How to make a pallet bed with your own hands
A pallet bed is an excellent choice if you want to decorate a room with a one-of-a-kind furniture model, and even not waste it. Making a bed from pallets with your own hands is an activity that does not require special skills or training; experience with some construction tools will be enough.
How to make a comfortable and creative sleeping place with your own hands, we will tell you in this master class.
How is a pallet bed arranged
A pallet bed consists of several pallets connected together. The dimensions of the berth, the headboard, the possibility of installing additional storage spaces are considered individually in each case.
Pallets can be used both as a whole and sawn into two or more parts, here again it all depends on the specific drawing.
Most often, a mattress is laid on the base of the pallet, and now a comfortable bed is ready.
In the manufacture of such furniture, standard pallets with a size of 120 * 80 cm are most often used.
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantages of a pallet bed are:
- the simplicity of creating a drawing and bringing the idea to life;
- no need to have special experience in the production of furniture;
- affordable cost of the main material;
- short production time for even the most complex project;
- compatibility with many styles of interior design;
- high environmental friendliness of the material.
Most often, pallet beds are chosen by those who could not find a suitable bed in their home in furniture stores. Indeed, even despite the countless number of furniture stores and factories, the models offered in them, as a rule, look like twins are alike, and choosing a bed with a unique design is a very difficult task.
A pallet berth can be made by anyone, and if you still apply some types of decor, for example, the same illumination of the base, you can become the author of truly unique furniture.
Pallets made of wood have another important advantage - the environmental friendliness of the material. Such products are not subjected to any processing, so a bed made of them will be an excellent help in maintaining the health of people and the safety of the room.
Disadvantages, first of all, come from the quality of the pallets used in the manufacture. If used materials are not new, they may need to be cleaned, which takes additional time.
Note! Buying new pallets will allow you to reduce as much as possible, and sometimes even completely avoid the long and painstaking stage of preparing the base for painting.
Varieties of pallet beds
Such beds, first of all, differ in the size of the berth - it can be two- or single-beds.
Pallets can be stacked on top of each other in a different order (more on that later), or you can make a simple berth from one row.
Depending on the placement, the bed may or may not have a headrest.
The surface of the pallets can be painted, or be in its natural form - then it will need additional finishing preparation.
The final appearance of each individual piece of such furniture is determined for individual needs.
How to do it yourself
Next, we will tell you how to make a do-it-yourself pallet bed. This process is not the most difficult, but just like any manufacture and assembly of furniture, it requires attention to individual details. The most important thing is to have a finished drawing of the bed before starting work. And then the manufacturing and subsequent assembly will be as easy as possible.
Definition with design and model
First of all, you should understand how many people will rest on the future bed. Most often, one or two-bed option is chosen. This nuance rests on the size of the mattresses, without which the lion's share of such interior solutions cannot do.
Recall that the standard size of one pallet is 120 * 80 cm. Accordingly, the final size of the berth depends on which side, narrow or wide, the individual elements are joined together. This means that the width of the bed in a single version can be 120 or 80 centimeters, in a double one - 240 or 160 centimeters.
With this size, standard mattresses, which can be purchased at any furniture or specialty store, will come in handy.
If a decision is made to equip the future bed with a headboard, an additional number of pallets will be required. Depending on the height of the base, use the whole pallet, or halved.
After you have decided on the final type, you can draw a rough sketch, and if you are satisfied with its appearance, proceed to the next stage - the choice of materials.
Selection and preparation of materials
This is the most important stage not only in terms of preparation, but also as a guarantor of a good final result. When choosing pallets for your bed, first of all, focus on their freshness and cleanliness.
The ideal option is to purchase new pallets. If this is not possible, try to choose from the used options those whose surface of the tree did not have time to blacken. This signals that the pallets have been exposed to moisture for a long time, which will negatively affect both the integrity of the material and the possible presence of mold and mildew.
Note! Regardless of the appearance, it is recommended to treat used pallets before starting work with furniture composition against fungus and mold. You can buy it at any specialty store.
When inspecting pallets before purchasing, be sure to pay attention that individual wooden planks do not have cracks. In the process of operation, such defects will appear squeaks, or even may break at all, then the entire structure will have to be sorted out.
