten that way.
Once you have the backer fastened to the posts, proceed to attach the face frame over top. You’ll now see the importance of using 3″ width outside stiles.
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The technique I used to build the frames that finish the headboard and footboard is called pocket hole joinery. If you haven’t used this method before, it would make sense to quickly review the link to get a feel for how it is used to fasten solid wood boards together while keeping the fasteners hidden. This method will not only be used for the headboard and footboard, but also for the drawer fronts.
Traditionally when you work with face frames, you rip “channels” into them, then slide a panel in place, to create the effect seen on most kitchen cabinet doors. In this case, I decided to go for a different look, one that involves simply overlaying the entire face frame on top of a panel (as opposed to placing the panel between the frame stiles and rails). This method is not only visually appealing on large frames, but also keeps the project at a beginner level by not involving the use of a router to create the channel.
If this is your first project, you might consider using a lower-cost solid wood and give it a coat of paint, as opposed to staining a more expensive wood. I suggest this for three reasons:
If you make any mistakes, the cost of the mistake is reduced.
Stained work demands a higher quality outcome, as you can’t depend on wood filler to correct any gaps in joined pieces. Although many wood fillers boast that they are stainable, it usually doesn’t look seamless with the wood grain.
If you don’t have the full set of tools and need to finish nail through the face of the hardwood, you can use wood filler to fill the holes left by the nails, then paint over it.
In my area, poplar is relatively cheap and paints really well. The price point might be oak, birch or maple, though many have a difficult time painting over the nice grains offered by these species.
FOOTBOARD
The footboard will consist of a face frame and a plywood backer panel.
Prepare, then cut your face frame parts. The finished width of your face frame should be the full width of the bed frame, including the plywood finish sides. If you are unfamiliar with how to prepare solid wood boards for face frame construction, see this post: Preparing solid wood for use in face frames.
Join your pieces together with pocket hole joinery, as discussed in the opening of this post. Note that the pocket holes should be drilled into the stiles, or vertical pieces. You typically find that pocket holes are drilled parallel to the grain of the wood.
Cut the plywood sheet to the height of the frame (same as the height of the plywood sides), and to the width of the finished frame minus the finished sides. Basically, the width of the backer panel should be: bed width – 1-1/2″ (since each plywood side is 3/4″ thick). This will allow you to place the plywood backer panel inside the finished sides, hence concealing the plys shown on the sides. This will also allow the finished face frame to conceal the visible plys on the finished sides. The picture’s below should help to reduce the confusion!
Attach the face frame to the plywood backer. You can use a biscuit joiner and biscuits if you have them. Or, you can use 1-1/4″ wood screws, screwed into the plywood backer, and through the back of the face frame. Using 1-1/4″ screws is just long enough to hold, but not long enough to poke through the face frame.
Once the bed is in its final location, you can attach the footboard with pocket hole joinery, or finish nail it if you don’t have a pocket hole jig. We’ll demonstrate this later on in the project.
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As I started detailing the process to build the headboard and footboard for a platform bed, I realized that the same techniques would be used not only on the bed drawer faces, but on countless other projects. So, I decided it best to create a separate post to go through the three-step method I use to prepare solid wood for use in face frames.
There are two popular methods used in “storage-type” woodworking projects, face frame and frame-less. Frame-less is the look you see in many kitchen cabinets, but is more often associated with industrial-type cabinets found in hospitals and other industries. They can be cheaper to produce, as the solid wood required for a face frame is removed from the project cost. Essentially, you have a box and door/drawer to fill the inside width and height of the box.
Face frames, on the other hand, give a certain “dimension” to wood projects and add stability via the solid wood frame. I use the face frame approach in just about all of my work. To do it right though, you need 3 pieces of equipment which typically aren’t found in the average homeowner’s tool closet:
Jointer
The jointer will give you a straight edge. Very few boards that I purchase from the lumber store have one perfectly straight edge. The jointer works well for this. I couldn’t spare the expensive of a commercial jointer, so I purchased a table-top one for about $300.The jointer is not strictly necessary though. You can always use a circular saw guide to cut one straight edge on a board. The jointer typically does this faster, and with less waste – so purchase one when the time is right, but know that you can live without it.
