DIY Box Spring

My wife and I recently moved into a home that had much potential to be a quaint little home for us. If course it was build in 1912, so I am assuming the staircase leading upstairs was either not there originally or was built in a time when queen size mattresses and box springs were not around.  Either way, with or without the railing, yes we took it off hoping it would fit, but it did not. The mattress fit with a bit of pushing and pulling, turning and twisting, however the space, at any angle, was about 4 inches shy of letting the wooden structure through.

So we slept with the mattress flush with the floor. Which worked for a while and then we realized that it was the reason we were waking up sore and unrested. So we looked up a few ways to lift the mattress off the floor. We were wanting to spend as little as we had to. After looking and calculating the cost to build a frame that would sustain the weight of the mattress as well as two grown adults, and we decided to come up with our own way.

Then my wife remembered how her bed was set up as a child and wanted to give it a try...so we took some measurements, went shopping and got right to work. Once we were done and spent our first night on the new set up we were thankful we had done it.

It was quite simple really. I will tell you how easy it is to lift your mattress off the floor and give it the support it needs to help you get a better night sleep if you have the same issue as we did or just don't want to go out and buy a box spring. We did this for less than $50 (if you have a bed frame - $100-125 if you don't), which is far less than the price of a box spring, and you can too.

A standard Queen Bed is 60in x 80in in dimension

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• 2 - 7/16in thick 4ft x 8ft plywood sheets ($10 each at Home Depot) cut into 30in x 80in (half the size of a queen bed
• 3 - 1in x 4in x 10ft boards/studs ($4.85 at Home Depot) each cut into 2 30in boards to fit widthwise
• Bed Risers, set of 4, (around $12 at Walmart) or you can just use the wheels for the frame, we wanted it a bit higher than that gave us
• Adjustable Metal Bed Frame
• Depending on the frame you may need 2 sets of bolts, nuts and locking washers
• 1 king size flat sheet cut in half lengthwise

TOOLS TO HAVE HANDY:

• Staple gun and Staples
• Adjustable wrench's or Ratcheting wrench's with the right size attachment for the bolt, we had a Husky set so I used one of each

NOW TO GET STARTED...

Set up your frame and add the Risers or Wheels.

Now we are going to add the middle bar, grab the wrenches, nuts and bolts. Slide the middle bar on making sure that everything is matched up. Ours has a hole on the biddle bar and the frame.(Your frame should have plastic pins to push into these holes, ours had broke so we made due with what we had)

You will want to make sure that the locking washer is put on before the nut and after the bolt is put through the hole as shown below. Use the wrenches to tighten them together.

Once the frame is all assembled lay the 1in x 4in boards across making sure they are taught as so...don't mind the cat, he is kind of a nosey nancy. If you are using risers like we did you may want to use the scraps from the 1in x 4in board and stack them under the leg of the middle bar.

Next we decided to use half of a king size flat sheet to cover the plywood and protect the mattress from getting splinters. We laid the sheet out on our dining room floor, folded in a side, and stapled it about 1/4in from the edge of the sheet. Remember once you get the first edge stapled to make sure it is tight by pulling the opposite end before stapling it. Once done it will look something like this. (Bottom side of board that faces the floor)

Now you are ready to finish setting up the bed. Lay each sheet of plywood down lengthwise to create the flat surface for the mattress.

And then the mattress.

Viola! You have now raised your mattress off of the floor and given it a bit of sturdiness and support.

(If you choose to use risers and not the wheels, we bought rubber leg replacements, set of 4 at Wal-Mart about $4, remove the wheels and slide these on. This will ensure that the bare metal does not break through the plastic risers)

I hope that this helps you and yours as much as it did for me and mine. TTFN Until next time.