Hi there my Steemian friends, I trust that I find you all well. It’s been a while since I last posted, I’ve been a bit busy.
I’ve just finished my first big project of 2017 and I’d like to share it with you. My client has recently moved into a small house, his first, and has been struggling for storage space but doesn’t really have room for a large closet, or even a small one!
He approached me at the end of last year as he had seen some of the other solutions I had come up with and thought I could help. After chatting for a bit I suggested making a bed with built in storage, he didn’t have a bed either. He liked the idea and went online to have a look for something that he liked.
A day or two later he came to me with a photo and said he wanted it King Size. We sat down once more so that I could get a few more details. I needed to know the preferred height of the bed, and the headboard; the level of the night stands is also optional. Some people like them to be level with the mattress whilst others prefer them a little lower or indeed higher.
After we nailed down all the details and agreed a price I went off to source the materials and get on with the build.
The first step was to build the skeleton of the bed base
Next on the list was to build the drawers, all nine of them!
Once the skeleton and drawers were completed it was time to cut, plane and finish all of the 'skin' pieces, including the headboard and night stands this came to 70 pieces. This part of any project is kinda boring as it's repetitive and extremely dusty but I've found it can be quite meditative and often lose myself creating other pieces in my mind as I undertake this automatic and robot like stage of the build process.
Then it was time to assemble the bed to fine tune all the fittings but my workshop was just too small so I carried all the components upstairs to the vacant apartment above. This was quite a challenge as the skeleton pieces each weigh about 70lbs and are an awkward size, being a third of King Size (roughly) each. As I work alone it was with great care and the occasional swear word that I took each piece upstairs.
The next step was to stain every piece. My client had specified that I should stain everything black, even the parts which would never be seen. Almost five Gallons of stain later the bed was finally ready to be disassembled and moved up to my client’s house for final assembly and installation. At this stage all the component parts are not only screwed together but I reinforce every union with a generous amount of wood glue. At this point I would like to add that I have a habit of overbuilding every piece I make, partly because I never want to return to a completed job to re-do any part of it, but also, as many of you will know from your own experience, we’re only as good as our last job so quality is an essential part of the process.
Thank you for reading. I hope you like the finished bed.
I’m happy to say that my client does and we will be sitting down next week to discuss his next piece.
Credit to 