Table saw
Once you have a straight edge, you can rip your boards to the proper width on a table saw. I usually add an extra 1/8″ to the ripped width (explained next).As with the jointer, the table saw is not strictly necessary. I’ve made due before with a circular saw and track guides, or even just by clamping down another straight board as a guide. As long as you keep a little extra on the thickness, you can let the thickness planer “straighten it out” for you.
Thickness planer
Believe it or not, I consider the thickness planer more valuable than either of the above. The table saw and jointer can be replaced with a circular saw, clamps and a guide. But, there’s really no good replacement for a thickness planer.The planer will remove those table saw marks from your ripped boards and ensure that all of your boards are of the same width and thickness. If you save a little money and purchase rough-sawn lumber, you’ll find that the thickness planer also makes pretty quick work of removing the rough edge.
Using the tools and methods above, to prepare a rough-sawn board for use in a face frame:
Use your jointer or circular saw & guide to create a straight edge on one side of your board.
Rip your board to width + 1/8″ using a table saw (or circular saw / guide)
Thickness plane your board down to the exact width needed
Example: I want to create a frame with 2″ stiles and rails (the horizontal and vertical pieces, respectively). I’ll choose a 7-1/2″ board, knowing it will safely provide me with 3 ripped widths of 2-1/8″ if I include 1/8″ for the thickness of the saw blade. I’ll have a little waste, but not much.
I first use my jointer to get a straight edge, than pass the board through my table saw (set at 2-1/8″) three times to get three boards. After that, I’ll start my thickness planer at 2-1/16″ inch, then pass all of my boards through. Then, I’ll move it down to 2″ and proceed to pass all boards through again.
Many times, when using the thickness planer, you’ll need to make a few passes on each board, reducing the thickness with each pass. Remember to run all your boards through one thickness level before moving on to the next thickness level. This will ensure that all of your boards are planed down to the exact same final thickness.
Except for the table saw, I use the products shown below in my workshop. I rip boards on a 30 year old cast iron table saw that I’ll never get rid of!
Keep in mind, if you do end up purchasing a more portable table saw, you’ll want to consider an outfeed table to support your boards as your rip them. Otherwise you’ll be playing seesaw against a table saw blade, and you will lose!
Once you have this process down and have your wood prepared for joining, check out our post on pocket hole joinery for a low-cost solution to fastening your face frames together with very little effort.
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I didn’t discover pocket hole joinery until a couple years ago, at which point I was blown away at this untapped method for joining “finishing” work such as face frames and trim. I had been accustomed to biscuit joinery (essentially gluing two boards together with a small wooden oval in-between to add strength), but it was more time-consuming, required owning multiple clamps to keep a project moving, and was permanent.
Pocket hole joinery solved all of those problems at a very small trade-off for strength. Joining with the pocket hole method isn’t quite as strong as with glue, but it’s sufficient for most projects. You do have the option to dab some glue between the joints, however, without requiring a clamp to hold it in place.
What’s best of all is that you can get up and running with quality pocket hole equipment at a lower cost than with a quality biscuit joiner. Expect to pay a minimum of $150 for a quality, name-brand biscuit joiner; a pocket hole kit might run you $60. When you compare the fasteners themselves (biscuits vs. pocket hole screws), the cost is similar.
The minimum you need to get started is a face clamp, pocket hole kit, and self-tapping pocket hole screws. I’ve listed the exact products that I have for my pocket hole joinery setup below. I also spent a few minutes this morning to put together a very low budget video on it’s use!
I’ve included both the 1-1/4″ and 1-1/2″ screws above. The 1-1/2″ are ideal for joining boards along the same “plane”, as shown in the video. But, if you work with 3/4″ solid wood, and will be joining in two different planes (one board upright, one flat), you need to use 1-1/4″ screws. This will prevent the head of the screw from poking through the finished surface of the wood.
Issues
I love the Kreg Jig, but there’s only so much you can expect from a $35 product. My primary complaint is the drill bit. The little pilot tip at the end of it is easy to break off. In all fairness it lasted me a year before breaking, but at one point, I turned the drill as I was removing it from the jig and the tip broke off.
The bit is useless without the tip. It will make the pocket hole, but there is nothing to pilot the pocket hole screw at the correct angle.
If this happens though, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve been getting by okay with a 3/8″ wood boring spade bit.
Really my only other complaint is that the jig is made of plastic. Granted, it’s a hard plastic like those found in heavy duty electrical boxes. Even so, after time, the grooves that hold the face clamp to the jig have worn down to the point where the jig “falls off” of the face clamp about half the time when I am drilling vertically.
