DIY Project: How I turned an old IKEA bed into a $2000 Crate and Barrel Gather Platform Bed
T-minus 25 days before our closing day on our new home and I had put off purchasing a new bed for my teenage daughter because I figured it would take only a couple of weeks for delivery… WRONG!
How was I supposed to know that supply chains were still struggling? Everything else seemed to have picked back up. Stores were plenty stocked with toilet paper and hand sanitizers were practically given away for free at this point!
It was early September 2022 when we began our search for the perfect suede or velvet platform bed. Of course all of them showed a MINIMUM of 60 days delivery time.
Here is the screenshot to prove I was not making this up. When you have an excited teenager who is already planning out her room colors, I had to get to work!
Here is another photo of a similar bed she liked as well. This one was almost $2,500 when we looked at it, the “Ophelia” bed by Rove Concepts. It had an estimated delivery date of November. In teenage girl time, that is a lifetime.
This is about when I decided to pull out my staple gun and drove to Joann’s Fabrics. After watching several videos from YouTube university, I purchased all of the modern gray velvet upholstery fabric they had, 1/2″ soft cushion material, and upholstery batting. I will link all the materials below.
You can also check out the time-lapsed video I posted on my NEW YOUTUBE channel!
Here are some photos of the process:
Overall, the entire project took me 1 weekend (probably sooner had I not been sidetracked), $120 worth of fabric and supplies from Joann’s, and a lot of patience.
Materials I used to complete this project:
- old IKEA Brimnes Bed
- 1/2″ batting
- Microsuede Fabric by the yard (the amount you will need depends on your size bed. Ours was a Queen bed and I used 5 yards with extra left over)
- Upholstery staple gun (although I did not use an upholstery staple gun for this project, I did end up investing in one after this project and it is worth it!)
This is the BEFORE photo as I was installing the batting material to the bed. It was a bit tricky because I thought I could glue the batting on the headboard first but I would recommend using upholstery glue versus wood glue (all that I had laying around). Once you start stapling, everything just smooths out.
I repeated the same process of covering all the parts of the bed frame and used long wood screws to attach the 4 pieces together. Looking back, I would also suggest using Simpson Strong Ties. I found this out the hard way when my daughter’s friends decided to jump on the bed. Lesson learned!
I should have taken better photos and staged it better but was so excited that I had completed my first project in our new home so this is what you’re getting 🙂 I will try to post updated photos with all the pretty plants and furniture in on my Instagram! Don’t forget to follow!
Okay, here is the comparison shots of the Rove Concepts, Ophelia bed ($2,500.+ and 2 months for delivery) and my DIY Ikea Made-over Bed, what do you think?
