King-Size Solid-Wood Platform Bed: Project Complete

About 10 days ago I sat down and sketched out plans to make a solid-wood king-size platform bed. Today, I assembled the bed in our master bedroom. In my last post about this project, I explained a bit about the project, motivation, materials, and whatnot. So in this post I’ll just focus on the steps I took when finishing up the project.

Sanding, Finishing, & Assembly

I sanded all surfaces using progressively smoother sandpaper. I started with 80 grit, next used 150 grit, and finished with 220 grit. I didn’t bother sanding the 2×4 frame and slats since they were going to be under the mattress anyway, but all other surfaces received this same sanding sequence.

Once I had sanded all surfaces I used Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner to prepare the wood for staining. I waited 24 hours and then sanded the entire project again using 220 grit sandpaper.

Next I swept all surfaces clean with a clean paint brush and then vacuumed all surfaces using my shop vac. I was ready to start staining.

The stain we used was an oil-based product from Varathane that we purchased at Home Depot. If you’re interested, the color we used was Espresso. I applied the stain with a brush covering just a small portion at a time, no more than I could stain in about 5 minutes, and then wiped off any excess stain using a rag.

Once I had stained the entire project (except for the 2x4s and slats), I waited about 24 hours and then coated all surfaces with a thin coat of Minwax oil-based fast-drying clear satin polyurethane. I debated applying a second coat, and according to all the advice I could find online I probably should have, but we ultimately opted to stick with just one coat. If I were coating something that would get more direct contact, such as a table or chair, I’d have applied a second coat, but we really didn’t want a shiny heavy-build finish, so we stuck with one coat.

We gave the poly about 36 hours to dry before moving the bed up to our bedroom where I assembled it in place this evening. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

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