Next up, a bed! I put my good buddy the pocket hole jig to work again. It creates such sturdy joints without any fuss.

The bed requires some planning. It needs to end up the same height as the lid of the kitchen, so it’s all one surface, but I can’t just match the framing because the slat top of the bed and the lid of the kitchen are different thicknesses. And, the length needs to be figured as an addition to the depth of the kitchen so I have a good length for a bed. I settled on 75″, since I’m 5’8″ and, if hubby ever comes, he’s 6’1″.

I also want storage under the bed. And, I want a slat style bed that compresses to 30″ wide and expands to 48″ wide. I found quite a few examples of slat beds online, but none are exactly what I need so I’ll borrow the ideas that help and figure out the rest.

I’m framing it with 2×3″ lumber and using 1×2 slats. I’m sanding all of them so they are smooth.

Once the bed is framed, I need to figure out the spacing for the slats. I want them to be as close as possible so I have a solid bed surface if it’s extended, but I want the bed extension to slide smoothly.

See how there are two fronts? The fixed front, and then the extendable front. The slats will be screwed to alternating pieces of frame.

I cut up squares of cereal box to use for spacers. A stack of three ended up being just right.

Tada! Doesn’t it look cool! This is how it looks extended.

And this is the bed for one. I have a single size mattress, and I think the extra space on the kitchen lid will be great for setting things like a bottle of water and my phone at night.

You have to give the extension a pretty good pull to move it, so I created a handle in the frame so I can get a good grip.