Meet Joy’s bed. It’s a full-sized mid-century modern bed made of kiln-dried/steamed walnut. The original design for this bed was from a maker in California but was unavailable for purchase so I took the design, made a few modifications (height, rail lengths, headboard sizing) and, voila, there you have it.
It’s a solid bed as there is no racking, creaking, or noise….no movement of any kind….because of construction techniques. All loose mortise and tenon construction and the headboard is solid 3/4″ wood…no plywood. I spent a great deal of time making a large mortise and tendon for the connection of the rails to the headboard posts and drilling straight holes, inserting metal inserts into the end of the rails, and using 3/8″ bolts and washers to tie it all together. And the inserts are mounted into epoxy so “there ain’t no way” they’d ever strip out. Solid, but this bed can be broken down quite easily if Joy ever moves to another location.
Walnut is always fun to work with too. It smells good, works well, and the result with finish applied is beautiful. A really fun and rewarding build.
