Under Bed Storage

Justice has a small but decent sized room. She needed storage options to help her stay organized. So as I mentioned before, her platform bed was built with storage in mind. Of course Pop Pop doesn't concern himself with what's pretty. His suggestion was large plastic bins. WHAT? I said NO very quickly. I was also very concerned I'd visit one day and find all her dirty clothes shoved under the bed. Not if she ever wants me to do her room again.

I love baskets. Big clutter busting baskets. Pop Pop and I went shopping around one day looking for inexpensive baskets and a rug. I don't have a picture of the rug yet. So you'll see it in the After photos. But we found a perfect solid burnt orange rug. With all the pattern in the room a solid rug will help to calm things down. The baskets are another story.

Large baskets in our area are few and far between. When you do find them they are not even in the ball park of inexpensive. So I was lost as to what to do. We have nearly exhausted our supply of large pieces of scrap wood, so building boxes was out. Though wheeled boxes would have been awesome. Pop Pop came to the rescue again. Having worked at the Farmer's Market in the past he was very familiar with bushel baskets. So we set out for the market in search of two baskets.



Bushel basket from the Farmer's Market

We were able to buy two for $5.00 each. More than we expected but less than the baskets we had looked at. So still a great deal. Now to make them more attractive. We cleaned them out really well. Then on painting day we painted them to match all the other painted items. Using Olympic Aqua Bay paint.

Much better!

These baskets will sit comfortably under Justice's bed. On top of the hardwood floors. So I did worry that dragging them out each day would scratch the floor. So I cut out three large circles from felt. Then using Elmer's Craft Bond multi-purpose spray adhesive, I attached the felt to the bottom of the baskets. Scratch proof!

The adhesive held the felt very well to the basket

Money spent:
$10.00 two baskets
$24.99 rug
Everything else was on hand


Upholstered Platform Bed For A Teen

Pop Pop did not like Justice's bed. At all. He has wanted to create a platform bed for her. Since we were doing her room he decided to add it to the "to do" list. Not to be outdone, I added an upholstered backboard to it. I also upholstered around the edge of the bed. So that when it's revealed it's  pretty.

Ends and cross bars

The mattress was measured. Then 2x12's were cut in half length wise. They were then cut  to size for the sides of the frame.  Once that was created we cut cross bars from 2x4's. We nailed those into place and covered that with OSB Sheathing. That's the pressed wood panels that look like chips all pressed together.

The bottom of the bed shows the construction

Five legs were cut from 2x4's and the edges were routed to make them more attractive. They quickly went from lumber to legs. Wow! The bed was made high enough off the floor to add storage underneath. Which I'll talk about in another post. On painting day we painted the legs to match the dresser and bookcase.

routed edges to finish off the legs

Olympic paint in Aqua Bay

Pop Pop had some left over foam insulation. It's just plastic foam. It had been cut for what he needed. Leaving a long narrow stip. Well, it was our lucky day. It fit the edge of the bed perfectly. We stapled that along three sides of the bed.

Foam insulation made great padding

To make the backboard we cut a piece of OSB Sheathing to the height we wanted for the bed. Then we cut it to fit the length of the bed. Two 2x4's were cut down and nailed to the back of the backboard. The backboard it's self will sit on the ledge of the bed. The boards on back will firmly hold it in place. We will screw it into place when we put the bed in Justice's room.

Upholstered and ready to go

Then we cut fabric to size and stapled it into place. As I said before the blue insulation foam was used for the bed. I bought a large roll of foam padding for the backboard. It was still a little too small so I had to patch it a little with the foam we already had laying around the workshop. Elmer's Craft Bond multi-purpose spray adhesive is excellent for holding foam to wood. I've tried several and so far this is my favorite brand. It's sticky but you can easily reposition. Then good luck washing it off your hands.

Upholstered bed

Once the fabric was in place, I sprayed it down really well with Scotchgard  fabric & upholstery protector. This will insure that the fabric does not need to be replaced in the near future. The final step was to put some clear contact paper over the OSB Sheathing to keep it from snagging the mattress. I already had that on hand.

We will be doing similar platform beds for the boys. Which we will start on as soon as Justice's room is complete.

Money spent:
$100 for lumber. Which is to be divided three ways. So $33 per bed. Wow!
Foam padding $16.00
Paint was paid for in a previous project
Everything else we had on hand