Railroad Bed by JLS for JLS – 2000 (RIP 2010). As the title indicates, this piece is no longer with us, but I wanted to highlight it anyway as it was one of the first real items I created.
I moved to New York for the first time in late 2000. The move took me from a ~1300 square foot loft to a ~600 square foot apartment. In anticipation of the move, I started to think about space saving ideas and storage requirements. A number of companies that tailor to small apartment dwellers offer beds with under-frame storage in some form. You can also purchase long slim containers at your favorite store that will easily slide under a standard bed frame. Both of these ideas seemed pretty boring and I needed a project.
What you see here is the combination few items. Note that the orange headboard was added in 2009 (and has since become something else that I will discuss another time) - the original design had no headboard. I built a series of five beams that were made to look like stainless railroad rails. “Real” steel or iron would have weighed a ton, so they were faked by using pine studs wrapped in sheeting with bolts near the ends to mimic rivets. I also built four drawers using cedar and hemp rope. As with most of my projects, the materials used here were (mostly) reclaimed or remnants from other things. The result was a fairly cool platform bed that also allowed me to feel ok about losing a closet in the move.
Ah, design flaws. As you can see in the photos, the “rails” stick out quite a bit and have some nice corners…that are also sharp and take a lot of getting used to if you are used to a “normal” bed frame. I got used to it over the years, but it was not a winner when this because the frame for the guest bed in recent times. As with other sharp metal things, this became a liability when my daughter arrived, and needed to go. To every season turn, turn, turn...the cedar has gone into some outdoor benches, the metal was all recycled, the studs are now a wine rack, and the rope is on reserve. Remember - reuse is part of the equation!
If I had to do over again, or, say, if someone wanted to talk to me about recreating this design, I would either look to dull the metal corners or perhaps use interesting reclaimed timbers instead of the fake metal rails. Real railroad ties are another option, if your floor can support the weight. Ping me on the blog if you want to chat about this one.
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