Jefferey Pouros
Today we’re breaking down all of the steps for the build-out of Lucy’s fully custom floating loft bed. We also took a healthy dose of inspiration from the Petersik’s beach house bunk bed project. Lucy’s bedroom is long and narrow, so the best use of space was to orient the bed perpendicular to the room’s footprint.
In order to build the 3 sided structure in the most stable way possible, we measured, cut and built all but the front board outside of the room. For reference, our platform was built to 86″ wide x 41″ deep to accommodate the 75″ x 39″ Leesa Studio Mattress. Now that the framed structure was secure, it was time to attach the 1/2″ sanded plywood skins to the top and bottom.
We made thes cuts intentionally 1/4″ short to allow for easier installation and to accommodate drywall imperfections – but don’t worry, any visible gaps will hide beneath small trim and a bead of caulk. Before nailing, we laid a bead of construction adhesive on all contact surfaces to keep squeaks and movement to a minimum. The sturdy rough carpentry was now in place and it was time to move on to trim and finish work. We started this step of the process by leveling and installing a nice piece of 1″ x 10″ poplar face board using 2″ wood screws.
It’s cost effective, straight and largely knot-free, which makes it great for work that will be painted. As you can see in the photo below, it’s constructed by joining two poplar 1″ x 2″ boards and a half-round 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ oak bar edge moulding.
These were built with a 4″ stagger to sit directly on top of the poplar face board, which protrudes exactly 4″ above the platform base. Happy with our dry fit, we moved on to trimming the top piece to the exact desired length with a 45° miter on each end.
Once dry, we attached the railing to the poplar face board with a few short wood screws from behind. We knew the mattress would completely cover these braces, so we didn’t feel the need to camouflage them with anything but paint. To fill the dead space at the foot of the bed, we built a custom hidden charging station! The stealthy black outlet inside is a combination two outlet/USB/USB-C plug that should be compatible with almost any electronic device.
Setup can be tricky the first time but Graco has a free customer service number, and a real live human being will even answer! Our sprayer had a small clog that we couldn’t figure out so we called the number and had it cleared in three minutes. Catfish immediately did what she does best and made herself right at home and promptly fell asleep on the bottom bed. We happened to have a velvet remnant from when we reupholstered our Milo Baughman chair, and it turned out to be an almost perfect match! The Milo chair recently found a new home through our YBH flea instagram account, so this felt like a fun tribute. We’re (im)patiently waiting for this bed to arrive, but Lucy is already settling into the new space nicely.
