DIY Upholstered Bed Base – Daily Sparkz®

Our new bed is ready! I finished the padded slatted frame on Monday, and then my mom came over yesterday morning to help me hang the headboard on the wall, put the slatted frame in place, and move our mattress into the bedroom. I’m so happy with the result!

I don’t like the legs I bought for the base, so I ordered new legs. They’ll be here on Thursday and I’ll swap them out then. I thought the legs I ordered were more of an antique gold because that’s what the picture on Amazon showed, but in reality they are a very bright, shiny gold. I tried using Rub ‘N Buff on one of them, but that didn’t work. So the new ones will be turned wooden legs.

Let me show you how I made this DIY matching upholstered bed frame.

To build the frame I used 3/4″ plywood and 1×3 lumber. I wanted my plywood sides to be 10 inches high and to fit around a queen size mattress. So I ripped the plywood to 10 inches using my table saw and then cut two of the pieces to a length of 62 inches and the other two pieces to a length of 83.5 inches. I joined these pieces together using Spax cabinet screws. And then I attached the 1×3’s to the top and bottom of these pieces of plywood. I cut four of the 1x3s to 60.5 inches long and four pieces to 82 inches long. I attached these to the plywood using 1.25 inch 16 gauge nails. These 1×3 pieces served no structural purpose. They simply added thickness to the bed frame at the top and bottom edges, which I think would look better after upholstery.

I couldn’t capture the whole thing in one picture, so I created this diagram to show how the pieces fit together when looking at the entire structure from above. The inside parts are the 1×3 and the outside parts are the plywood parts. Once everything was assembled, the base had internal dimensions of 80.5″ x 60.5″.

In hindsight, I wish I had allowed more room for the interior dimensions of 81.5″ x 60.5″, as our mattress ended up fitting quite tightly into the base, leaving no room to store the comforter in the frame, which I would have preferred. But I’ll live with it.

Here’s another look at the frame after all the pieces have been screwed together and nailed into place.

Next, I wrapped high-loft fleece around the entire frame, wrapping it around the inner 1×3 pieces and stapling it to the bottom edge of the 1×3 for the top and to the top edge of the 1×3 for the bottom.

Here’s a look inside. You can see where I stapled it with my narrow crown stapler that works with my air compressor.

I started at the head of the bed (i.e. the part that is no longer visible when you tuck it under the headboard) and then worked my way around the entire frame. Once everything was covered in batting, I went back and trimmed off the excess batting (and of course forgot to take a photo of it). But all the excess batting was trimmed off before I moved on to the next step.

With the batting I was ready for the fabric. I cut several strips of fabric about 20 inches high and then sewed them together, making sure they fit the patterns. I made this strip long enough to go around the entire base, leaving about 12 inches left.

And then I ironed all the seams flat with the steam iron. I was quite relieved when I saw how well this fabric covered the seams.

I ironed the seams on the front and back to ensure the fabric is perfectly smooth and flat.

And then, starting again at the head of the bed, I wrapped the fabric around the entire base, making sure the pattern was straight.

And then I started tacking the fabric at the head of the bed, just like I did with the batting. I worked my way around the base in a clockwise direction, ending back at the head of the bed. As I worked my way around, I made sure the pattern was straight, pulled the fabric taut to the right, and pinned it to the 1×3 lines. Once I was completely finished, I trimmed away the excess fabric to create a clean look.

The hardest part was the corners, but I folded them over like I would wrap a present, making sure I had a crisp, clean fold.

When I got back to the head of the bed, I simply folded the fabric up to about an inch and then stapled it directly to the fabric. Again, it is mounted on the wall and under the headboard so it is not visible at all.

After all the fabric was tacked in place and the excess fabric was cut off, this is what it looked like.

For the inside, I started by attaching a 2×4 to each long side. These went directly under the 1×3 which were wrapped with batting and fabric. I attached these with 2″ wood screws, and as you can see I used a lot of them.

This is what it looked like with the 2×4s attached to both long sides.

And then I added more 2×4’s to the inside and spaced them out evenly. I originally thought about attaching these using my Kreg pocket hole jig, but then went in a different direction.

I ended up using joist hangers to attach these to the inside sides of the 2×4. Joist hangers are intended for use with 2×6 or 2×8, so they were too long for my 2×4. So I just used my grinder to cut off the excess metal and then I had to drill two more screw holes in the hangers to make them work with my 2×4s. It was actually very easy to cut screw holes and drill them in. And then I was able to get these inside the 2x4s right under the 1x3s on the edge.

And then I added four additional legs to the ones in 2×4. These didn’t need to be pretty since they weren’t visible, so I used 2×2 lumber and attached them with wood screws.

The final step was to add the slats. For these I use twelve 1×4s. I haven’t nailed these in yet because I want to remove them when the new feet arrive. It’s easier to remove this weight if I need to flip the base over to attach the feet. But once the new feet are in place, I’ll come back and nail these slats in place.

And that’s it! This is the finished bed frame. Well I guess it’s almost done as I’ll be replacing these feet. But the hard part is done.

Here the headboard is hung on the wall and the base is attached.

I’m so excited to see how this turned out. I can’t wait to put all the bedding on!

I’ve made headboards and even built a bed frame before, but this one is my absolute favorite. I am so proud of this project.