Previously, I wrote about how I found the picture of a blanket chest that I had forgotten about building. In this case, it was the reverse. I clearly remembered making the bed, but couldn’t find a picture. Thankfully, my mom came through, recently finding one after I had mentioned not being able to locate the photo.
So enough about the quest for the picture, what was it that I built? In this case, it was another bed, one for my cousin. He gave me the freedom to choose the design. I had recently seen a picture of a bed like this and thought it was a great idea so I showed it to him and he approved. Then I set off to make the Mountain Bed.
The headboard is the mountains and the footboard is, well, the foot hills. Foothills? You get the idea. I liked the way they “fit” as the two ends of the bed. This bed is made entirely of maple. The project started with rough sawn lumber that I milled down to boards I could work with. The headboard and footboard are simply multiple boards glued up edge to edge. The mountains and foothills were drawn free hand, cut into the panels and then sanded and sanded and sanded some more, until they were both smooth – and looked right to me. The legs are also glued up, but on their faces, to get the thickness I was looking for. The legs have a small chamfer at the top and bottom, while the mountains and foothills received a roundover.
The side pieces have bed rail hangers mortised in to the ends, and they connect to the mating piece that is mortised in to the legs of the headboard and footboard. I used the same ones on previous beds and they worked well – a solid connection, but easily undone to move the bed in the future. Then I added a small ledge all the way around the inside, upon which I could rest 3/4″ thick slats, and some 3/4″ thick plywood to form the base for the mattress. The bed was finished with tung oil and paste wax.
This project was fun for me as it was more design focused, as there were no new skills to master, or something specific to figure out how to do. Instead, it was more about keeping nice clean lines, the details like the chamfer on the tops and bottoms of the legs, and of course, the layout of the mountains and foothills. I am so glad my mom found a picture of it. Hope you like it.
Sawdusting 