This was one of my first large-scale furniture builds. At the time I had a pair of threadbare loveseats I was desperate to replace but didn’t want to buy a couch. Also at the time, building a couch was well beyond my skill set having almost no experience with upholstering, and little experience woodworking. So after seeing some plans online for a daybed build, I decided to make one for myself.
A daybed is something like a cross between a couch and a single bed, with an arrangement of loose pillows providing back support. With the pillows pushed out of the way it makes for a comfortable napping spot, hence the name.
The leg posts are made from a beautiful dark-red cedar stock, and the rest of the stock is simple pine. I decided against staining and instead kept the natural wood finish. I especially like how the dark cedar contrasts with the relatively light pine. The knots in the cedar provide a bit of continuity between the two tones. I used water-based polyurethane to finish the piece.
The cedar stock had a lot of knots which I generally like. However knots are often problematic because the wood around the knot tends to shrink away from them over time leaving a gap. (or perhaps the knot shrinks) At the suggestion of other woodworkers, I used epoxy to fill the gap then sanded it flat. The results are excellent and I can highly recommend this technique.
The front and back rails attach using bed rail clips, making it easy to disassemble for moving. The mattress is supported by a pair of mini pallets, later reinforced with plywood after I realized they weren’t strong enough. In retrospect I would rather used a single sheet of thicker plywood, or use thicker stock for the supporting pallets.
The left/right end frames are assembled using mortise and tenon joints. The vertical slats are glued into a long groove with spacer blocks in-between.
Overall I’m very happy with how this turned out, especially considering it was my first large scale furniture project.