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This is the step where, if you don’t have a decent set of wood cutting/shaping tools, the job can get a little tricky. But, we’ll explore a couple methods you can take to if you don’t have the full array of tools at your disposal.
Typically when you think about the “face” of a wood-based project, you think solid wood. You get the beautiful grain patterns and best of all, don’t have to worry about covering up the visibly plys often left exposed when plywood is used. In the case of the bed frame sides, I would have needed at least 12″ wide solid wood boards, if I used the traditional “face frame” approach.
Instead, I opted to use a sheet of cabinet grade plywood. The 24″ width created by splitting the plywood down the middle was the perfect height for the bed frame. The difference here is that instead of “creating” the drawer opening by surrounding it with solid wood stiles and rails, I would be cutting the opening out of the plywood sheet. Cut the sheets 3/4″ longer than the rough bed frame. This part is important, as you’ll see in the next step. That extra 3/4″ will help hide the visible plys created by the footboard. So, that extra 3/4″ should “hanging off” the foot of the bed.
I purchased 1/2″ wide drawer glides for the drawers, meaning the opening needed to be 1 full inch wider than the drawer itself. I found that adding an extra 1/16th inch to the total width is a pretty good practice. For the height, a 1/4″ clearance at the top and bottom of the drawer is sufficient, if you are using side-mount drawer glides.
Before cutting the openings, I first fastened the sheets to the frame using a finishing nail gun. Another, cleaner method would be to use a biscuit joinery, where a small “slit” is cut in both pieces of wood that are to be joined, then connected with a small oval-like biscuit. Biscuit joiners are not expensive (under $100), but they are typically not part of an amateur woodworkers arsenal. A third option still would be to use pocket-hole joinery. I’ll talk more about that when we get into the drawer and head/footboard frames.
Since the sheet is large, and I have wood filler that’s pretty close to the stain color we chose, I took the easy route of finish nailing the sheets onto the frame.
It was now time to cut the drawer openings. I used a jigsaw, but if you don’t have one, you can very carefully do it with a circular saw. A plunge saw would be ideal, since are starting your cut in the middle of the sheet. But, considering that the edges of the opening will be covered by the drawer face (when the drawer is closed), your cuts don’t have win any awards. A careful run with the circular saw would be fine.
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With our plan of attack in place, I was ready for the first step, creating the frame. I had seen quite a few products where the frames were constructed of 3/4″ plywood, our living room couch being one of them. The couch frame has been broken twice in 4 years, each time, I replace the broken piece of plywood with an equal length 2×4.
Opting for 2-by construction made sense, but I was concerned with weight. We’d have to carry these frames up two flights of stairs, and I wasn’t certain how much additional weight 2x4s introduced over 2x3s. I was fairly certain though that 2x3s would be more than sufficient to support the weight of the box spring, mattress and a couple humans.
In terms of getting the dimensions correct, this was the most important step. If the box spring won’t fit within the frame, it won’t matter how smoothly the rest of the project goes. We also needed to build the frame as two separate, identical pieces (except that they are mirrored).
For most of the construction, I used a coil framing nailer with 2 1/2″ nails. For me, 2 1/2″ is ideal for joining 2-by’s, as it’s about as long as you can get without risking the nail passing completely through. I’m also partial to the coil nailer. The “stick” nailers may be a bit cheaper, but the nails coils are cheaper by the nail.
As I built the frame, I had to keep reminding myself that each component had to be able to fit through narrow hallways, stairways an door openings. Although the pieces were separate during construction, they can be joined once in the bedroom, preferably by a less permanent fastener such as screws or even cheap clamps.
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We had purchased our home about 5 years ago, as naive young home buyers who had no clue what kind of work was ahead. The home was located in a great neighborhood, top-notch school system, and even had a little bit of land. The only downside was the house itself! Only about half of it had finished floors, the roof was in terrible shape, the kitchen was about 50 square feet, you get the picture.
Four years later, we’ve made progress – a kitchen addition, new pool, new floors, some furniture, enough to make it feel like a place where we can raise our kids. It was starting to look like a new house, at least the downstairs.
