DIY West Elm Alexa Bed Frame Design, Build, and Plans

It has been an action packed year and there are a lot of projects I need to get everyone caught up on! Last winter my wife and I decided to upgrade our bed/mattress to a king-size. Finding a mattress was the easy part, but holy-sticker-shock-batman, the cost of modern rustic king size bed frames was ridiculous!

Not only did the cost get me going but the build quality on some of these units was marginal at best. My wife and I shopped around but we ultimately agreed that spending $3000 on a "nice" bed frame wasn't something we were comfortable doing. While money was part of the problem, it was the build quality and fear that the bed frames would creek, groan, or come apart over time.

Instead, I opted to fire up Fusion 360 and get to work designing a modern rustic bed frame based on the West Elm Alexa Bed Set for our new king-size mattress. I decided to make the design as accessible to everyone as I could. What I mean by this is I made the following key design decisions:

• To base the design around readily available materials you can get at big box stores and lumber yards.
• Incorporate construction and build techniques that don't require a plethora of specialty woodworking tools.
• Be sensitive to how long projects like this can take - not everyone wants to build for half a year!
• Honor woodworking design best practices so materials can move seasonally as humidity levels change.
• Make the construction and assembly of the bed frame strong so that creeks and groans don't occur at the most inopportune times! 
• Create a timeless design that isn't part of mass America's "throwaway" culture.

Modern Rustic Headboard + Baseboard Design

Sturdy Slat-Style Base

Standard King-Size Frame

Read More