Build a Folding Bed

I have been working on this camper for what feels like a really long time 'cause it's been a really long time. Lots of work involved here, lots of upgrades. Now, to revisit what I started with, when I got this camper, it was set up with three bunk beds in the back and barely a full-sized bed in the front. Pretty uncomfortable for two people to sleep on that bed. So I determined pretty early in the game, the three bunk beds were gonna come out, the full was gonna come out.

Part of the reason was, this camper is so small, five people are gonna kill each other if they spend a weekend in here. I'm to a point now where I've got a pretty cool Murphy-style bed in the back. It folds up against the wall, full-sized mattress, the bunks are gone, the full in the front is gone. So I'm really excited to show ya how I got to this point with that cool folding bed. Here's what's really important to understand about this bed.

All of this stuff I'm about to show you is so idiosyncratic, trailer by trailer, camper by camper, project by project. So the way to look at this is, get some ideas from kind of 100,000-foot view perspective of how I did this, but I can't really show you step-by-step. 'Cause what works for this camper may or may not work for your camper. So your takeaway is, here's what George did, here's what I could do, I like this idea, I hate that idea, let me show you my ideas and you can pick which ones you like. In order to get this bed to fold the way I wanted it to fold and make sure it's actually all gonna work, the easiest way for me to do that is to use my SketchUp drawing software.

Remember that earlier, quite awhile ago, when I built the cabinets, I started that by drawing the whole camper out and placing the cabinets in the camper in the drawing before I did the real work. So similarly here, I'm gonna take advantage of that camper drawing and do proof of concept on the computer before I do it in the camper. If you don't have the capability of using software like this, as we go here, I'll give you some other ideas. But let's look at that drawing and see if it looks like this baby's gonna work. I originally did this for the cabinets that are located right here that I put in the front of the camper.

So now, easiest way for us to see inside is to remove this outside wall, like that. I've already got the bed drawn right there, and this is designed to accept a full-sized mattress. I tried it with a queen, but that was too big. Let's get rid of that bed and talk about some other stuff that's going on here. There are things going on in the camper here that have to be accommodated, a water heater, a converter, there's a wheel well right up against that wall and then another wheel well here.

So I know I'm gonna have to build cabinets over the top of those things. My idea is to build benches and put storage on one side, cover the utilities on the other. In order to get back to the bed, I'm gonna un-hide a bunch of stuff here, so the wall and the bed come back. Now let's hide that outside wall so we can look more specifically at the bed. The rail on that back wall is a two-by-six.

The frame of the bed is made outta 3/4-inch plywood. And I angled the sides there just to make it easier to get linens on and off the mattress. Now let's see if I've got clearance here in order to pivot this thing up. So there'll be hinges between the bed frame and that two-by-six. And that will allow me to pivot it up and really, what I'm checking here with this drawing is, is it gonna clear the ceiling so that it can fold completely against that back wall?

That looks pretty good. Then, as it folds down, I want it to rest on the benches. That'll support it. And then it's also gonna need another leg on that front corner, but I'll deal with that once I've got the bed in place. So, conceptually, I think we're onto something here.

It looks like it's gonna work based on the drawing here. And I don't know, I'm happy with this. I'm ready to get going and cut wood and make a frame. I'm very lucky that I use software for drawing all the time. If you don't have that capability, a couple other options.

So, pen and paper, pencil and paper, you could sketch out what your intention is for a folding bed in your camper. Then, what I would do is use cardboard or Styrofoam and you could cut mock-up parts to the size of the bed pieces. And of course, you can cut that easily with a utility knife. Use packing tape to put everything together. So basically, build a bed frame outta Styrofoam or out of cardboard.

Then you could physically put that into your camper and go through the hinge mechanism, not really hinging it, but see if it's gonna fit. And that'll help you determine, can I do a full, could I do a queen, could I do a king? To see if you have the space in order to do that. So that would be the mock-up or prototype version of what I did here on the software. Be a good workaround for testing the water before you started cutting wood.

Speaking of cutting wood, next thing is to look at how I got the bed frame put together in the shop. And then from there, we'll look at getting it in the camper. I'm making my frame outta 3/4-inch birch plywood. You wanna make sure you've got good robust joinery on the corners. I'm using a system called loose tenons.

More specifically, these are dominoes holding the corners together coupled with glue. It's very, very strong. Once I've got glue on every joint, then the next step is really, really long clamps to pull it together and allow that glue to dry overnight before you pop the clamps off. The bottom for this full-sized bed frame is larger than a single sheet of plywood, so I got two sheets of plywood and then I glued 'em together edge to edge, glue and biscuits, in order to make a piece large enough to get the bed bottom out of. With the bottom up on blocks, I'm getting glue on the frame.

