Faux Bed Frame/Box Spring Cover/In Lieu of a Bed Skirt Thingamajig

It's been kinda bugging me, the just out there not looking attractive box spring for our bed.  We've got the schwanky headboard and all but meh, the box spring, the rest looks like poop.  And you know me, if it looks like poop, I gotta un-poopify it.

Wah wah.  So sad.

Originally when we purchased the whole shebang, we bought the frame with it too, ya know, as one does.  I'm not sure what I was doing....oh, I was heading out to return the rented Menards truck....Mike offered to set up the bed.  All of it!  Wow, right?!  Sure babe, have at it!!  Finished set up by the time I get back?!  Love it.

Upon returning, indeed, the entire ball o'wax was assembled and wow, thanks babe!  He was so proud of himself too, it was so cute.

"Well!  I did it!  What do you think?!" he beamed, spreading his arms to show off his handiwork.  He was quite excited all right.

But uh, hm, yeah, something was awry.  The bed was up a million feet in the air.  (What is it with super high beds these days?  Why must beds be so incredibly high up?  I just don't, I just don't get it.  I must be the weird one as it seems extra tall beds are The Way.)

Anywhooo....Right, so I said gingerly as to not crush his radiating enthusiasm, "uh babe, first wow thank you, but second, uh it's uh, so high up.  How is Finn even gonna hop up there?  We got the bed for him, right?  Dontcha think it's really high up?"

It's like I deflated the room of all air.  Poor guy, I broke his heart.  "Babe, that's the way it is."

"But babe, yeah, no, I know.  But it's too high.  Iiii don't like it.  It's like all up in the ceiling.  It makes the room look small."

Conversation ensued, pauses, compromise, ideas, pauses....eventually Mike, his ebullience in shambles, he wavered, "ok, let's get rid of the bed frame.  Will that make baby happy?"  That reads patronizing but truly it was not.

"Yes babe, let's try it."

Since then, all I've done is stare at how boring the box spring is sitting there on the floor, how unattractive.  And pondered how to best remedy the visual eyesore.

Finally I had had enough.  And then a general scheme.  Then research then whereupon I discovered this quite simple yet grand yet budget friendly idea.  Bingo!

Instead of staining the wood I opted to cover it in fabric as I was concerned about over-wooding the room (headboard, dresser, side tables).  Which.  Ok.  Yes, makes the idea not budget friendly at all if you buy the fabric I did.  But.  You can find non-budget-busting fabric, indeed, it's out there.

Ah ha, fabric!

Yes, I went to that insane fabric store again.  Yes, it was insane.  Yes I literally spent three hours there.  Yes, that's how insane this store is.

On the left, tame first floor million mile long aisle.  Right?  Second floor.  Where I found the floofy goodness for the DIY library rug.

And this is the basement.

Once I find what I like though, it's tough to let it go.  Plagued.  It's rare to find a price label on their fabric so you find out at the cutting table, with a massive line of tired people behind you.  Oh, plagued, gotta get it, dammit.  So, it hurt to purchase but I'm quite happy with the end result.

Ok, getting ahead of myself here....

First, measure your box spring height.  Ours is 9 1/4" tall.  Perfect!  All I needed was three plain o' 1x10's, eight feet long.  Cheap!  Like not even fifteen bucks worth of wood.

While at Menards, I scooped up six corner brackets.*  Hey, I know our dog.  Bulldozer.  He will plow into it.

So easy peasy lemon squeezy.  And done in no time at all too.  What could be better?

First I measured from edge to edge on the box spring, width-wise, then cut one piece of wood to that.  Next, I measured length-wise from the foot end to the quarter round base trim and subtracted 3/4" for the width-wise piece.  Chop chop.*

Measure twice, cut once people.

Here's the part where you make it all pretty.  It's up to you how you want to finish it:  stain,  paint, burn, cover in fabric....I mean, c'mon, the finish is only limited by your imagination.  Bedazzle?  Hey, why not.  Astroturf?  Ooooooh, mirror ball tiles....

Ohhh-k!  Moving on.

My fabric was wide enough that I got away with only three yards; I was able to snip all three lengths out.  Whew.  Which is good as again, too expensive the fabric was.  (Ok ok, it was $15/yard, way more than I normally spend though.)

Now, you can wrap the wood in batting* first if you'd like, to give it some cushion and poof, but I opted for a non-poof more squared modern look.

Lay out your fabric, lay your board over it, and I stapled.  At which time I discovered what a great stapler* this Bostitch is, wow!  Yes, first time trying it out.

The corners, well, corners are always tricky and it's tough to word-perfectly describe how I generally do upholstered type corners.  And sometimes I change up how I do the corners, depending on well, who knows what.

Staple up to nearly the corner and you get these rabbit ears.

Pull a fold from the pointy corner, fold it toward the inside, tack it down.

Pull that other fold over the first one aligning the fold edge with the project's edge and tack down.

Voila!  Tidy squared off corner aligned with the wood edges.  Yes.

Ahhhhh, nice and tidy and sleek and modern.  Yes I know, the fabric would not align square with the wood, it was all slanty.  Trust me, I tried.

