Tight budgets can be a hindrance when your decorating a house. However, for an awesome DIY project that costs less than $500, take a trip to IKEA and home depot. Seven cabinets in varying sizes can create a full sized platform bed with over 70 square feet of crawl space underneath for storage or play. The inventor of this creative use for cabinets, a man named Chris, notes that if you use wall cabinets, you can use any brand and style.
He used the IKEA brand SEKTION cabinets with incredibly cheap doors from the Haggeby line, and an open cabinet from the TUTEMO line. The TUTEMO cabinet was the smallest one he used, and made it the smallest step. This bed takes around six hours to construct, so set aside a good chunk of your Saturday for it. It costs less than $500, however. The dimensions of a full sized mattress – which is what this project was meant for – are 54 by 75.
This will need to be the space in the middle of all the cabinets. Three cabinets with the dimensions of 24X15X30 are used to create the nightstand and platform area on the side of the bed. At the foot of the bed, from the wall out, you have four cabinets. Their dimensions are, starting from the wall and meeting the side cabinets: 24X15X30, 15X15X30, 15X15X20, and 15X15X10. These are the steps:
The first thing you should do is set up the cabinets. It could be done in the bedroom or in another room, which is up to you. On one of the largest cabinets – those measuring 24X15X30 – do not install the back or the shelves. Save the back, however. It will be used. Line up the three 24X15X30 cabinets and use a clamp to screw them together. There should be one screw in the back of each cabinet and two in the front. Screw them to the wall so that the opening of the cabinets are facing out. The one without the back or shelves should be in the middle of this line. Next, screw the other cabinets together in this order from left to right: 24X15X30, 15X15X30, 15X15X20, and 15X15X10. Use the same fashion you screwed the others together. Then screw the largest cabinet to the wall. Again, the opening for the shelving and door should be facing outward. The 15X15X10 and a 24X15X30 should meet up at the corner. This is where the unused back comes in. Cut it to fit into the difference in height and width. If you don’t want to use screws everywhere, use glue to make sure it stays. An angled rivet will hold the corners together. Take 1 by 4s and find the studs on the walls. Drill the supports into the wall. Then drill a 1 by 4 onto the back of each line of cabinets. Across the length of the mattress opening (IE from the wall to the steps), screw a 2 by 4 in the middle. Then use 1 by 4s to create support planks. You will need twelve of them spaced three inches apart. Once the planks have been screwed down, put the shelves and doors on the cabinets. You can fashion a jig to make sure the knobs are in the same place if you like.
The door on the cabinet without the back should be put on last. Do not put shelves in this cabinet. For the steps, take a rubber backed rug and cut it into sizes for the steps. Use cheap paneling to create a safe surface on the platform. If you want, you can add a light in the crawl space underneath and an extension cord to allow the phone cords and light cords to be “hidden”. Tubing will keep your back from hitting the wood in the crawl space. Voila! There is your platform bed, and it can be created in one day.