Bed-podium

The placement and construction of a bed in a house or apartment, regardless of the type and size of the room, is always an interesting process and requires some ingenuity, especially when the interior space has certain limitations. The bed-podium is a universal invention of modern designers. The variety of all kinds of models allows you to organize a place to relax with taste, benefit and maximum convenience.

A retractable bed from the catwalk is one of the most compact and economical options. In this case, on the podium itself you can place a working corner, shelves with books or a small closet, and the bed itself will be roll-out, built in from the side. The best is considered to be a bed, gently moving out on silent rubber wheels, which do not scratch the floor.

It is not recommended to use cheaper plastic wheels, because if you repeatedly move the bed, traces on the floor will appear very soon, which will be virtually impossible to remove.In addition, plastic wheels often break, so for softer contact with the floor and noiseless movement of the bed, wheels made of high quality rubber are best suited.

The bed located on the podium, may look different depending on the preferences of the owner and the available interior solutions. There are different types of designs. The monolithic podium is made of wood poured with concrete, and the surface of the elevation is pre-leveled with a tie. The coating is applied either the same as in the room as a whole, or it may look different: differ in color, quality of material, in order to somehow allocate a sleeping space in the surrounding space. Such a podium will serve for a very long time, despite its solidity and great weight, which, in fact, is not such a big drawback.

Frame podiums They are easy and simple assembly technology, they are much easier to manufacture and install yourself. The frame base is made of wood or metal or two materials are combined with each other.Inside it can be placed sliding or folding drawers for linen and other things. This is the main advantage of this technology, because it is in this way that space is saved in any room, especially if the room or apartment is small.

Some sources argue that the podium design as such is categorically not suitable for small spaces. Far from it. If we are talking about very high monolithic catwalks, the purpose of which is to raise the bed above the surrounding space, thereby creating a certain aesthetic effect, such an opinion may turn out to be true. These kind of beds are suitable exclusively for large rooms.

Also among the varieties of podium designs sometimes distinguish traditional (most often it is just a wooden frame, sheathed with carpet, linoleum or chipboard) and improved (just all types of more complex frame structures with fillings in the form of compartments belong to it). A simple traditional podium can be easily made with your own hands even by a person who does not have much experience in making furniture. Production will cost a minimum amount, sometimes much cheaper than buying a regular double bed.

Upstairs frame, sheathed chipboard or other suitable material just put the mattress, and a great bed ready. It is more difficult to make an improved design: a much larger number of measurements and calculations will be required, especially when planning compartments, the dimensions of which must be thought out with maximum precision.

For a small and narrow bedroom, the best option would be a podium with wide drawers and a couple of steps up. Everything is located at the window. In the steps, you can also build boxes: this will be the best way to use a small square footage and will look like an original built-in dresser.The bed is installed on the top of the podium (classic version), which provides it with comfortable natural light in the daytime, and at the top you can leave room for a bedside lamp, a floor lamp and several shelves for books.

In a one-room apartment, the type of podium design will directly depend on the size of the room. With a large area under the bed you can take part of the room, which is usually fenced off with a tall cabinet or shelving with built-in drawers and shelves. The bed is arranged with the help of an ordinary wide mattress in the upper part, and at the bottom you can arrange a compact workplace in the form of a table with drawers. Thus, the podium becomes multifunctional, and a person can do different things while being in the same place. If the one-room apartment is small, the optimal dimensions of the podium for it will be approximately as follows: length - 310 cm, width - 170 cm, and height - 50 cm.

A bed with a mattress in a small one-room apartment can be planned horizontally withdrawable. It will occupy about two meters in length.The advantage of such a bed is that it can not be fully extended from the podium, using it as a small sofa or a place to rest during the day. The compartment for linen and pillows is best placed at the top of the podium: it will be a built-in drawer (or a couple of drawers) with hinged lids. Upstairs, as is the case with a nursery with a pull-out bed, you can position the workplace: a computer desk and several hanging bookcases.

In the “Khrushchev” it is also quite possible to build an uncomplicated podium structure, considering the particular layout of such an apartment. Small area and low ceilings are not an obstacle for those who want to equip a compact and comfortable sleeping place, but all this must be taken into account when planning sizes. The main condition for placing the podium in "Khrushchev" and other small premises - its height should not exceed 20 cm, so that the "pressure" of the ceiling would not be psychologically felt.

One of the best options is a classic podium on a solid frame basis with a bed or mattress at the top. Below you can build boxes for things that will eliminate the need to purchase an extra piece of furniture for their placement.

