Case in point: Sultan Lade slatted bed bases:
It's $20 for twin sized, $30 for full, $40 for queen and $50 for king. That's just crazysauce when you do the math.
Lowes sells furring strips in 1x4x8 for $1.99 each. For twin through queen sized beds, this wood is perfectly fine. For kings sized I'd go with proper 1x4x8 whiteboard that is $3.27 each from lowes. It's a sturdy wood that won't bend so easily.
Sultan Lade's come with 13 horizontal wood slats that are cut in half and attached together to prevent slipping and sliding by a thin cotton band that is stapled to each slat to keep them all equidistant.
This can easily and cheaply be redone. I'm going to run the math for a queen sized bed since that's what our guest bed is, but you can adapt the numbers for the varying widths of twin/ full/ king beds too.
Furring strips are 8 foot long, a queen bed is 60 in wide, or 5 feet. Ikea packages their Sultan lades in twos that meet on the metal center support rail, so each slat is 30 in wide, or 2.5 feet long. Therefore, you can get 3 slats out of each furring strip. Lowes will cut them in 30 in sections for free for you. Are you with me?
Instant enlightenment.
Ikea uses 13 slats but we decided on 12 since I dug a piece of 1x4 pressure treated wood out of the free Lowe's cut pile next to the saw. Using 12 total bed slats calls for exactly 8 furring strips since you need 24 slats (once they're cut in half). 8 furring strips is $16, much better than $40!
Now you just lay them out on the central support where they need to be. Tear strips of cotton out of scrap fabric you might have on hand.
Using your staple gun, staple the cotton strips into place to prevent them from sliding around.
It does use a lot of staples but I had all of this on hand so it was free.
Ta Da! I scoff at your moneymaking schemes Ikea! With the money saved, I bought curtains! :)
Nice work... it's true, it's silly to spend a lot of money on just some boards to go under a bed! Crazy-sauce!
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I inherited my grandparents beautiful iron bed. The bed was given to them as a wedding present back in the early 20's. When I received the bed (from my mother) there were 5 wooden slates used as supports for the matress. These babies were OLD but still intact. While putting the bed together for my daughter, I wondered how many times someone could bounce on that bed before those slats would break. Perhaps 4 generations worth??? Ya know, they just don't make things like they used to, even wood. :)
ReplyDeleteLove your blog. It's very funny, honest and informative. You and your sweetie Rob, make a great team.
Vanessa