A Cherry Queen Size Bed

We finished the queen bed a couple of weeks ago ... just posting the photos now ..

With the short rails for the studios photo

Before the final hardware ... bolt covers and mattress brackets

4/24 We're underway on a copy of Sheila's bed. Sheila's my neighbor. She called me from her rental house in town after she closed on her new house a few years ago. She liked a bed on my website and wanted to come and talk to me. I gave her directions and she said: 'Nice! I just bought the house across the street.' These clients also found me on the internet and made the trip from Northwestern Massachusetts to check out our work in person. They liked what they saw and now we're making their bed. Will's doing the turnings and Trevor has finished the bolts and joinery and will make up the headboard on Monday ... Should be good to go by the end of next week .. Nice project ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...


CAD Drawing

Will roughing out the turnings with the duplicator

Cleaned up and first coat of varnish so they can be sanded one more time on the lathe. Once we drill them to join them (the 56" posts are too long to turni in one piece) we won't be able to put them back on the lathe accurately, so we do as much to them before then as we can ... saves time in the long run

upside down posts and rails bolted together. If you've been reading my blog lately, you'll notice that the stairs are gone ...

The jig for accurately drilling the bottom posts...

The "Lotus" Bed

5/16/08 I've been talking with a client about a queen size bed for the last couple of months and we finally got underway this week . We went back and forth for a while ... I got too fancy with the design and she sent me a simple headboard shape sketch and a sample "lotus" flower which we put together into the drawing and inlay sample below. I'm working on a finish sample that will lend the ash a "pinkish whitish tone" and we'll also be calming down the inlay either by tinting it whiter or by making the background outline and petals in say cherry and curly maple so they stand out less from the light color of the bed .... I think it's going to be very peaceful. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

With short rails for photograph

6/13/08 ... All finished now ... story below ...

The client's guidance sketches

Working drawing, except for change to side view at footboard

Gluing in the inlay background

'Petals' glued in .... Ready to clamp

Second step on the finish samples ... The wood has been sanded lightly and oiled

... we're looking for something like the 'pinkish-whitish' tone on the left

Test cut of headboard in mdf to guage proortions and overall feel
It's hard to get all the information that you need from a drawing and this process doesn't take a lot of time and lets us see if we know where we are going. In this case, we're going to rotate the flower inlay slightly, move it so the bottom interesection is on the centerline and move it up closer to the top of the headboard....

Close up of sample cut

The top of the headoard to be cut, sanded and inlaid before gluing to the rest of it shown assembled below

The first rough assembly and dimension check

Several hours of jointing and planing rough lumber

Our first sample inlay The bubinga wouldn't lighten up with the white stain so we changed to ash