If the bed is designed by the window, the best option is a podium with drawers at the bottom. This placement saves space and adds natural light as the bed rises higher. It is better to remove the battery from the window, and instead install a special convector on the floor. Thus, the bedroom is divided into two parts, which look great, being designed in the same color and style. As a finish, you can use environmentally friendly materials from natural wood or laminate.

If the room has a niche or alcove - this is the perfect place to install a classic catwalk.because it is not necessary to design a retractable bed in this case. It can simply be installed in a niche, additionally equipped with modest necessary interior items, depending on the wishes of the owner. The standard dimensions of the alcove are 2.40x2.50 m, which allows you to place in it a double bed with drawers below. You can hang a curtain to make a bed of beauty and originality.separating the bed from the main space of the room, as well as equip the alcove with several sources of quiet light.

There are many ways to place the podium on the balcony or loggia, despite the limitations of their space. If the width of the balcony allows, there you can put a place to rest on a classic catwalk. The lack of a cold floor can be compensated for by incorporating a “warm floor” heating system into the podium. An excellent way “two in one” is to place the construction along the entire length of the loggia in the form of several wide and durable wooden boxes in which homemade preparations will be stored. In warm weather, or if the balcony is properly insulated from above, put a mattress on top of the drawers - and the bed is ready.

If the loggia connects to the room by eliminating the window sill, there is nothing more optimal than building a podium in this place, because there is now plenty of space.

When arranging a child’s room, one should first of all conduct room zoning: a child should always have a place to sleep, play, and perform school homework. For the equipment of a children's room, both retractable and classical versions can be equally well suited. The retractable bed is good because the space in the room becomes larger. Moreover, when using this option, it is very easy to place the necessary areas in the nursery: the sleeping place itself is advanced, and the training area in the form of a table, a chair and several bookshelves is placed at the top of the podium. In the daytime, the bed is easily retracted inside the podium and the child has the perfect space to play.

The option with built-in beds is very convenient if there are two children in a family. Berths in the form of vertically withdrawable beds symmetrically arranged to the left and right of the podium., the steps are in the middle, and at the top there is a kind of room with a working area. During the day, beds are put inside, and thus space for two in the room becomes quite enough. In this case, the podium itself looks quite high and will have at least two orThree steps, which can also be used with benefit, having built in them convenient boxes for storing children's things.

Also a good way to equip a children's room is to put a bed on a high podium with a lot of drawers, where a child can put everything: from toys to school supplies. The room will be provided with order and sufficient space for games. If the choice is to create a high podium, there you can also install a small built-in table with a sliding mechanism, which will be both practical and very convenient.

Build a bed-podium do it yourself can not only professionals in the field of furniture assembly. For example, a simple traditional podium on a frame made of wooden bars is easy to manufacture, even for a person who is not a pro in this business. The frame podium of an improved design with filling in the form of boxes or a roll-out bed is much more difficult to do: first you need to draw a drawing in which the dimensions of the future product and its elements will be thought out in detail and with maximum clarity. Immediately you should think about the strength and reliability of the frame so that he can withstand the weight of a person’s body and pieces of furniture if they are planned to be placed at the top of a podium. The frame timber must be dry and not wet in order to avoid its "shrinkage" and the appearance of squeak. In drawing up the drawing, one should take into account the thickness of the skin (for example, plywood) and finishing (most often laminate is used as it). It is also necessary to take into account the gap between the mattress of the future bed and the podium in case the berth will be rolled out.

Here's how to build the most simple, but durable and reliable frame podium with drawers in a regular apartment. Necessary materials for work and accessories:

• 20 mm thick plywood sheet
• 10 mm thick plywood sheet
• parallel bars 50x5 mm
• bars 30x40 mm
• fasteners - dowels (nails), anchors, self-tapping screws, corners for fasteners 50 and 40 mm. The number of corners count, focusing on what size will be the podium.

