Furnishing Your Cabin: 4 Tips for Building a Bed Frame by Hand

Having a place to call home is important to almost everyone, but there’s nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment and independence that comes from building it with your own two hands. 

If you’ve recently built your own cabin, be it on the grid or off, you know this feeling well. Now, you’re ready to make it yours by handcrafting interior furnishings to make it livable. The most important piece of furniture you’ll build is your bed—after all, we all need a place to sleep.

You don’t need any fancy gear or specialized tools to build a sturdy bed and the rest of your cabin furniture. Using your portable bandsaw mill, a draw knife, and some simple hand tools like clamps and a chisel, you can create rustic furniture that’ll last a lifetime.

As you set out to build your rustic log bed, use these four tips to end up with a finished product you can be proud of.

Plan Around Your Mattress and Box Spring

Before you harvest the timber you’ll need to build your bed, start with a solid plan. When you know what your finished product needs to look like, you’ll have a better idea of what size logs you’ll want to use.

Sketch out what you want your bed to look like. To decide what size it should be, first measure the bedroom or section of your cabin where you plan to place it. Then, purchase an appropriately sized mattress and box spring.

Plan your bed to be about 1”-2” wider and longer than your mattress and box spring. Once you’ve completed your design, you can hitch up your ATV trailer and start the fun part.

Choose, Source, and Prepare Your Logs

Depending on where you live, you’ll choose the appropriate wood species for your bed, then identify the timber you’d like to use to build it. Once you’ve chosen your trees, simply fell them and log them.

When initially logging, it’s wise to cut your logs about a foot longer than what you need. That way, if you identify issues with a particular log, you’ve left yourself a bit of room to cut around or remove the problem area, which can help you avoid wasting the entire log.

Load your logs into your ATV log trailer, haul them back to your work area, and then remove the bark and cut your logs to size.

Cut Mortise-and-Tenon Joints

Using a drill—or, better yet, a drill press—along with a mallet and chisel, cut your mortise-and-tenon joints in each rail, post, and spindle for your headboard and footboard.

Remember that a typical tenon should be one-half to two-thirds the width of the rail into which it will fit.

There are a variety of methods for cutting mortises. If you’re inclined to use the mallet and chisel, more power to you.

On the other hand, you could save considerable time and ensure more consistent joints by using a mortising attachment or Forstner bit for your drill or drill press.

Assemble and Stain Your Logs

With your measurements double-checked and your joints cut, you’re ready to assemble your bed. Your best bet is to attach an eyehook to each corner post, then run cables diagonally from each post into the center.

Connect them in the center using turnbuckles to tighten them and hold the bed together. Adjust for squareness as necessary.

Once all your logs and spindles are together, you can sand and stain your logs. You could complete the sanding before assembling the bed, but waiting until all the pieces are together lends itself to a more rustic look. The choice is yours.

Once the stain is dry, you’re ready for a box spring, a mattress, and many a good night’s rest.

About Woodland Mills

Exceptional performance from products built to last at a price point hobbyists can justify—that’s what independent sawyers, woodworkers, and landowners worldwide expect when they turn to Woodland Mills. Woodland Mills consistently delivers superior quality at an unbeatable price by combining innovative design, cost-effective manufacturing, and direct-to-customer sales. Since childhood friends Neil Bramley and Josh Malcolm founded Woodland Mills in 2009, the company has become an industry leader. The Woodland Mills lineup of best-valued forestry products started with the flagship HM126 portable bandsaw mill and has since grown to include wood chippers, ATV log trailers, log arches, and much more. New Woodland Mills offerings include the powerful TF810 PRO PTO Wood Chipper, uncompromising HM136MAX™ portable bandsaw mill, and the nimble Pathlander™ UTV dump trailer. See just how affordable quality can be with Woodland Mills.

Tackle any project with the best-valued products from Woodland Mills at https://woodlandmills.com/