How to Make a Platform Bed from IKEA Boxes by Yourself?

Julia, a blogger about renovations from Germany, loves sleeping on high beds that are hard to find in stores. She had already made a bed by herself, but after moving she needed extra storage space. That's when the idea came to combine bulky dressers with a high bed. We share an instruction so you can make such a bed too.

You will need:

Materials:

✓ IKEA Nordli dresser with 4 drawers;
✓ IKEA Nordli dresser with 8 drawers;
✓ corners (12 pcs) + screws;
✓ slatted bed base with a width of 140 cm;
✓ fabric tape;
✓ mattress with a width of 160 cm;
✓ wooden shelves 54 cm long (for a corner bed).

Tools:

✓ drill,
✓ utility knife,
✓ pencil,
✓ screwdriver.

To avoid buying additional dressers for the back walls, you can use wooden shelves as shown in the photo below, which need to be placed on their side. Their height should match the height of the dresser.

If your bed, like the author's renovation, stands in a corner, instead of additional dressers you can install wooden boxes.

Step 1. Assemble the bed base

First, you need to assemble the IKEA furniture and wooden shelves. Then place the dressers and drawers so they form a stable frame measuring 160×200 cm. Connect them with corner brackets.

To attach the corner brackets, mark the spots where the screws should go and drill holes using a wood drill bit. The drawers can be joined together by cutting the corner brackets in half, as the author of the renovation did.

Step 2. Attach the slatted base

Attach the ribbed side of the fabric tape to the sides of the bed base (along the length). Attach the other side to the slatted base. To save time, glue it entirely to the rails and then trim off the excess with a utility knife. Attach the slatted base to the bed frame.

The author of the instruction decided to use fabric tape so that she could periodically lift up the rails – the center part of the bed is also used for storage.

In the center of the bed you can store Christmas ornaments, suitcases, sleeping bags and other rarely used items.

Step 3. Almost done!

The bed base is ready. You just need to find a mattress of the right width (160 cm). Don’t skimp on the mattress, as a quality one will ensure healthy spine and sound sleep.