A dear friend of ours was building a family retreat on their old family homestead, and they wanted some custom beds to maximize the utility of their space. Each family had a room, and they wanted something that would last for generations, look nice and be very sturdy. Since they had 10′ ceilings, that made the height spacing more functional. We discussed designs, and I drew up some rough plans to ensure I was building what they were dreaming. We settled on solid Red Oak for the wood, and they finished it with boiled linseed oil to bring out the natural beauty of the wood and give it some protection. In all, there were four different beds built. Queen-over-Queen, Full-over-Full, a Lofted Queen bed and a Twin-over-Twin bed. I also built a set of stairs with storage drawers, a Bookcase and an end-table to match the style of the beds. The posts were made from 8/4 (2″) thick boards planed to 1-3/4″ and were glued, doweled, and screwed together. The bed frames were made from 6/4 (1-1/2″) boards planed to 1-1/4″ thick. The headboard and railing was made from 5/4 (1-1/4″) boards that were planed to 1″ thick. Bed Frames were also secured to the posts by bracing and through-bolts for strength. Since the retreat was over 200 miles away in East Texas, the beds had to be able to be disassembled, transported and reassembled. I delivered the finished beds to their house and they transported them. They were able to assemble them without any problem using the color-coding, and assembly instructions that I provided.