How to Build a Platform Bed With Drawers

A set of drawers beneath a full-size bed allows you to take advantage of and organize more than 25 square feet of storage room. Though you can spend hundreds on a prefabricated bed frame with under-bed drawers, building your own at half the cost is a project well within the grasp of most novice and intermediate woodworkers. These plans are for a full- or double-size platform frame with drawers beneath, but you can build for any size mattress by adjusting the lumber sizes.

Things You'll Need

• 4 beams, 2 inch by 8 inches by 54 inches
• 4 plywood sheets, 1/2 inch by 54 inches by 37 1/2 inches
• 6 plywood sheets, 1/2 inch by 7 1/2 inches by 24 inches
• 6 plywood sheets, 1/2 inch by 7 1/2 inches by 33 inches
• 3 plywood sheets, 1/4 inch by 25 inches by 33 inches
• 3 drawer or cabinet pulls with accompanying screws
• 72 finishing nails, 1 inch long
• 32 wood screws, 1 1/2 inches long
• Power saw
• Power drill with screwdriver bits
• Hammer or nail gun
• Sandpaper
• Paint
• Paint brush

Instructions

Prepare the Lumber

1. Use your power saw to cut store-bought plywood sheets to the dimensions required.

2. Sand all faces of all lumber twice, once with coarse grit sandpaper and once with fine-grit paper.

3. Apply one coat of paint to all surfaces of your lumber. Allow to dry.

Build the Bed Frame

1. Set all four 2 by 8 beams on the ground, parallel to each other and with their ends lined up. All four beams should rest on their narrowest, 2-inch, faces. Set the beams 33 inches apart, from inside edge to inside edge.

2. Set two of your 54-inch by 37 1/2-inch plywood sheets side by side on top of the frame formed by the beams. Screw them in place with 16 wood screws, two evenly spaced screws per sheet per beam. Drive the screws through the plywood and into the beam beneath.

3. Flip the frame over so it rests on the plywood. Set the remaining two 54-inch by 37 1/2-inch plywood sheets on the beams and attach, just as you did the first two.

Build the Drawers

1. Get two 7 1/2 inch wide plywood sheets, one 24 inches long and one 33 inches long. Set them in an L-shape with the shorter sheet on end against the longer. Nail them in place with three finishing nails.

2. Repeat step one with two more plywood sheets of the same size, building a second L-shape.

3. Connect the L-shapes to form a rectangular frame: the walls of the drawer. Use three finishing nails per corner to attach them.

4. Set the 25-inch by 33-inch plywood sheet on top of the frame. Connect with one nail in each corner, driven through the sheet and into the frame beneath. Reinforce with two nails per side, evenly spaced between the corner nails.

5. Flip the drawer box over. Attach one drawer or cabinet pull to the center of one 33-inch by 7 1/2-inch plywood sheet.

6. Repeat steps one through five twice more, to build two more drawers. If your bed will sit with both long ends exposed, build a total of six drawers, three for each side.

7. Slide the drawers into the gaps between the beams of the bed frame so that the pull is facing out.

Tips & Warnings

• The finely sanded drawers should move smoothly enough, and will move more easily as time goes by. If you have trouble initially, rub a bar of soap against the bottom of the drawer and the floor of the drawer chamber.

References

• Gene Brick; Furniture Hobbyist; Hillsboro, Oregon
• "Step-by-Step Basic Carpentry"; Ben Allen; 1997
• BetterSleep.org: Mattress Sizes