Bed frame out of a box spring

We've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the past several years since we had kids because we co-sleep.  We bought a king size mattress a year ago when we moved to NC, but never bothered to buy a box spring or frame since we didn't want the kids rolling off the bed.  But now they're older, Wyatt is sleeping in his own bed, and we're hoping to transition Emma to her own bed soon as well.  So it was definitely time to get a frame and reclaim our king size bed as our own.

Inspiration for bed frame out of a box spring

I have been searching for a king size box spring since I saw this pin.  It was going to cost me $200+ for a new one, and then I was going to have to find a way to transport it as well, so I turned to craigslist.  Yesterday was my lucky day, and I saw a curb alert for a free king size split box spring.  I immediately called upon my good friend Nicole, who has a van she let me borrow.  I drove right over and loaded up the box spring (which was in surprisingly good condition).  Today I went out and got my materials and, within an hour, had a new frame for our bed!

Materials:

• box spring
• legs ( I bought 6" wooden legs from Lowe's for $4 a piece and needed 9 to support the king size frame.  Depending on your mattress size, you could probably get away less or cheaper ones)
• top plates to install legs (these were $1.93 at Lowe's and you need one for each leg you'll install on the box spring)
• bed skirt
• ped pins
• a drill

We already had a drill and our free box spring, so I just had to run to Lowe's for the legs and top plates and then went to Target for a cheap bed skirt and pins.  I didn't shop around or use coupons or I may have been able to do this project for cheaper, but as it was it wasn't terribly expensive and certainly cheaper than buying a king size frame!

These are the top plates and legs I choose for our frame.

 Once I had everything home, I set the box spring upside down on the floor.  Because I was working with a king size split box spring, I had to line the two box springs up and used the top plates to hold the springs together. 

I placed 3 top plates along the two frames to hold them together, spacing them equally and screwing them in with one side of the plate on one box spring and the other side of the plate on the other box spring so they now are held together as one big box spring.  I also installed 3 top plates on each side of the box spring, so there were 8 legs around the edge of the box spring and one in the very middle to support the huge frame. 

The installed top plates with leg screwed in.

Once the top plates were screwed in (which I managed to do by myself with 2 toddlers running around in under 30 minutes), I just screwed the legs right into the top plates.  It was seriously easy installation.  Emma actually went on my back in the Ergo and fell asleep for her nap while I was finishing the project.

After all the legs were on, which only took a few minutes to accomplish, I carefully flipped the box spring over and laid the bed skirt on top.


I'm not overly impressed with the bed skirt I picked, but it was cheap and does the trick for now.  I pinned it in place, then put the mattress on our new frame. 

It turned out beautifully over all though!  Not only does it look 100 times better than the mattress on the floor, but it's SO much more comfortable sleeping on the box spring.  Complete win all around!

Wyatt approves

Total cost: Since I got the free box spring and had the drill, all I paid for was the bed skirt, pins, legs and top plates.  Grand total of about $60, although the cost would vary depending on the size of the frame and amount of legs needed.
Total time: Just installing the top plates and legs and placing the bed skirt took about an hour.
End result: I'm loving it!