Who needs a boxspring anyway?

The inspiration for my design: The Emerson Bed by West Elm

We moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a two bedroom apartment that is an upgrade in more ways than just room count. It has a balcony, a large usable back deck, and a layout more conducive to entertaining. Now that we have an extra bedroom, we decided we needed a guest bed. We bought a decent mattress (apparently at a huge discount, but it was at one of the stores that run on discounts, which I don't trust any farther than I can throw a queen-sized mattress.) We opted not to buy the boxspring with it, which would have added over $100 to the total, because I wanted to build a slat-style bed frame.

In quantity of wood, this is one of the biggest projects I've worked on yet. And here's my wood pile to prove it:

I assembled the pieces with glue and dowels, using my corded drill to create the dowel holes. I've never felt more keenly my lack of a drill press than while I was drilling almost a hundred holes by hand. Hole alignment and vertical-ness also suffered, but let's pretend it was on purpose to give the bed character. 

Adding the blocky legs to the foot board. 

To save weight and expense on the headboard, I didn't use 4x4s all the way up, as it appears the Emerson bed does. I used 4x4s to frame the space and then filled in the interior with 1x4s. 

Time to cut the 1x4s to fit.

Not bad. 

I made the rails follow a similar, variable-length pattern with a single 2x4 spanning the whole length as the main structural support. Here's a photo of the headboard, footboard, and rails:

I used no-mortise bed rail fittings to hold the rails to the foot and headboards. I also included a middle beam, lengthwise, for additional support and to hopefully prevent mattress sag. 1x2 striplings form my slats and spacers. As you can see toward the foot, I miscounted the number I'd need:

The next step is to stain the exposed pieces and finish it with a hard-finish furniture wax. I'll post a follow-up of the bed when it's completely finished.