I'm Vikkie, The Carpenter's Daughter and this
is my tri Border Collie, Hans. This week we're going to show you how to make a DIY dog bed
with a drawer for toys. Come, boy. Hans! Come! So I had a plan. But the question was, did I
have the materials? The key thing that inspired me was an old project that I took apart. Luckily
I already had a structural timber frame that was at the right depth of the cushion, but it was
too long. So I undid the pocket hole screws. Broke the wood glue. Ad marked where
it needed to be attached further down. Because it had already been put together in the
first place with glue and pocket hole screws, I continued that to be consistent.
If you don't have one, of course you can pre-drill, screw it, fill it, and paint it Are you watching what I'm doing? Right..
on your bed, baby. No? All right then. Out? Although be careful you don't get glue
on your bum.
Creative people are messy people! That's my first square done for the
top bed section. I made sure it was square from either end with a tape measure and
temporarily screwed some pieces on either side to keep it that way. And repeat again, but
I'm building the next one on top of it so I could copy it. It does help to clamp
them together while you're doing it. Another test fit and I was happy.
On the original plan, I had three structural pieces of timber stacked up. I
went for two instead and unfortunately, Hans has been diagnosed with a heart murmur recently.
It's very early stages, but as he gets older, I didn't want him to struggle to get up. Before I
screwed those two together, I wanted to cut some mitered pieces on the top one so it was easier for
Hans to get on. I'm marking an even distance from either side. Then use my roofer's square to draw
the angle.
The first one I took to my miter saw. Although it was difficult to do it on the
reverse, so I used a hand saw instead. And once I'd stacked them back on top of each
other, I marked where my pocket holes were going to be. I probably should have just pre-drilled
and screwed from underneath so nothing would be seen. But there's pocket holes all
over this anyway. It's an old project. And although I'll be touching up the paintwork
anyway, I wanted to make sure that the excess glue was gone. Now, between the last scene and
this scene there's about half an hour of me sat down trying to work out how I was going to do
the drawer bit.
So the whole project is me being resourceful and not going out and buying anything
new. So I decided with a couple of plywood pieces like this, I'd mark the internal depth of
the top bed piece onto this piece of plywood. Cut it down to size and use my circular
saw to get the height that I wanted. And I needed two pieces like
that to prop it up evenly. It also helps to make a height reference line so
you can line it up while you're screwing it to it. Also, a lot of these pieces already had chamfered
edges, so I made them consistent with my router. To work out the remaining drawer box shape, I
temporarily screwed both internal side pieces to the frame itself. That would make it easier
for me to work out my future measurements. So now I'm sure you're getting
the idea from this design now, that the drawer is propping up the top
section. But I still had my heart set on just using this basket for his toys
and not putting a drawer face on it. But that would just be too easy.
Anyway, for
now, we'll get the internal width from the top of the plywood prop up pieces. Find another offcut
from an old project. The holes in the center I was absolutely fine with. It was going to be hidden
but I wanted to make them a bit more central. Let's test it. Right… I'm now planning
my next step using the basket… or not! The bed itself was a lot wider and the basket
was a bit tired. Plus, I had this urge to push my limits a little bit in this project and practice
some dowel joinery so none of the fixtures would be seen.
It's offcuts! I didn't have a lot to
lose. And I drew a line with a combination square for the height of my bottom shelf. I'm going to
leave a great tutorial below from Peter at the 10 Minute Workshop on how to use this. And I opted
for this one because it was the cheapest with loads of extra bits with it. Although I did do
a test the night before on an old off cut and it worked perfectly, so don't let it intimidate you.
It's also got measurements on the side of this so you can set up your drill bit to the right depth.
I'm using 6mm dowels but my plywood is quite thin. This was 12mm thick. So I had to make sure
I didn't drill too deep on the face of the wood. Also, I used my own drill bits without a
pokey piece on the end so it didn't show through on the good side.
Then clamped it
in my vice and clamped the jig on the edge. The only thing I would say about
this is: the clamp is really useful, but it can favor tightening on one side. So
next time I'm going to clamp it from both ends. My center ones went slightly off-center, so I
did another one further along and it was fine. No one's going to see any of these mistakes. Then I could line the shelf on top of the short
side pieces. Line the jig with a 6mm dowel slot and line it up with the pencil line. And for a
first-time project, this was so much fun to do. And once I knew it was going to work, I
removed them glued put the dowels back. I slotted it all together.
Although when it came to clamping it with my sash
clamps, I was worried about it bowing and staying like that. So I positioned it upside down on top
of my sawhorses with some straight pieces of wood underneath. And that gave me time to then touch
up the black paintwork on the top section. Again, using anything in my cupboard – I used blackboard
paint. Although I was surprised that this was oil based, so I couldn't really do an awful lot until
that fully dried. But after a few hours of where the glue was dry enough for me to continue working
with it, I then sanded off as many pencil marks and blemishes that I could on the plywood. And rip
down a couple of thin strips with a circular saw to glue from underneath. Bit like a support,
but I will be nailing these later.
