Castle Platform Bed

Safety doesn’t have to look institutional

What is it?

Over 300 pieces to this simplistically complex project. Cabinet-grade, birch ply with Ash structure and trim. The whitewash finish is Mixol white dye in polycrylic and the trim is ebonized and topped off with clear polycrylic.

It fits a full size mattress so give this special needs little girl room to grow. When she is old enough, the walls easily come off and we can add rails.

The plans are in the pictures, but like all projects, my plans are “guidance” and I’ve probably made 100 changes to them along the way.

What did we learn?

Learned a lot with this project, including using dyed finishes, milling smaller and smaller custom trim pieces (and the tedium of managing these pieces through the process), building platform bed structures, and working with UV resin (not a fan…yet).

We were also reminded about making certain changes later in the process. We were originally going with a “standard” mattress, but ended up getting a thicker one. That added 6” additional inches, necessitating making the walls a little higher.

We also had the idea to use a wood burning kit to permanently etch letters into the different components that can be assembled and disassembled. We placed them where they cannot be seen as pieces are connected. The letters made it so quick and easy to put it all back together after the finished cured!

In Closing…

I’m thankful to our Holy God for the resources and guidance in building this. I’m thankful for my wife, who put up with a disappearing husband, who held down the fort with the plethora of kids while I worked to get this built over five weeks. I’m also thankful to all the other woodworkers who have given advice and answered questions I posted on social media.