DIY Modern Upholstered Platform Bed

I've always liked this modern, low profile upholstered bed frame from Blu Dot, especially in the bright chartreuse color. When it came time to order a new bed for our bedroom I was sick of spending money and wanted to see if I could make a simple bed frame for a lot less.

I first had to find some bright chartreuse linen, but I kept striking out at local fabric stores and I didn't really have time to order something from a trade source. I even tried buying some chartreuse linen on eBay, but the color was way different than the photos when the yardage arrived.

I had just dyed the playroom curtains and figured it could be pretty easy to get a chartreuse color by dying white linen with equal parts lemon yellow and green apple liquid dye. The final color was a little more yellow than I probably was shooting for, but I really like it.

I had the handy man that was over at the house helping us with trim work build me a simple box frame for the headboard and a platform base from mostly scrap wood and a few sheets of plywood.

It only took him about two hours to build both pieces so the project ended up being incredibly inexpensive, even with all that wood.

Here's a photos of the underside so you can see how he structured the very sturdy base.

I was a little nervous to upholster the platform base with the Parsons style legs, but the headboard was a breeze. I used my cheap pneumatic staple gun and flew through the rows of staples!

I think the layer of high loft batting really helps soften the edges of the upholstery.

I started on the two long sides of the bed by tacking on the batting which I cut to fit.

I stapled the fabric on the top of the platform and pulled and stapled around to the underside, but I used fabrictac to glue down the front side edges.

It made for a surprisingly crisp line!

I also wrapped the inside of the leg with fabric using glue.

The only tricky part ended up being the front of the platform. I had to use a roll of upholstery tack strip, which I hadn't used in a while. I had forgotten how awesome this stuff is! It makes for perfectly crisp lines.

I cut the tack strip to size (the length of the whole side of the platform) and then stapled it in place while it was sort of rolled into the fabric. Then I cut batting to size and tacked that into place before folding the fabric around, right side up.

Just look at that pretty line!

I used another pieces of tack strip to make a sharp line on the inside of the leg too and glued that part in place.

Ta-dah! The upholstery tack strip really saved the day and made it pretty simple to get a Parsons style leg. I love the clean, strait lines of our bed!

Not bad for about $200 in labor and materials!