Kids' beds

Here is a project that I did back in 2000.  The bed was built for my older child, who's mattress had been sitting on the floor for a few years.  To make things easy on myself I purchased the legs, this meant that all I had to make was the frame rails and the headboard.  The bed is made out of white maple and tiger maple for the head board.  The bolt covers were not on yet when I took the pics.

The finish was a three step process:

 1) Water and Transtint dye with a light sanding afterwards.  This gave the wood that antique maple look.

2) Boiled linseed oil, this pulled the grain out a little.

3) Shellac was used as the final coat.  This added a little shine to the bed and would help protect the wood from kids' yuckie stuff.

Disclaimer:  that's not my bench in the background, it's too ugly.

The bed rails attached using mortise and tennon joinery followed with a through bolt, just like in the old days.

Here you can see my most noticeable boo boo.  I wasn't paying attention to which side the mortises were being cut.  Quick thinking on my behalf saved the day, so to speak, I put plugs into the leg, now it looks like decoration.

Here the little guys are testing it out.  So far there have been no durability issues doe to small people abuse.

I still have to take pictures of the second bed.  It is practically the same except the head board is made with birds eye maple and my craftsmanship is better.