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This modern queen-size Walnut bed was designed to have a a minimal physical room impact while being a centerpiece of the room. The small footboard, low profile, and narrow tapered legs all contribute to its sleek feel. The one part of the bed meant to draw attention is the highly figured headboard which was made out of three book-matched boards.
Modeling this project was fairly straightforward -- four mortice and tenoned legs which will be glued to create the headboard and footboard. Most of the modeling work went into fine tuning the design to get exactly what the client was aiming for. The design process was one of my favorites. The client is an architect and had very concrete ideas on what she wanted but was able to communicate these ideas very clearly which made the process go very smoothly.
The client wanted the headboard to be level with the top of the rear legs of the bed. Keeping this large headboard flat and flush with the leg tops while also allowing for 1/4" - 3/8" of seasonal wood movement in the panel was an interesting structural design challenge.
I decided to use a play on a traditional breadboard tabletop design to achieve all of this. I treated the legs as the cross-piece of a breadboard end which will keep the headboard from warping over time. To allow for seasonal wood movement, I draw-bored each of the three tenons.
However, instead of fixing the center tenon (as a breadboard tabletop would be done), I fixed the top tenon and floated the two lower tenons. This will keep the headboard flush with the legs while allowing for seasonal movement. The changes will happen on the bottom of the panel where they are hidden inside the morticed leg.
The headboard runs parallel to the tapered leg. This creates a constant width reveal and also makes it more comfortable to sit against.
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