It will not be superfluous to refuse to buy a wooden pallet with a large number of knots (on the surface they are visible with oval blotches in the board) on individual elements. Their presence also negatively affects the strength of the structure and is often the root cause of the presence of extraneous sounds during the operation of the bed.
The basic selection rule can be formulated in a few words - new pallets with integral separate parts.
Which pallets are suitable
If the pallets to be selected meet the above criteria for integrity and novelty, it must be taken into account that the individual elements used must have the same dimensions. Standard sizes 120 * 80 cm are best suited.
Note! When assembling, pallets of different sizes can also be used, but this will increase the assembly time, because additional work is required to cut them.
What tools will be needed
When purchasing pallets, make sure you have the following assembly tools:
- a set of screwdrivers, or a screwdriver;
- fasteners (metal corners are most often used);
- hand or circular saw, jigsaw (if you need to separate the individual elements of the future bed);
- sandpaper or sander;
- furniture primer and paint;
- roller or brush;
- marking tool - ruler, tape measure, pencil;
- hammer (when working with nails);
- nails or self-tapping screws, depending on the chosen method of fixing the pallets.
The easiest and fastest way to assemble a pallet bed is to use solid pallets. After all, cutting work will require the availability of the appropriate tool, and most importantly, it will take a considerable amount of time, especially when carrying out such actions manually.
Preparation of drawings and sketches
The sketch of the future bed should be ready at the planning stage, based on it, we proceed to create a drawing.
In this document, we take into account:
- the size of each individual element of the bed and the options for their fastening to each other;
- number of rows of the base;
- the presence and size of the headboard;
- a method of attaching decorative and additional elements, for example, storage boxes, lighting, furniture hooks.
You can improve the ergonomics of your bed in a very simple way - just lay the first row of pallets with the base down, and the next up. Thus, being combined with each other, between the individual parts of the pallet, an excellent place is obtained for placing the laundry box. Having decorated the resulting space with a furniture door, you can endow your bed with the functions of a wardrobe.
Step-by-step manufacturing instructions
To make the bed reliable and durable, you need to carefully follow the following algorithm:
- Create a rough outline of the bed based on existing ideas and needs for organizing a sleeping place.
The first step is to sketch a drawing of the future bed. - Selection and purchase of the required number of pallets. It is determined at the sketch stage and depends on the idea being implemented. For a single bed with one row of pallets, two pallets are enough (if you do not use a headrest). A double bed with additional storage space and a headrest will require 10 or more pallets.
The number of pallets depends on the size of your bed. - Finishing the wooden surface of the pallets. It is carried out from all sides for each element. It is necessary in order not to get hurt by the remaining splinters in the tree during the operation of the bed.
- Priming the surface of the elements and their subsequent painting (if provided by the project). After such processing, it is recommended to leave the pallets for 6-8 hours. The paint will not have time to dry thoroughly in such a short period, but it will stop sticking, which means that the assembly work can be continued.
After painting, the pallets should be left for a few hours. - Laying of individual elements and fastening them together.First of all, it is recommended to attach the headboard to the upper half of the bed - this will allow you to install the bed in its permanent place, and only then finish the work by fastening the lower part.
Pallets should be stacked starting from the top. - Decorating pallets with selected elements.
- Installing the mattress.
Laying the mattress is the final stage of arranging the bed.
Decorating the finished bed
As a decor for such beds, the following can be used:
- additional storage items - shelves, drawers, doors;
- furniture fittings - hooks, hangers;
- backlight elements;
- design elements.
Important! When using electric lighting at the base or head of the bed, it is necessary to make sure that the insulation of the wiring is reliable, because the wooden structure has an increased fire hazard.
Examples of the arrangement of beds in the interior
Depending on the monumentality and the main purpose of the bed itself, a specific location is chosen.
For example, a single bed that you do not plan to use on a daily basis can be placed in the far corner of the room.
The main double bed, over the creation of which was spent more than one hour, is placed in the very center of the room, and such furniture becomes the center of attraction for guests.
You can find numerous options for both the beds themselves and their placement in the interior on the Internet. If the pallet bed in the photo looks appropriate and attractive, you can safely use this design in your interior. Of course, making personal adjustments will only add individuality and comfort to such a bed in each case.
This article discusses in some detail how to make a pallet bed with your own hands step by step and with a photo. If you carefully follow all the recommendations, you can achieve an excellent result.
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