My work was delayed by indecision yesterday. The legs of the bed have handles that must be attached before the legs are installed. I had to decide what handles to get before I could go any further. I want the cabinet to look like something original to the house. I needed handles that had a traditional look, but I also like unusual. Traditional/unusual? I looked for hours before it came to me. I would use door knockers! Ha!
It was late afternoon by the time I got to work. Then some heart-stopping problems happened.
Problem one: For the locking mechanism, I had to cut holes in the face panels. Because of a funky setting on my fancy jigsaw, my cuts were a little wonky. Dang. But they’re covered by the bed leg panels, so it won’t show. (whew!)
Problem two: Here’s something that is implied in the instructions, but not said explicitly: The bed frame will not be exactly square. When you try to attach it to the face panels, it will be off. Alarmingly off.
But the directions describe how to methodically screw the face panels on, so that everything squares up. (whew!)
Problem three: The leg holes were supposed to match up with the bed frame struts, but one of them was off by one sixteenth of an inch. D’oh! I was almost going to cut the hole bigger, but wouldn’t it be better to shim? I searched the basement and found something that was exactly one sixteenth of an inch thick: a paint stirrer! (whew!)
Every day I think you are braver and braver. You didn’t curse and decided to scrap the whole project? Hero! The play-by-pictures really capture the drama, and my eyes hurt from scrutinizing them. 🙂 So exciting!!!
I just went to their website and drooled over the process. I didn’t realize this wasn’t going to be floor-mounted. That is so cool! Are you going to submit yours to their Bed-Of-The-Month page? ‘
By the way, door knockers are genius!
Gotta say it: Nice knockers!
You took the words from my mouth Deborah! Middle school humor … “You said knockers! He, he!”
I’m glad that in the end you had a wHew filled day!! But I can’t begin to understand why the bed frame was off….and then once it got screwed on, it wasn’t. It’s like magic! I continue to be amazed with this whole project! You are doing a remarkable job!!
And now let me get this straight:
1.That flat, thin-ish piece of wood with the door knocker on it is the actual completed leg? I guess I’ve just never seen a bed leg like that. Although now that I think about it, I don’t know what my bed legs look like.
2. Who will get to sleep in the Murphy bed when your family comes to visit?
Now it’s a lock – this absolutely HAS to be a DIY series soon. It has all the genre’, too – drama (curses – too many 1/16″ discrepencies !)…mystery (will this actually work when all is said and done?)…medical (burned fingers from backed out screws)…humor (door knockers for handles!). You. are. a. genius. And should you shudder at the thought of hosting your own TV show every week, you ought to at least be able to recapture your original financial investment my releasing the DVD of your adventures to places like Home Depot and Lowe’s (so long as the Murphy bed people haven’t already beaten you to that…or you’d be breaking any copyright laws…or other stuff I haven’t thoguht of yet.) And we can all say we knew you when you were “just Brad.”