Apparently mankind are great at inventing. Now I don’t know whether me and Gary are good at inventing but we do pride ourselves at looking at something and working out how we can make it better. This way of thinking has been invaluable for us as we are currently doing up our house and it’s a pretty big task.

Back in December we were lucky enough to have an offer accepted on a house in Brentwood. We have always wanted buy our own nest and we were just in time to get a place before it was too expensive.

As the house is a blank canvas for us to use our brush on, we really want to put our stamp on the house and decorate and make furniture that is too our taste.

To start us off, Gary and myself wanted to make a bed with a difference.  We had previously seen some palette beds on Pinterest so we thought it would be a good idea to make our own.  The ones we had seen previously were made up of about 4 palettes pushed together but we really wanted to make the base of our bed to fit a mattress.

Now it was perfect timing making this bed as we really needed a new mattress as our old one had completely sunk. So the search begun. We looked at all the usual places at retail parks and online but we couldn’t believe our luck when we found this uber comfortable Sealy Nostromo one from My Next Mattress.  With a latex topper and 1400 pocket springs, it is the most comfortable bed I have ever owned and it is a dream to sleep on.  Sealy have lots of great mattresses on the website so you should definitely check them out.  My Next Mattress are really good for value too and their delivery service was seamless. We have previously had a memory form bed but sadly they aren’t very supportive so it you want a good bed that is soft, a latex topper with springs is the perfect combo. My Next Mattress even have a meter to show how firm or soft a mattress is so you know what you are buying without trying.

Once our mattress was delivered, we started to make our new palette bed.  It was hard to source palettes that were the same size so we eventually found some on ebay that were about £2 each.  As we wanted to make it to size, we bought 10 palettes altogether and Gary went off in a van to collect them.

Now hindsight is a great thing. If I told you that making this bed was easy, I would be lying through my teeth. One thing about palettes that we have learnt is that once there are made, they aren’t really designed to be taken apart… and we had 10 of bloody things to break down.

With a hammer and a crowbar we took out every nail that was holding these palettes together and the reason why it was so hard to break them down is because these screws are not designed to ever come out. If the wood didn’t split, it was a miracle but any stubborn nails, Gary would just cut of their heads and left them be. If you want to go down the palette route I have at least pre warned you but you can make a bed like this out of normally wood which you can buy from your nearest timber yard or from places like Wickes.

When we finally got all the screws out, we started to put the bed together. Now it’s always best to draw out your design with measurements first so you know how big everything needs to be. Gary decided to make the bed into two halves so when we wanted to move it, it would be a lot easier but lighter too otherwise it would take at least 3 people to move our bed.

It did take us a bit of time to get all the pieces together but when we finally finished it, it was ready to paint.

I have always wanted to have white wash floorboards in the our two bedrooms so it made perfect sense that our bed was white too.

Using a white oil based wood and metal paint from Wickes, we mixed thinners to water it down so the wood could soak it up easily. It was a little messy doing this but we did all our painting in the garden and even had dust sheets layered out too. We gave the bed two coats in the end but we didn’t want a super smartly painted bed as it is was meant to look a little shabby chic.  Once the paint was dry we gave the bed a good rub down with sandpaper. As we wanted it to look a little rough, we only rubbed over the areas that we would be touching when moving it around. As palettes are made up of really scruff bits of wood, we knew this was a feature we didn’t want to not have. We also had some MDF boards cut to fit the bed and these would sit between the mattress and base.

After months of breaking down palettes and painting, our bed was nearly finished. Gary had seen some palette beds with lights so with no encourage needed from me, he ordered some LEDs from eBay and also a transformer for the lights, switch and plug to be linked up to.

Using normally cable ties we tidied up the wires to make sure they wouldn’t get caught and I even used my past experience as a Theatre technician to wire the plug and strip any cable for Gary.

As the bed is in two halves, Gary used some rather industrial looking bolts and nuts to keep the bed together. He even make some holes in the MDF so we could tight up the bolts and connect the lights.

After all the blood sweat and tears we put into this bed, it was finally finished it. I’m so happy that we can now sleep on an actual bed rather than just a mattress on the floor.

I think the headboard which Gary made looks perfection too and when it’s light up at night, it just looks totally amazing!

I’m so proud of the Hubby for doing this. I helped at the start and finish of this project but Gary really did most creating our bed.

I just can’t wait for when the rest of the room is decorating as it is going to look truly gorgeous!

Has this inspired you to make your own palette bed?