It's just my nails hadn't arrived from Toolstation yet. But
before I talk about how I instead built a drawer, I'd like to thank Flexispot for recently gifting
me one of their motorized standing desks. If you haven't noticed already (and well done for those
who have), all of the materials I used for Hans' dog bed were from my old desk that I made a couple
of years ago to function as a treadmill desk. But since moving house and it being so big, I haven't
found the right space for it. Also, I knew what to expect with the quality because my husband had
bought one of theirs in the Summer from Amazon and I've been jealous ever since.
They come in
various styles and colours. We bought our first one without a top and we know it lifts up and down
with a 1.5m kitchen worktop. However, mine came with a stylish 25mm maple coloured top and they
come flat packed. It's a doddle to put together. And once you've built it, plugged it in, you can
adjust the height in seconds depending on how you want to use it. I was originally going to position
mine in the middle of the room so I can swivel my laptop round and have my chair behind the desk,
but the treadmill is quite large. So in the end, I decided to position the old one next to the new
one. Anyway, if it's something that you're looking for, I'll leave a link in the description
and if you've got any questions about it, feel free to drop me a message.
Right…. let's
get back to showing you how I built the drawer and installed them on some euro slide runners because
I've salvaged loads from old furniture that I've thrown out and never found the time to reuse them
until now. So first, let's screw the plywood base back to the top bit and work on positioning
the euro slides. Obviously, I didn't have any instructions for these because I'm recycling them.
But a few videos on youtube suggested setting it back by 2mm and either prop them up on some shims
then mark where your screw hole is going to be, then fix the rails to either side.
I'll show you
what could go wrong later. So if I was going to do this again, I would totally just use a framing
square instead. And if I found out I needed to later adjust my rails for any reason, I didn't put
all of the screws in immediately. And that paid off! Now let's talk drawer measurements. My rails
were 45cm (450mm) long, so I matched the sides to that length. But for the width of the drawer you
need to take the internal opening's measurement, then deduct measurements for the two side
rails that I've already attached. Then deduct the thickness of the two sides of the drawer.
That then gave me the width measurement for the front and the back sections, although I wasn't
too concerned about the height of them. They're just offcuts. Hans hasn't complained, let's put it
that way. And depending on your euro slide runner, it may have a lip facing upwards where you've got
to create a rebate with a router for the base of the drawer.
But I went for an l-shaped one that I
had instead. But because this was my first time, I didn't want to use dowel joins for this,
just in case I had to adjust it again. So I just drilled and screwed these ones. I'd
clamp another piece on the edge allowing me to use it as a stop piece and screw the corners
perfectly. I've got it square by the way. I've measured from each angle and added some
corner gussets. I'm just gonna test it out. I'll put the base on. But I think it's gonna
be more scraps. Hans' toys tend to be tennis balls and teddy bears, so nothing's going to
fall through these. However, the euro side bit that attaches to the drawer… the way
they fixed to the drawer wasn't symmetrical. So I temporarily screwed it to a scrap piece of
wood. Clamped it in my vise and drilled some holes through the lips. THEN I could screw them directly
from underneath at the bottom of the drawer. Anyway, before I put the rest of the slats
on, I just wanted to see if this worked.
I'm not keen on that being a bit angled. And after
a closer look, I noticed that the back of the right side rail and needed to be lifted slightly.
So I unscrewed that one screw that I put in. Let the drawer naturally go where it
wanted. Then I could see where it dropped and put the screw back in. This worked. Oh,
thank god for that. It was driving me insane! NOW I felt content enough to
put the rest of the screws in. I like it… I love it! So let's continue the
rest of the slats at the bottom with more offcuts. It made me think creatively and the
whole project didn't cost me a penny. So the drawer front… another plywood
offcut which I'd cut to the same length. But I didn't have a deeper piece, so this
was the only height that I could get. And there was a big enough finger space at
the top to pull it open without a drawer knob. But before I work on any of that,
I'm chamfering off the bottom edge.
Then propped it up on an off-cut and tried
my hardest to line it up with the sides. I just had enough space there to
trap the clamp through the top gap and pre-drilled and screwed it
from behind. We're getting there! That's cool. I do need to sand that. One of
the things that I love and was really looking forward to was the bed slats itself.
I screwed another strip on the inside. And that'd give a platform for them to rest
on and cut and nail them on top. Although the assorted material that I use here didn't
look as pretty as I thought it could be. And to save me painting them all black, I cut
down a thin piece of plywood to sit on top. Yeah! For a finish – again,
I'm using what I had in and that was sanding all the plywood and giving it
a coat of teak oil before wiping the excess off.
I wanted something a bit special and unique
for the drawer knob and I had a light bulb moment. Are you trying to get into your
drawer? Okay…. look…. watch…. watch this! This is a bit rough and ready, but it works.
I hammered a ball on a rope from the inside, leaving it hanging out. Before I show you how
Hans opens it, don't forget to give it a like and subscribe if you want to see more and hopefully,
I'll catch you in my next one.
Good boy! He got a toy! Good boy!.