Shannon Baird of SBaird Design and The Joinery collaborated to fill the needs of a client who wished for a beautiful queen-sized platform bed with adjoining nightstand. Here is the process of taking these old walnut slabs and transforming them into an amazing one-of-a-kind bed.

We started with a pile of wood.

The first image of slabs. The Western Walnut lumber was salvaged from a Central Oregon tree that had to be taken down and was re-sawn so that our final head board thickness would be 1.5” thick instead of the original 3” thick.

To keep the live edge detail in tact as much as possible, the bark had to be glued and taped in spots while the piece was wide belt sanded and hand sanded.

The Western Walnut red and purple tones stand out once the boards are sanded down. The three silver spots on the bottom corner are bullet remnants that stay with the lumber when it was milled.

The platform of the Bed was assembled separate from the headboard. All pieces of the bed were made with Solid Hard Woods and therefore had to be constructed to allow for the expansion and contraction of the wood.

The miter joint on the Night Stand has been biscuit jointed and then glued to ensure the longevity of the piece.

The nightstand completely assembled with Dovetail jointed Maple drawer sides and a Western Walnut front.

All parts of the bed lined up ready to assemble.

Setting up the base and headboard in shop.

Final bed in its new home.

[Photos: SBaird Design and The Joinery]