Guys... have you ever heard your spouse say, "It would be nice if you made the bed once in a while" ?
I have, and I went way out of my way to do it...
When Karen and I decided to get a new mattress, we took the opportunity to "size up". Our previous bed was a queen-sized cherry "sleigh bed" that was part of a furniture collection by Basset. It wasn't much more than a panel with moulding, a rounded cap and some slightly profiled bedposts. Good opportunity for a new project!
It started simple. I was just going to duplicate our queen-sized bed with revised dimensions to hold a California king-sized mattress and box springs. It would have been finished years ago.
However, I drew some sketches and asked Karen what she thought. After the normal inquisition, "How much will it cost?" (< $1,000) "Will you need more tools?" (...of course...) and "How long with this one take?" (depends on how tall you want the grass to grow), Karen was convinced that it was a good idea.
Ours is an original design made of Cherry. I began plans in January 2004, ordered stock in February, got started in March and everything came to a halt in July when thousand of wormlike bugs hatched in my shop.
I resumed work during vacation in Spring 2005. I was able to complete the hollow curved support structure, rails, posts and veneer application.
I began carving the solid Cherry caps in Fall of 2005, but didn't make real progress until late December 2006.
In January 2007, I completed the planing, construction, sanding, staining and clear coating. It is now February, and it's in the house.
The "In Progress..." section at left contains all of the progress photos. Here is an original rendering of how the finished product was supposed to look.
Here is the finished product... I have to say, it turned out just fine. Sweet Dreams !
