Headboards

[Wilson]

I have a plan for a bed from plansnow.com and really don't want to make the rails and footboard. What type of hardware would I need to attach the headboard to a metal bed frame? I really don't know.

[Allyn Vaughn]

Why not just attach the headboard to the wall and have the bed move freely up against the headboard. That way you can move the bed without the heardboard. Lot of motels and hotels do it that way.

Allyn

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The metal frame will have one of two methods. Many just bolt on. You drill a couple of 3/8" holes and use bolts and nuts. The frame is free standing on four casters, the heaboard is bolted to it.

[Silvan]

Bed rails come in two flavors. Bolt-on and hook-on. The latter require the installation of bed pins inside slots in the headboard and footboard.

I've never built a headboard, but I've had to futz around with our bed dozens of times. It's an old bed from around WWII, and it had wooden rails attached to the headboard and footboard with hooks. The pins failed several times, the rails broke. I have metal rails on it now, and have patched up the pins to keep them in place, but it isn't very satisfactory. The headboard wobbles and slams into the wall on those increasingly rare occasions when SWMBO and I take our bed for a spin.

I think if I were building a headboard and rails from scratch, I'd go with the floating frame idea someone else just suggested. Either a free-standing headboard, or one that's affixed to the wall in some fashion, with an independant frame. Bolt-on rails might be OK too, but I would avoid the problem entirely. In either case, I would definitely stay well clear of hook-and-pin rails unless you just use your bed for sleeping. ;)

[Jim]

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:1DQSb.30783$ [e-mail]:

If you attach the metal frame to a headboard, don't expect it to be rigid. A tiny bit of wiggle at the attachment point works out to a lot of movement

36" higher. I'd attach it to the wall.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Of course it may move a bit, but that is how my headboard (two different beds) has been for the past 37 years.

You can attach it to the wall, but then the headboeard may not be in the proper position in regards to the bed frame. When we got our present bed frame, we did not have a headboard for a few months. Judging from the way it was just against the wall, I'd not want to do it that way. The headboard is now back where it was designed to be, on the frame.

Attaching it to the wall also give less options for moving the bed to a new location.