Then, take out the blocks, position the plywood on the frame, staple it in place. Now, once the glue is dry, sand everything and get a coat of paint on your bed. The bedroom benches, the one that covers the utilities and then also what'll become a storage area, are built the same way that the cabinets in the front of the camper are, one-by-twos and two-by-twos to make a frame covered with a skin of 1/4-inch plywood. This part of the bench system is for storage. There'll be a hinged lid on there.

I can go ahead and staple this plywood on because it's not gonna have to come off. Then, put some wood dough over those staples so that paint can cleanly cover 'em. However, in spots where I've got these utilities, there's a chance that somebody's gonna have to get in here and work on the electrical or the water heater. So in this case, we're using screws to put everything together so that you can back the screws out, take these skins off the front of the cabinet. Same deal here.

This is the seat of the bench and that's gonna get held in place with screws so if you ever have to get in there, you can. With a coat of paint on all the bed components, you can start working toward getting this into the camper. That two-by-six that's vertical here is the rail that's gonna get screwed to the wall. I'm using standard everyday household hinges, door hinges, to fasten the two components together. After they're fastened here, I can take just the pins out and screw that two-by-six to the wall.

Now, I gotta apologize here. It was really hard to get the camera in a good spot where you'd be able to see Charlie and I bringing the bed frame in and pinning it back to that rail that's on the wall. So, the rail is already screwed in place. That's been fastened to the wall. So now all we need to do is get the barrels of the hinges aligned.

And then once they are aligned, we can put the pins back in to hold everything in place. So there Charlie is persuading the hinge to go into the right spot, tapping that pin in place, and then, once that one's in, one more pin on the end, four hinges altogether. And it was a wonderful day when that pivoted up to the ceiling like that. You just saw a bunch of stuff about how that bed got made, but there are other parts back here in the bedroom that need some consideration before we get back into talking about the bed. And what I'm talking about there are these benches.

Remember on this side of the camper, there's a converter down here, there's a water heater back there, there's a wheel well there. So, the consideration with the water heater and the converter is that you can't bury those. You've gotta leave yourself access to that stuff. So the benches on this side are built much the same way that the cabinets in the front were built, except the skins are screwed on instead of stapled on. So that, I don't know, like an access panel in your house, I can back the screws out, take the top off, I can back the screws out, take the front off.

The other thing that's going on there is that when the bed comes down, I want it to rest on top of these. That's the stopping point. So the height of those became critical to clear the water heater, clear the wheel well, provide room for the converter, and carry the bed when it's in a down position. Now on this side, these are hinged. Those are storage.

So, there aren't any utilities under there. There's just air. So that's why those are hinged. The thing to think about there is, when these are hinged and open, is there enough room to open this with the bed where it is? So there's a lotta little, like I said, this is idiosyncratic camper by camper, but there's a lotta stuff to think about there.

And that's really the benefit of doing that SketchUp drawing first so that you're planning that stuff before you get to building that stuff. So, it'd be really nice when that bed's in an upright position, if it stays upright and doesn't fall down when I'm sitting here. Or, think about the back of the camper and the bouncing that's happening here when you're going down the road. So I've got two different kinds of latches here, one I made, one I bought. First, the one I made.

This is just a piece of strap steel, 1/8-inch, inch and 1/2 wide. I bent it into 90 degrees. You're gonna see that in just a second. So the way this works is, I can take a little bit of pressure off the lean, tilt that up like that. That clears this corner so that this can come down and be clear.

On this side, this is a piece of hardware I purchased. This is a gate latch. One of the things that's great about that is it comes with the facility to put some kind of a lock in here. So that carabiner is gonna keep that in a closed position. All I need to do then when I want the bed to come down is push that back.

And then, that's ready to come off of the wall. Now, normally, I don't actually have to climb up on the bench like this. It's the easiest way for me to show you what's going on. But I'm gonna latch these, climb down, give you the opening sequence in just a second here. All right, when you're ready for that great afternoon nap or to go to bed at night, push up on the bed, take a little pressure off, put that up.

Then on this side, this one's easy peasy. Just slide that gate latch back. Now remember the bed is expected to sit on those benches. So when I come down, that creates my stopping point. Now one thing that's not been done yet, it needs a leg under this corner.

And I can't do that until the finished floor is in 'cause that finished floor is gonna change the dimension from the top of the floor to the bottom of the bed. So that leg is still gotta get installed after I do the floor. But that takes care of how I put the bed in here. And one of the things I wanna point out is, don't be judgmental of my paint at this paint. Everything was pre-painted when it came in.

And then, of course, from handling, the paint gets a little bit beat up so the final touch here is gonna be to go around and touch up paint, including on the bed here. This was a little bit complicated. The drawing really helped me get ideas straight in my head before I cut the first stick of wood. But the payoff is great, 'cause when I'm not using this, I've got access to this entire room. This could basically be a on-the-road office back here.