Personal Bed Design Challenge Pt. 1

As we entered the new year in our new marriage my wife and I have decided that we were going to try to find a new bed for our master bedroom. Unfortunately, after large amounts of searching, we could not find anything that fit the bill for us. Fortunately, we both are very crafty open to each other's design styles so we decided to set forth and build our new bed design.

We started our design journey by making a list of what we like and dislike about our current bed. Below is what we landed on.

1. Large king size bed
2. Perfect height above the floor

As you can see there is not a whole lot about our current bed that we like

1. Has too large of an opening beneath the bed (Dogs toys get stuck underneath too often)
2. Too wobbly
3. Not a fan of the antique furniture look
4. No storage
5. Difficult for our dogs to get up into the bed
6. Too dark of finish
7. Headboard has no cushion

After putting the list together we determined the best route to move forward to get each of our needs.

1. Build the new bed with a very low to the ground or flush with the ground.

1. Make sure there is a solid connection point throughout the new bed.
2. Create a new traditional style for the bed. Get rid of a lot of the extra flourishes
3. Add drawers to the base of the bed – the more the better
4. Create a pullout stair section at the foot of the bed's dogs can use to climb up
5. Refinish the bed with a light stain or possibly paint
6. Create an upholstered headboard that fits with the style of the bed – possibly add wood trim around it.

Knowing all of our goals after creating these lists we went forth and spent a few hours on the computer going over different design options.  After about 2 hours of work, we ended up with a rough conceptual plan that you will find below. 

Our next step is to create a build set of the bed and do whatever we can to make it as light as possible and hopefully not built-in.