Ok, all righty.  Once everything is covered, it's time to assemble.  This is best done in situ, so gather your supplies and head to the bed locale.

Attach the lil' corner brackets with some half inch screws.  I did pilot drill the holes first, just to be sure the wood wouldn't split, and to give me an itty hole for some Gorilla glue.*  Again, dog is a gigantic bulldozer when he's got the wiggles or Daddy's home from work.

Screw on them there brackets right up to the edge.

For me, being a solo DIY'er on this task, I found it easiest to lay the front piece flat on the floor, then stand the side piece up in the air to attach.  Or, rather, whichever panel you're screwing into; that way it doesn't wriggle and escape.

Or get yourself some handy corner clamps,* yeah, that would help.

Getting it back down once all assembled?  Yeah, heh, that was scary but somehow I managed to not destroy the wood or anything else.

Skoochy skooch, slip and slide around the box spring, and hey hey!  It's a faux bed frame box spring cover thingie!

Hey!  Yes I know too the fabric is similar to the box spring fabric but trust me, it's not.  It's way nicer in person.

Now, see, originally my idea involved some quarter inch plywood.  And here's why.  These corners are so disappointing to me, so unattractive.  Or what I mean is the openness bugs the crap out of me, it looks sloppy.

Mmmph.  Meh.

My idea was to cap the 1x wood with strips of plywood which would slip between the mattress and box spring, then cover the whole thing in fabric but...that would have added a 1/4" of height to the wood, thereby making the cover taller than the box spring.

Original idea but as you can see, nope, too tall.

And, since we are a table saw-less household, trimming a mere 1/4" sliver seemed an elaborate task.  Doable, certainly but uncertainty rested in how to cut perfectly straight over such a distance.

This became too complicated a task for my that-day-brain-is-too-simple.

See so the idea was to make it appear as a box that the mattress rested upon, like heh, a tissue box cover, completely hiding the box spring.  But now I must always hope the corners are hidden by blankets.  Ah well.

Ooooh-mg, gotta finish that wall patch from the pocket door install.  Sigh.

"Oooh yeah.  Look at that," Mike sputtered.  That's his feigned delight response; tone and inflection are key here which is hard to portray in plain text.  You'll have to trust me.

To be more fair, maybe it was more of an oh-ok, didn't-know-we-needed-this, there-it-is, ok-whatever, sure-babe-it's-great kind of response.

Until.....Until.  Poor Mike, he stubbed his toes on the corners five days in a row.  Who knew he stepped so close to the bed?!  Yeah, he was cursing me a little bit, lot bit, but he's learned a new traffic pattern, his toes are all good now.  Poor guy!  How I torture him so.

But I do think it looks nice.  Or at least nicer than it did.  Tidier and more modern than a bland boring box spring anyway.  Part of my recent Ikea shopping trip was for a new appropriately sized comforter and duvet cover (VÅRÄRT) which I think looks quite nice with the box spring thing.

Though I forgot how incredibly frustrating duvet covers are.  Heh, sigh.

Slowly but surely, things come together, slowly but surely.

By the way, while I've gotcha here, I know I've harped on this before but people, folks, please keep your dog on leash when out in public.  Please, I ask ever-so-kindly.

Finn, our resident dog-and-people hater got run down by a gigantic off leash careening-over-a-hill, much-larger-than-Finn St. Bernard at the park.  I can't even begin to tell you how thoroughly terrifying that was.

The dog barreling at us, I screamed at the idiot, "my dog is not friendly!!"  That's when Captain Too Cool for School With No Leash decided to run after his dog.

The dog bared all its teeth before arriving at frozen-in-fear us.  So much for the throwing treats technique or grabbing the citronella spray,* sheesh.  In my defense, it all happened SO fast.

Finn was panic-stricken, tried to hide behind me (which is uh, tricky as he's larger than me) which ultimately resulted in me, bam, on the ground.

As such, I missed a few seconds of critical time:  the two of them meeting.

Finn escaped his harness and dashed off, the dog's owner finally catching up and corralling his dog.  Finally back vertical, I roared at the guy.  He in turn hollered at his dog, yanking its collar.  I then of course yelled at the guy again, not-gently reminding him this was not his dog's fault.

The guy apologized, said, "I don't understand, my dog is friendly."  Mmm hm.  No one will ever know their dog 100% ever, nor have 100% control over them.  Never.

I ripped the guy once more for extra good measure because he thoroughly deserved it, gave poor wide-eyed freaked Finny a big huge hug, told him he was a good boy, hooked him back up, and away we trembled to shake it off.

Thankfully everyone was fine but man, that could have ended in such complete disaster.

So please, please, for the safety of your dog, yourself, and those around you, keep your dog leashed, mmk?

Oh and as I mentioned last time, Flipping the Flip is up for a blog award!  Yay, how amazingly awesome, right?!  It's a one time vote only, no registering nor email required, so please please please be sure to share the link far and wide, like super far and wide!  Thank you for your vote and for sharing!

Come vote for me in the Best Remodeling Blog category by clicking here.

*The corner brackets, compact circular saws, batting, Bostitch stapler, Gorilla glue, corner clamps, and PetSafe SpraySheild are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.