We have been wanting to create a showpiece bed frame to finish out our bedroom since we added onto our house two years ago. We have been torn on the look that would most perfectly compliment the feel that we were striving for with this space. We had been slowly adding furnishings to the room and got to the point where the only thing left was the bed. Most everything we saw was very gaudy or very much time stamped until we stumbled across the Studio McGee inspiration. It was the perfect blend of modern, classic and tasteful. We loved it so much that we seriously considered buying it but several factors persuaded us otherwise. First, the pricetag after shipping and handling was north of $5,000, and it was almost 6 wait time. But the real kicker is that it didn’t come as a California King.

After a bit of back and forth and debating what to do, we decided to attempt building it ourselves. It was a scary and intimidating conclusion to come to, but we decided to dive in. We gathered as much information as possible from the website and set out to gather materials and supplies. The bed is constructed of Maple wood so we went to our local hardwood supplier and found they were extremely knowledgeable and surprisingly eager to help us. We muddled through some of their terminology and learned an immense amount of information in a short amount of time. Wood from a milled source is measured in ‘fourths’ of an inch. Four fourths is an inch thick, eight fourths is two inches. Our project involved both of these thicknesses which ultimately decided which maple we chose. The soft maple was only available in 4/4, but the much harder Rock Maple came in 8/4 also. We sifted through a unit of lumber to select the ideal boards for straightness, grain and other attributes. The total for the lumber was just over $400. We then stopped by a woodworking supply store and purchased a few clamps, glue and ‘biscuits’ for the project and spent about another $200, mostly in tools we would be able to use again for future projects.

Once we were unloaded and set up, we began ripping boards in the table saw to clean up rough milled edges and get boards cut into the required sizes. A CalKing mattress is 62” wide and 84” long so this is where we started. We started by building the footboard. We ripped the boards to 8” tall and 67.5” long. We cut three of these then used a plate jointer to cut grooves for the biscuits. This is essentially a small wood disc that gets sandwiched between two pieces of wood and glued to hold it all together better. After all the biscuits were in place, everything was glued and clamped. Once ready, a 2 ¼” x 24” piece was added to each side to further join everything together. Finally, the 2 ¼” x 80” legs were attached so that the footboard was 4” off the ground. The same procedure was used for the headboard, except using 7 horizontal boards. Next we cut the side runners that are 12” tall and 84” long. I made some attachment brackets from wood that allow it to be assembled and disassembled with ease that are further detailed in the pictures. Last, the top boards were cut. These are 2 ¼” wide and 2” tall. The longer two boards get the tops notched out at each post, and the shorter two boards get the bottoms notched out at each post, again, better detailed in the pictures. Once we had all the pieces built, we assembled the bed and began the finishing process.

This is a long and tedious process. Hardwoods from a commercial supplier are roughly milled and not at all ready to be finished furniture. A lot of the roughness was taken out in the cutting stages, but much remained. We started by using a hand planer to take away any steps or height differences in all if the joined pieces of wood. These are the ridges and  bumps you can feel as you run your hand across the joined pieces of the head and footboard. After that, we used a belt sander with a very coarse belt (60-80 grit) to grind out any rough milling or remaining ridges. These two processes are very aggressive and are still very much in the woodworking and shaping phase. Once everything looks good and feels consistent, its time to start sanding and polishing everything to perfection. We used a random orbital sander and started with 80 grit pads. After vigorously sanding the entire bed, we started all over with 120 grit, and eventually finished with 220. Once everything feels perfect and smooth and no scratches or swirls remain from the coarser grits, the staining began. We tried several light whitewash stains on scrap pieces but the hard maple didn’t really take to much of the products. We had some pickling white wash left over from another project and were surprised to find out that it was exactly the effect we were looking for. This product is interesting because it doesn’t do much right away, but overnight it really goes to work. The next day we found that it had perfectly softened and lightened our bed exactly like we’d hoped.

Once all of this laborious work was completed, we disassembled the bed and brought it into our room. Once we set it all back up and staged it with some beautiful bedding and room accents, it was very clear that the fruits of some difficult labors and well made choices had yielded an absolutely stunning piece of furniture that we will love and cherish for years to come.