Hi, folks. I'm finally getting to the captain's bed project and am impressed with the myriad of design decisions that must be made. I'd appreciate hearing the voice of experience from you on some of them.
Headboard and footboard:
For starters, I want to use some reclaimed pine for the headboard, footboard, and corner posts. I don't have enough of it to do much more than that. The rest of the bed will be built out of new pine and plywood. The shape of the headboard has been designed by my son, looking kind of like a moutain range. The posts will be made from undressed 2x4s (i.e. full size), but I haven't decided yet if I'll laminate two of them together and turn them on the lathe. If I do, I'll need to turn them in two pieces per post since my lathe isn't that long.
Drawers:
The drawer pattern I'd like to use is similar to this:
The bed frame:
The whole thing will be able to move on retractable wheels using a mechanism of my own design that was successfull on my router table. To support all the weight across the middle I'll have plywood on edge, criscrossed somehow between drawer ends and sides of the cupboard. How thick should this supporting plywood be? How thick should the top be, where the mattress will sit? (Note: I don't want any visible plywood; I don't like the way peeled grain looks.)
Moving day:
I don't plan to live here forever, so I must be able to disassemble the bed into pieces that can fit through the door, but still have enough structural integrity on their own not to be damaged and light enough not to require circus strongmen to carry. Do you have any brilliant ideas of how to do this without sacrificing too much drawer space or overbuilding visible parts of the bed? For example, take a look at the picture in the link I provided. The lip holding the mattress in place appears to bolt to the footboard, but it seems too wide for my taste.
Please comment on anything else you think might be relevant to someone embarking on a project like this. I'm at the most flexible stage of the project and good work now will save me much trouble later, I'm sure.
Thanks!
- Owen -