{60 minute} Supporting the Bed

I love my new bed set, but have been having some issues with the railing support system since I'm minus an actual box-spring.  The original railing system was a j-clamp wood rail with 3 L-brackets on evenly spaced to hold a box-spring, which wasn't feasible with my mattress.

The store owner is always pleasant and was kind enough to help me chose the railing above as an alternative, however, even with the 2" rail brace & the 1x3 planks that were 2" shorter then the width of the railing I felt as if the mattress was going to fall to the floor.   

The following Saturday I headed over to the second hand store to check out what other railings he had available and also to see what new furniture pieces have arrived since my last visit.  I did find a few railings options available, but one that struck my interest.  I wasn't sure if I would gain the courage to ask the owner if he would be willing to swap out the railings again in hopes that this one would be the last, and I am glad I did.

The store had 5 minutes till close and I had thought that I would come back in a few days to swap it out, but once I got into the car I swiftly changed my mind and headed home to grab the railing and within a few minutes I was back at the store with railing in hand and I left very happy with my new railing. 

Once I had the new bed rails I headed back to the house and connected them to the bed and was so glad that they slide right into the frame notches, especially since the last rails were a bit of a fight to connect.  Once that was done I remeasured to make sure that the width didn't change and headed to Home Depot to pick up new planks to fit the 2" width difference with the new bed frame.

I had originally planned to just pick up a few 1x3 planks and had a different plan then what I ended up with, which was basically the same deal I had prior, but a bit more costly.  The Lumber guy at Home Depot leaded me toward 1x6 planks instead of the 1x3, which would give more support and a 2x2 cut into 10 pieces to put under the planks for additional support across the bed.  The planks cost about $25 and the adjustable screws almost $20, which I though was a bit excessive so the screws went back.

At my next Home Depot trip I returned the expensive hardware and purchased a $3 pack of wood screws which I figured would service the same purpose only cheaper. 

Here are all the tools that I needed to put the frame support together.  The 2x2 strips were originally cut in 8-1/4" height, but turned out to be to tall.  We remeasured and it was 7-1/4 so we had them trimmed down but when I went to install them they turned out to be a half inch to short so this is where the furniture pads came into play; they gave me a bit more height which worked well.  I used my 9/16" drill bit to drill a few starting holes.

I forgot to mention and photography the velcro that I used to attach the planks to the railing so they wouldn't move.  It cost $3 for 2-4"  strips that I cut in half so I could stretch the velcro a bit.  The middle two planks didn't get any velcro.  The next velcro option was $10 and gave me more then I needed so that's why I chose not to velcro the middle two.

My drill wasn't strong enough to push the wood screws all the way in so I used the screwdriver to turn the screw while turning the foot the opposite.  I drilled right in my bedroom and used my shark vac to clean up the mess.  I installed 6 legs all together; 2 at the headboard, the footboard and in the middle.  I added 1-2 furniture pads under each leg depending on the height needed.  Once this was done, which took maybe a half hour we put the mattress back on the frame.

What do you think of my new boxspring?  I know I'm sleeping sounder and secure.