Bed

Ok... here's another from the archives [also May '08].

The history behind this project starts with the fact that I've been sleeping on the floor for a long time. I actually find the floor most comfortable, but now that I had moved into big house with a big room, I thought that it might be nice to have a proper bed. You know... swing your feet over the edge in the morning, that kind of thing. Since I didn't want to sacrifice the firmness of my sleeping experience, I decided to build a frame, but to use a sheet of Medium Density Fiberboard [MDF] instead of a mattress. I should note that I've always used a little mattress pad over the rug or whatever, so I'm not sleeping directly on the floor. The mattress pad is kinda weird. I picked it up about 6 years ago when someone else was throwing it out, but it's made of an egg-crate type foam that has a bunch of little magnets inside with the idea that the magnets have some healing properties... maybe that's why it's so comfortable.
As it turns out the bed of my bike trailer [I'll have post that one soon] is 3' x 6' which perfectly accommodates a twin mattress. Looking at the trailer I realized that with a few small alterations in design, I would have exactly the bed I wanted. With that in mind, I basically recapitulated the construction of the trailer and added a few nifty little features that I've always wanted in a bed.

My Bed

Integrated reading lamp. This was a cheap desk lamp that I got my freshman year in college from Bed, Bath and Beyond or one of those stores. It was really cheap and broke almost as soon as I got it, so I had to put on a new switch or something like that. It used to connect to a large base by a threaded protrusion from the bottom of the neck that had a nut on it which ended up being a perfect solution to connect it to the junction box I used here.

I realized early on that I would have to brace each corner in all three dimensions to have a suitably rigid frame. When that was built, I just laid a sheet of MDF accross it and put my mattress pad on top.

The switch operates the lamp, and the power strip is there to accommodate any electronic devices I may use on the tray (laptop, alarm clock, etc.). I plan on improving the cable routing for that...

So this was the most exciting part: the bedside table swivels around to be a lap desk if you sit up against the head board. I accomplished this by using Loctite when I threaded the pipe into the bottom flange and put bike grease on the threads into the top flange. I didn't know if that would hold up to weight out at the edge of the table, but it's been surprisingly robust and smooth.Bedtime reading mode

Bonsoir lune