do it yourself platform bed frame !

so i measured the seat heights of my various sofas etc and they range from 15 to 17 inches and when i sit down on them and compress them with my weight the range becomes 12 - 14 inches.

the lowest profile bed that i like in Ikea is 10-3/8 inches tall and my mattress is probably going to end up 11 - 15 inches tall so as you can see it doesn’t exactly work out.

so i had many ideas how to build my own bed frame of the height i require. i’m comfortable building things out of wood, have many power saws and drils, but i don’t want to breathe in saw dust and there would be a lot of sawdust to build a ~200 pound bed frame.

anyway i keep coming back to my original idea that i had before i even knew what latex foam is - and the idea was not to use a bed frame at all - but instead make the mattress so thick that it goes all the way to the floor !

of course making open cell PU foam this thick is just asking for the mattress to develop body impressions, plus the foam simply doesn’t come in heigh enough ILD for this to work - however nobody said that i have to use open cell PU foam !

i can use closed cell XLPE foam which is semi-rigid, and only weighs 2 pounds per cubic foot, so my entire bed if i make it 7 inches tall ( which is what i want ) would only weigh 38 pounds, compared to Ikea bed which weighs over 200 pounds. in fact the bed would weigh less than 2" Venus memory foam topper - which weighs 44 pounds.

furthermore i would be able to disassemble the bed at any time as it would simply consist of foam blocks laying on the floor so even my grandma would have no problem moving the bed from one room to another ( once i took the mattress off of it ).

this is the foam in question ( called minicell ) :

http://www.foamforyou.com/minicell_foam.htm

what do you think ?

Hi g1981c,

I’ll wait for you to try it and sleep on it and then you can tell me what you think about some of your rather “unusual” experimental theories which is all that really matters.

Phoenix

ok well i found a better foam:

https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Mats-Anti-fatige-Interlocking-Flooring-each/dp/B001SUO44E/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1366688975&sr=1-3&keywords=eva+floor+mats

EVA is the same kind of foam that is used to make sneaker soles, and this one appears to be 3+ pounds per cubic foot based on shipping weight so i think it should do the job. if it starts developing body impressions i can shift the squares around to randomize it.

problem is the price. to add 6 inches to Queen size bed will cost $500 with this method. that doesn’t really work for me to be honest.

however there is a small chance that by the time i complete the mattress it may be so thick that i may only need about 4 inches of elevation - in which case this may be the ticket.

the good news is that today all my foam shipped ! even Arizona Premium Mattress one ! so i will have to wait until i get all my foam ( it will be a total of 10 inches ) and do the testing and make decisions on whether to add any more layers and then based on the final mattress thickness i can decide on which solution to use for the bed frame.