Platform Bed Plans - 2x4 Lumber

Here's a DIY version of a platform bed plan that you can build using simple 2x4 lumber. The designer says he's never been satisfied with his exisiting bed, which apparently gave both him and his wife lower back pain. For the mattress, he uses two separarte layers of foam. The top layer is 2" of high-density Foamex, and the bottom layer is 3" of polyurethane foam from Carpenter Foam. The website goes into a lot (and I mean a lot) of detail about foam mattresses and even foam pillows. If you're interested, you can read more about them at the website.

The designer's main purpose for this project was to design a bed that provides the same kind of comfort you might get from sleeping on the floor. Maybe that sounds humorous, but for people who suffer from chronic back pain, sometimes this is the only relief they can get. A conventional mattress is simply too spongy and saggy to keep their backs from hurting after a long night's sleep.

A nice thing about this platform bed plan is that you can always take it apart, move it to another location, and then set it up again...thanks to the simple carriage bolts that hold everything together. The plan design also includes a fairly hefty head board and a foot board, although these can be modified a bit if you're looking for a more simple bed frame. The designer used a table saw, drill, and a router (the router is optional) to complete the entire bed project.

If you find that the web page photos leave to many unanswered questions about the construction, you can download a set of drawings that the designer offers to visitors free of charge. However, the plans are in DXF format, which is a popular CAD file type CAD programs support.