So, a few weeks ago, my wife, Jenn, gently reminded me that the upstairs still kinda looked like it did the day we bought the house. So we put in some new carpet, which was enough to satisfy us for the time being. A couple more weeks go by and Jenn started to get that “unfinished” feeling again, and I couldn’t blame her. The new carpet was great, but we still had furniture that our parents had given us, which no doubt was given to them by their parents. We decided that a new platform bed would provide enough visual appeal to make up for the old furniture, while also adding additional storage.
So, we start researching beds, and sticker shock hits hard. For what we wanted, we would have to drop about $2,500 at the low end. We decided to make it a Christmas present to each other to offset the cost a little bit. But, before we made the final decision, our roof started to leak – bad enough that it was dripping down a few of our walls. The choice was clear, the roof had to be replaced, and the bed put aside for another year.
The roof was replaced. Our bed fund was depleted. A few days later Jenn asked me how difficult I thought it would be to build a bed. I had built our kitchen cabinets a couple years before, so I had the tools and some knowledge. I decided to take on the project, expecting that we could build the bed of our dreams for about $300.
Wish List
After looking at some photos of high-end beds, we came up with a wish list:
Shaker style
4 deep drawers, 2 on each side, which would span most of the platform depth.
4-panel headboard
4-panel footboard
Zero-clearance – no space underneath the platform
King-size frame
Stained to match our existing furniture
Planning
As I mentioned before, we wanted to keep the bed project on a budget of around $300. So we knew we’d have to cut a few corners. Besides the budget, we had a couple other requirements.
The bed is a rectangle, so we had width and depth specifications.
It’s an old house, so the hallways and doorways are tight. We had to build it in two pieces.
We are not bodybuilders, it had to be light enough to carry upstairs! We’ll opt for 2×3 boards to construct the frame. It will be lighter than if we use 2x4s and more durable than 3/4″ plywood.
Solid wood is expensive. We will use it for the drawer faces, headboard and footboard stiles and rails, and in a couple other finishing aspects. The majority of the bed will be cabinet-grade plywood. The edges of the plywood will be finished with solid wood.
The headboard and footboard need to be attached after the bed is in it’s final place in our bedroom, as they can’t be split into two pieces without introducing a visible “seam”.
To make the drawers deeper, we have to make the bed higher, as they will accommodate the space between the floor and the bottom of the box spring.
The headboard and footer board need to be as wide as the finished width of the platform.
Project Outline
I typically like to outline the project steps before I start work. This is what I came up with:
Take box spring/mattress measurements. These measurements alone will determine the width and depth of the frame.
Decide on drawer height. This measurement alone will determine the height of the frame.
Build the frame with 2×3 boards. The frame will be built as 2 identical “half-frames”, so they can be carried up stairs and through doorways.
Cut the finished sides from cabinet-grade plywood and attach them to the sides of the frame.
Cut drawer “slots” out of the finished sides.
Cut backing for headboard and footboard from plywood.
Build the drawer boxes.
Start the solid wood. Rip most boards to 2 1/2″ width, some to 3 1/2″.
Cross-cut solid wood to lengths required by drawer fronts, headboard and footboard panels.
Fasten solid-wood frames together with pocket-hole joinery.
Attach frames to drawers and headboard/footboard panels with a combination of biscuit and pocket-hole joinery.
Attach drawer slides and drawers.
Sand, stain, polyurethane all parts.
Carry the frame and separate head/footboard upstairs to bedroom.
Attach headboard and footboard.
With the plan and outline in place, it’s time to start construction…
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A seasoned woodworker may not take either approach, as they can easily conceptualize how everything will fit together. For the beginner, it’s usually easier to have one piece of the puzzle in place first, before working on the next one.
Now that the dimensions are out of the way, let’s get to the construction. If you have a lot of boxes to make, be smart about how you cut your plywood (assuming you’re not using solid wood). Drawer boxes use a lot of material (4 sides, a bottom and a face), so it’s important to get the most out of your 4×8 plywood sheets.
Wait! Before you screw the sides, front and back together, you need to consider how you’ll be joining the drawer bottom to the box. The method I like best is to rabbet a groove around the inside perimeter of the drawer box, which the drawer bottom can “slide” into. If using this method, you need to cut the groove with a router, then slide the bottom into place before you completely screw the box together. This method is more intermediate, takes time, and requires router skill. If this is your first project, I’d suggest taking the easier route and simply screw the bottom to the box.
The bit is useless without the tip. It will make the pocket hole, but there is nothing to pilot the pocket hole screw at the correct angle.
