PART 1
Engineer hubby and I have finally gotten around to this post. This post is not for the faint of heart and can take a lot of time and work depending on your skill level and the tools you have. Borrow tools from friends or family to save some money. We recommend that you wait until all parts of this projects are posted until you go out and buy all the supplies. That will save you a lot of trips and you will know what you are getting yourself into before you put the money into it.
Our BedCost around $500
Lets get to work.
Engineer hubby's drawings. Don't mind the dirt; this was out in the garage for a long time.View Side
View Front
View ArialThe 6 smaller boxes are the side drawers. The two boxes in the center have lids that open with a piano hinge. Store things in there that you won't need to see for a long time such as baby clothes or high school yearbooks.
The next couple of pictures give you an idea of how much wood you will need to purchase. We used various grades of pine boards as well as OSB (oriented strand board) and plywood. Material shopping lists will follow as we get deeper into the construction of the bed.
Wood glue is our friend. Use it. You can also see in this pic that we use lots of screws, clamps, a piano hinge, and a circular saw.
We picked up this beast from the D.I. (my local thrift store). It cost $10. We stripped it of its drawer slides and hauled it to the metal recycling company and they gave us $17 for it. Made a little moola. This will come into play later. 
We used the drawer slides for the drawers in our bed. After all was said and done we wished we just bought new slides from the Home Depot because these are noisy and a bit rickety. They work well though.
Now that you have an idea of the materials needed for this project, lets get started building the bed. We began with the center storage first as it seemed to be the easiest component of the bed to build. We were right, this turned out to be a good warm-up/practice piece. The center storage will essentially be hidden once the mattress is placed on the bed frame so don't worry too much if it doesn't turn out perfect. Here is a picture of the storage with the OSB sides and bottom and 1" x 2" wood frame. We used a 2" x 4" stud at the top center as this will eventually receive the piano hinges for the lids. Looks like a coffin. :/
Center storage compartment on it's side.
We bought a six foot long piano hinge and cut it with a hacksaw to fit our needs. The lids will have about 1-1/2" of overhang at the head and foot end of the compartment. Make sure there is about 1" between the two lids at the middle of the support. The 1" gap ensures that the lids don't hit or bind on one another when opening.
The overall dimensions for this compartment are 14" tall, 27" wide, and 77" long (80" long including overhanging lids).
I highly suggest that anyone who may attempt this project sketch out the bed and its components and create your own Cut/materials list. I am providing my list to be used as a "check."
Cut/Materials List:
Cut from pine boards:4 - 1" x 2" x 76" (frame)4 - 1" x 2" x 24-1/2" (frame)6 - 1" x 2" x 10" (frame)1 - 2" x 4" x 24-1/2" (frame)
Cut from OSB (we used 7/16" thick OSB as it is more available and cheaper):2 - 1/2" x 13.5" x 26" (end)2 - 1/2" x 13.5" x 77" (side)1 - 1/2" x 26" x 76" (bottom) 2 - 1/2" x 26" x 39-1/2" (top)
Miscellaneous:2 - 23" piano hinges1 lb box of 1" long screws, used throughout the whole project1 lb box of 2" long screws, some used now but most of which will be used later in the projectWood glue at every connection so the bed feels extra solid
Part 2 is HERE
Stephanie
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