Since I posted a photo of my bedroom on Instagram, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I DIY’d my platform bed. I realized that I had taken photos of the whole process while I was doing it last year, but I never got around to writing a post about it. Sometimes mom brain really sucks, y’all. 

So, I finally took some photos of the finished bed and thought I’d show you guys how I turned two twin box springs into a pretty upholstered “platform bed” for our king-sized mattress. 

DIY Upholstered Platform Bed

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What You’ll Need:

• 1X4 boards (the number of boards will depend on your box spring measurements)
• wood screws (at least 1 1/2 inches long)
• cordless drill
• 6-8 wood bun feet
• 6-8 metal foot attachment plates
• quilter’s batting
• upholstery fabric (I used 9X12 drop cloth that I washed and dried first)
• staple gun and staples
• curved upholstery needle
• upholstery thread
• miter saw or table saw

What You’ll Do:

(Note: I did this for our king-sized mattress, which requires two twin-sized box springs. If you are doing this for a queen, full or twin sized mattress, start at Step 5.)

1. First, set your twin box springs upside down and side-by-side on a level surface. Measure the length of the long sides and cut two 1X4 boards to your precise measurements. Cut the outside corners of your long boards to allow for the curve of the box springs. Lay them on the long sides of your box springs. 
2. Next, measure the space between the long boards on the short sides (head and foot) of the box springs. Cut 1X4 boards according to those measurements. Place them on your box springs to make sure they fit. 
3. Now take the measurement of the space between the boards on the short sides of the box springs in the middle where they meet. Cut a 1X4 according to your measurement and place that board over the boxsprings where they meet.
4. If all of your boards fit and you are happy with their placement, start screwing them down onto the box springs using your wood screws. Remember to screw the board in the middle down on both sides.
5. On each corner of your box springs start attaching your foot attachment plates (and if you’re doing a queen or queen sized bed, you may want to put an attachment plate in the center of each long side and two on the middle board to give you extra support). If your box spring is lacking in wood to screw in all four screws of the plate, consider attaching a small square piece of wood to the corners of your box spring and then attach your plate to the square piece of wood.
6. Now take your batting and lay at least two layers along the long side of your box spring. Start attaching to the wood with your staple gun. I did the long sides first and then the short (foot) side of the box spring. I only went around the corner of the other short (head) side of the box springs because this won’t be seen when all is said and done.
7. Once your batting is done start laying out your fabric on one of the long sides of your box springs. If you want to get all fancy, you could sew three pieces of fabric together (using the measurements of your particular box spring) to create proper corners for your platform bed, but I am not fancy. I did this the easy (read: lazy) way. I used drop cloth because I love it and it’s easy to work with (it already has finished edges!) and it’s what I had on hand. You could also do this with fabric other than drop cloth by sewing some finished edges on a length of fabric that you will use on the short (foot) side of the bed. There’s really no need to sew finished edges on the long sides because the edges will be hidden. So, start by stapling a length of fabric along each long side from corner to corner. Do this on both long sides.
8. Now take your length of fabric for the short side and line it up evenly on the box spring. You’ll start stapling in the center and then work your way toward one corner. You’ll want your fabric to be long enough to cover the whole corner plus a few inches around the corner of the box spring. Remember to pleat the fabric around the corners as you staple. Repeat on the other side from where your started in the center.
9. Okay. You have all your fabric stapled on the underside of your box springs, right? Good. Screw in your bun feet (I spray painted mine the day before). Now borrow a strong friend or husband or neighbor and have them help you flip the whole thing over.
10. Starting on one of the long sides, pull your batting and fabric taught and staple it to the frame where you can. There isn’t much wood on the top side of a box spring so you’ll have to use your fingers to feel where there’s a cross brace and staple where you can (at least a few inches away from the edge so you don’t see the staples after you put the mattress on). Where there’s no wood, you’ll have to sew the fabric onto the lining of the box spring using your curved upholstery needle and some strong, thick thread. I found the most effective way to sew the fabric on was to just do an in-and-out about an inch apart with the needle and thread and then tie it in a knot. Then I moved down about two inches and did it again. Repeat. Do this on the other long side as well.
11. Now pull the fabric and batting on the short side of the box spring taught and repeat the staple-where-you-can-and-sew-the-rest process. The pleating around the corners will have to be secured with your needle and thread.
12. Once you have all of your fabric secured to the top side of your box springs, cut the excess fabric.
13. Borrow that strong friend or husband again and have him help you put the mattress on your new platform bed. You’re done! (I did not secure the bed to my headboard. If you feel the need to secure the headboard, I’d secure it to the wall as opposed to the boxsprings.)

Here is my finished product now that we’re in the new house. You can probably tell we changed the feet to ones that were a little taller because when we got our new headboard it was a bit taller than the antique headboard we started out with. That’s the beauty of this project: you can make your platform bed as low or as high as you want depending on the height of the feet you buy.

We also used low profile box springs so if you use a normal sized box spring, keep that in mind when trying to determine how high your want your bed to be. Overall, this project is very easy, it’s just time intensive. I love how our bed turned out and it was so much cheaper than buying a platform bed frame!

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