If you’ve attended just about any school in the US, you’ve heard the term reduce, reuse and recycle. But this goes way beyond sorting paper and plastic. There are many low budget ways to upgrade your bedroom space such as changing the linens (curtains and bedsheets), painting or even just rearranging your room. For the Spring 2023 one room challenge I was doing all of these things. So while doing one of thing here or there wouldn’t be costly, when you are doing them all at once the costs begin to add up. So, I had to get a little savvy with how I updated this space so I could save some coins.
One of the first things I did was project planned to determine what I was willing to spend and what items I could get to stay at or under budget. Check out my blog, Pen & Paper: Project Planning Basics, to see more about how I budgeted and planned this room makeover.
During planning for this room makeover I knew I wanted to keep my daughter’s existing bed. We bought this beautiful platform bed about 3 years ago from rooms to go and it has definitely been through some things. While the frame of the bed is still intact, the platform that holds up the bed was leaning on the Lord’s side. So I decided to remove it from the bed entirely and build a new one out of 2 by 4’s.. Yall!!! This whole refresh cost me about $15 not including tools.
See below for the tools used and process for how I upgraded her bed platform.
Circular saw (miter saw if you have one)
Pocket hole screws (2 inches)
Interior screws (1 ½ inch)
Nail gun (optional)
Clamps
4- 2 by 4's
In order to stay at my budget I reused the slats and even some of the screws. I began by removing the bed platform from the frame. Next, I measured the inside of the bed frame and then cut my 2 by 4’s down to size using my miter saw (you can use a circular saw to achieve these cuts) I used three in total, two for the ends and one down the middle. For the bed frame legs I cut down the remaining scrap pieces to the desired size. When determining my leg measurements I wanted the low profile box spring to sit slightly below the top edge of the bed frame, so this required my main four legs to be approximately 12 ½ inches long. I also knew they would be outside of the bed frame, as opposed to under the frame. So I also needed pocket holes on the 3 long 2 by 4 pieces on each end.
For the middle legs, I wanted them to be more secure so I glued up some scrap 2 by 4’s to make some 4 by 4’s. I clamped them up and waited for them to dry. When they were ready I added some pocket holes to them and then added 3 of them to the middle of the 2 by 4’s.
I used my drill to make pilot holes and then my impact driver along with 1 ½ inch screws to secure the slats to the 2 by 4’s. To secure the legs to the long 2 by 4' I used 2 inch pocket hole screws. To make my pocket holes I used the Kreg jig pocket hole jig 720 pro. However, I still own my first pocket hole system, The Kreg jig R3 Jr and it is a great and inexpensive beginner pocket hole system. I also forgot to make holes in my middle 2 by 4 so I pulled it out to quickly make some pocket holes.
I attached everything together and gave it a test run! Then the best part, bringing it from my garage to the bedroom upstairs. I enlisted the hubby’s help to do so and then set it up as a make shift bed for now. Since I am still in the process of updating the brick panel behind the bed I will most likely wait until week 7 to put the bed back together.
Let me know what you think by liking or dropping a comment below.
To see how week 5 is going for us all click the logo below to head on over and look for yourself. So glad to not be in this alone.
Check out my ORC highlights on Instagram or posts on TikTok for the play by play during the remaining 8 weeks.
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