New Beds

 I ran an ad on craigslist again, this time specifically targeting the hanging daybeds just to see if I could get any interest. My plan is to sell enough furniture to pay for the building supplies for the Boone house, and since I need to come up with about $35k, getting $800-900 for each of these beds will really put us on a nice start for that. 

Immediately, I got 2 responses, then nothing after that. The first response was very enthusiastic, and turned out to be money fraud. She wanted to send a cashiers check in the mail, then have her moving company come pick up the bed. Turns out the check came in for more than the original sale amount, and I was supposed to send the difference (about $1k) to the movers before they would come pick up the bed. Kelley made a copy of the check before depositing, and went down to the bank later to find out that it was a fake. Literally in the morning I was trying to pay the movers, she found the fraud. We were only seconds away from being out over a grand. In the end, I built a bed that I would have to sell to someone else, there was no buyer or moving company, just the fraud. 

The other response was a legit guy in Charlotte who wanted to surprise his family for Christmas. He was fantastic, and I built a really cool bed from hickory with cupholders and wine glass slots. 

it always starts as a pile of boards

then rough cut to length to start building the frames

Big pile of hickory and some oak to get started

Frame is put together and I have some 6/4 white oak shaped and attached to the bottom of the frame.

Start by forming the corners, these were 19" long in the front and 23" in the back

Form the arms to be level, and notch around anything that you need to. These have to go under the back as well.

unique notches around the back

This is the basic frame. Start with arms and the back, then fill in the rest of the wrapper. I wrapped the front already here.

then add all of the verticals and spacers in between

Add stain and topcoat an this one is done!

I don't always finish the back if it won't be visible once installed. Since I didn't know the install here, I did it anyway.

I built this one out of white oak. The frame is construction pine 2x3's and furring strips from Lowe's, but the visible parts are all some white oak that I had laying around. This is the fraud bed. I have some 1x6x16' white oak boards that have been air drying in the front yard for a while and they are good to use now, this bed took 2 of them. First I cut each piece to the length that I need, then rip it to 2.5" wide and get it through the planer. There are 2 pieces that make up most of the components so I can rip both of them out of one section of oak. So it's your basic grip it and rip it, then once I get plain components everything gets the belt sander 80 and 120 grit, then finish nailed onto the frame. Once assembled, sand it all again with 180, 220, and 320 grit palm sander. Then I finished it with a wipe on stain from Old Masters and topcoated with Ascend Exterior for a great finished look and long lasting protection.

This was a fun build, and eventually I did sell it to a great family!