Twin size bed plan

Bill of materials

The bill of materials below assumes all the lumber is good. You should buy extra lumber to be able to leave out pieces with defects in them. In general, its best to buy wider pieces of lumber and rip them into narrower pieces, such as buying 2x6 and ripping the 2x3's out of them. You get much better lumber that way. It may be better to buy five 2x10x8' instead of the parts marked with an asterisk, and cut everything from those.

PartQuantityUsed for
2x8 x 8'3 *Side rails, also bottom horizontal for headboard and footboard.
2x3 x 8'3 *For making the posts
2x10 x 8'1 *For headboard top horizontal, and footboard top horizontal
2x2 x 8'2Supports for slats on side rails
1x4 x 8'6For slats
3/4" dowel6'For cutting dowels from. Buy enough lengths to get 6'
2.5" #10 wood screw24For mounting side rails
2.5" #10 wood screw10For screwing slat supports onto side rails
Wood glue100mlAt least 100 ml of wood glue.



Cross section

Note how the slats rest on the ledge on the inside of the side rails.

Headboard dimensions


Headboard assembly

The holes for the dowels are best drilled by clamping the headboard and post together, and drilling the hole all the way through from the outside, as shown in the diagram below


Footboard dimensions

The foot board is nearly identical to the headboard. If you are one of those people who prefer to stick their feet off the end of the bed, leave off the top horizontal part, and make the uprights just 18" long.

Bed rails

The bed rail has a series of blocks on the inside corners. The purpose of these is to space out the slats, and keep them from sliding around.

Its best to glue and screw the 1.5"x1.5" support for the slat onto the main part of the rail, to ensure that its attached solidly.

Assembly

Bed frames in general are designed to be disassembled for moving. For this bed frame, unscrewing the side rails will do the trick.

The slats are placed between the bed rails, and are only held in place by gravity. The blocks on the bed rails prevent them from sliding around.


You can also download a Sketchup model of this bed plan