Ready to feel a little lazy about that small home project you haven't quite tackled yet? Check this out: Michelle, a NYC resident and Apartment Therapy reader, designed and built her own bed (!) with the help of a friend with carpentry skills. It's a rustic chic design built from reclaimed farm fence wood - and the grand total spent was $16.
Here is Michelle's story: I've come to realize that furnishing an apartment can get very expensive very quickly, especially in Manhattan. To avoid breaking the bank, this past summer at home was spent scavenging for beautiful, but inexpensive household items. About once every month, I'd find my Civic joining the slew of pick-up trucks driving around my neighborhood, hoping to find treasures among everyone else's bulk trash. On days off from the farm, visits to Goodwill and yard sales became weekly rituals. I refused to Ikea-fy my room. It isn't that there is anything particularly wrong with Ikea furniture, but this was a chance for me to be creative and rise above the bedroom set. I was so excited with this opportunity.
Fence Bed
Made of:
-Old wooden fence posts, pickets, and rails
-some 4x4s and 2x4s
-eight 10-inch bolts, nuts and caps.
The majority of my full-sized bed is made of torn-up fencing found in an old barn at Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown Heights, NY.Most of the white paint was still in tact on the posts, which I scrapped and sanded off at my own discretion to maintain its weathered look. Not only was this wood absolutely free, but it also has so much personality!
The entire bed cost me about $16 (for the nuts and bolts) at the hardware store.
Yep, that's it.
This is one of my proudest creations. To give myself full credit would be unfair. A big thanks needs to go out to my carpenter friend Brian Carney, for helping me both design and build it, and to Mom and Dad, for not only sweatily helping me reassemble it for two hours in the August NYC heat, but for also renting the U-Haul van to get it down there in the first place.
Visit Michelle's blog for the full set of step-by-step photos: Fence Bed | M.L. Design
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GO GIRL! Your bed is fabulous!
nice! how did you make sure the wood was free of bugs and microbes?
It's beautiful! Yes, bugs are the first thing I thought of too.
It's very pretty, definitely--I do worry about your sanding old paint, though. I'm assuming you wore a serious mask and somehow contained all the sanded material... And you'll have your pillows and sheets rubbing up against old lead paint?
Very inspiring Michelle, looks terrific and so comfy
decogirlmontreal
I am very impressed. Creativity+!!!
I'll pass. I'm petrified of splinters.
So cool! Regarding the bug worries - grab a bag of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth at most any local feed store. As the label implies - it's so safe, it can be consumed, even by babies and of course animals, but it's deadly to bugs of all types, from bed bugs to cockroaches and any crawly insect or parasite in between! Just rub some on the wood and the tiny, particles, which resemble unbleached flour, dehydrate and kill insects (including honey bees so be careful if you use it in your garden...)
Beautiful! I also had a thing for collecting pieces here and there and storing them or just letting them clutter up our smaller place until we got a "real home" I didn't want an Ikea look either. Good for you doing this yourself!
i really do need to get a photo of my bed to post. i made mine 10 years ago from 4 by 6 garden ties - however, it cost me about $50 Cdn at the time.
it's held together by carriage bolts and i stained it a deep espresso brown called Spanish Oak.
Cuute!
that's pretty great
What's with all the dust/splinter/microbe (microbes!) criticism? This is a practical and attractive, environmentally appropriate project made by an obviously sensible person. It doesn't seem to me that she needs anyone to nanny her. $16 versus the thou$and$ that some of this site's test beds cost seems like a no-brainer. Oh, do lighten up.
I don't know - I think bugs are a valid concern that I wouldn't have immediately thought of myself (I could see myself getting all caught up in the project and being creative.) It's not a criticism to point it out. And yeah, diatomaceous earth rocks! I live in an apartment building that had (HAS) bed bugs, but my unit is bug free thanks to D.E.
Also, the bed is awesome. :)
You should be proud! This is a nice bed with a great design. Too bad you had the added expense of the uhaul!
ddsdesigns@webs.com
Wow...that's amazing!!
WOW This is great I love it!
Brilliant! Eco-friendly, creative and chic! Congrats.
Totally not my style, and I'm another one who immediately thought of bugs and microbes. I do applaud your carpentry skills and initiative.
Nice work! would place smaller mats under the posts and somehow manage to lay your pillows over your bed that way your new headboard would be more visible. congratulations!
Great job. I love reclaimed wood furniture and this is no exception!
awesome! you could make a yellow/green duvet cover (like the meadow, get it?)
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/03/sewing-101-making-a-duvet-cover.html
Beautiful work! Congrats!
Can you tell me what kind of mattress you used on the slat frame? I'm about to replace my mattress.. Thanks.
I really don't think you need bug killer for this project. Some of you guys sound like germaphobes. The only think I might do if a quick coat of latex urathane. Benjamin Moore makes Stays Clear which goes on nice and doesn't yellow. I made my headboard from old tin ceiling tiles. blogged here http://sewbeeit.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/yet-another-project/ and here finished here http://sewbeeit.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/putting-another-job-to-bed/ .
Love the bed!! Other people's "junk" is my treasure! My husband and I love Halloween! So every year we scour the neighborhood for anything we can re-purpose for our Halloween projects. This year my husband made an "outhouse" as part of our skeleton family scene. The skeleton family went camping and the father skeleton was sitting in the outhouse reading his latest "Field and Scream". We wanted to find old boards to use for the outhouse and we didn't want to spend money. So I came up with the idea to call local fence companies and ask if they were currently on any jobs and if so, could we have the boards. Sure enough, a company said they were working on a job and if we could go load and haul them away, we could have all we wanted. After Halloween, my husband tore down the outhouse and now he will "re-re-purpose" it again for a winter cabin for our Christmas scene. You can check out the outhouse on FB. Bobbie Hynd-Wasilko. All the pics for Halloween and Christmas are open to the public. : )
I also have a homemade bed with slats that was put together from unfinished pine boards. Someone made it for me so I don't know how much it cost, but I bet pretty cheap.
I've had it about 20 years. In the last couple of years it's started squeaking like hell so I'm looking at getting an iron bed and chucking the thing. Banging my partners on it is getting too noisy.
wow... mad props for building something this big from scratch.. the bed is really cute and the sheets are well chosen (Im guessing they're marimekko)
What a great project! Love it :) I love seeing things repurposed. I'm just kicking myself that I didn't take pictures of the old futon frame before my hubby turned it into a mantle piece!
Totally unique!
magic =)
Nicely done!
It's a great bed, but I sure do hope that you reinforced that split left leg before you assembled everything. I've had two store-bought wooden bed rails split and fall apart, and the bruises from rolling onto the floor at 4AM are a genuine pain in the rear and many adjacent areas.
Happen to be writing the history of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas for a concert program ....and some of you guys remind me of him. She's an adult, she did a great job...ratchet down the green eyed monster.
so wonderful! i'd like to tackle something like this too =)
pretty cool...
This is great, I wish I was this talented. I want the comforter!