Manufacturing technology:

• First make a rough outline of the future design - take a pencil and draw a contour to them. Measure with a tape measure diagonals to take into account possible errors in the corners.If the size of the error exceeds 5 mm, on the move, adjust the length of the podium before leveling the diagonals.
• In order to waterproof the floor lay a plastic wrap. Place the future podium close cork and plywood 10 mm. Dowels to nail plywood to the floor. The technical clearance at the joints should be about 3 mm.
• Measure and cut the frame bar 50x50 mm according to the dimensions indicated in the drawings. In order to get a preliminary overall picture of the podium, logs can be put on supports. If the timber is not completely dry, all the supports must be laid with a cork backing so that the wood does not creak afterwards after drying.
• After that, you can begin to assemble and fasten the frame of the future podium. Lags to the side walls are attached with anchors, and only then the main part of the frame is assembled. A 20 mm plywood is placed on the frame and fixed, with a small technological gap between its sheets.
• To make boxes by the sizes specified in drawings - everything depends on technologies and opportunities. If the height of the boxes is small, you can simply connect the two bars with the help of the corners and attach them to a piece of plywood 10 mm thick.
• Plywood is closed with a fine finish in the form of laminate. Now, finally, you can put up a large orthopedic mattress, and the bed-podium with drawers at the bottom is fully ready for use.

A small loggia allows you to place a bed on it. Balcony, of course, must be insulated, with warm glazing. The podium is made of furniture panels and plywood:

• A frame (frame) is assembled from a furniture shield. for the podium itself, and flooring is made of plywood (manhole covers).
• The first step is to assemble the frame of the furniture board. It is assembled with the help of wide corners No. 140. A large lid with a lifting mechanism is made of plywood.
• The structure is preassembled without fasteners., to see if there are errors in the walls of the loggia. Usually at this stage they become especially visible. If the error is, for example, 21 mm, the shield is shortened in accordance with it.
• A small semicircular hole is cut in the shield. so that you can open it with your fingers and put things inside the podium. The lid is attached to the base with the help of three furniture hinges with the “cup” No. 35. If, in addition to the large compartment, it is planned to place a small hinge on the podium, the lid is also made for it taking into account the curvature of the walls.

First you need to decide on the size of the future bed. If a retractable bed is designed for a child, it should not be designed for its height, because the child is growing. It is better to immediately think about the bed "for growth", focusing on the length of the mattress in 2m. For the manufacture of retractable beds are most often used materials such as plywood, chipboard or OSB. They are thin, but fairly durable, and the podium, built from them, does not look bulky and too large, even if it is installed in the nursery. Wood materials are much more expensive, so it will be quite good to be limited to ordinary boards. The first level at the top will be assembled from four elements - two sheets of large sizes as the head of the bed and two for the “sides” in length. The bottom four elements are important to design so that the bottom shelf freely rolls out of the niche.

For mattresses, gratings are constructed from the boards and are attached to the longitudinal elements of two levels. The crate usually consists of five to seven strips, each of which should be 10-15 cm thick. Assembly is carried out by drilling through the mounting holes with a diameter similar to the diameter of the screeds.Attach the wheels to the lower level and place the mattresses on the lattice.

For families with small children, living in dormitories or communal apartments a small catwalk with a roll-out bed is ideal. Parents can comfortably sit upstairs, and children happily fall asleep on the roll-out bed, which in the daytime can simply be rolled up under the catwalk, thereby freeing up space for games. The presence in the podium, in addition to the bed of a large drawer with a size of 1 m, helps to maintain order in the room, because it can be removed at least some of the children's toys and small things, thereby maintaining order in a small space. The very idea of ​​a catwalk with roll-out parts is very popular with children: now they can also collect toys and go to bed in the form of an entertaining game.

The idea of ​​a podium with two vertically rolled-out beds I like very much large families in which there are two or more children, because in this case there are no problems with the organization of training, playing and sleeping places. In addition, if there are guests with children in the house, the upper part of the podium can be easily turned into a third berth,which can accommodate up to two people, and when the beds roll in, guests and small owners of the house get enough free space to play.

A simple frame podium with an orthopedic mattress at the top is the perfect “budget option” for those who need a large double bed, but at the same time there is a great desire to save space and money. Since such a podium is very simple to manufacture, anyone can assemble it with the help of available materials, and the structure can be strengthened with additional crossbars and durable metal corners. In order not to mess with the skin over the plywood, you can put two layers of good paint, choosing it to match the color of the main interior in the room.

Durable frame podium with horizontal roll-out bed ideal for those who live in a one-bedroom apartment wants to save the surrounding space as much as possible and not to purchase additional pieces of furniture to store bedding and things. In the daytime, a horizontal roll-out bed can be pulled out partially, using it as a comfortable sofa,and the solid construction of bars and metal allows you to place at the top of any workplace and will not bend under the weight of furniture and the body.

Monumental Monolithic CatwalkCast in concrete is good for people who have a lot of weight, both literally and figuratively. If you build it at home, such a bed will not sag and will not break under the weight of a large person's weight. Also, this design looks great in the interiors of large houses, especially if the podium has a non-standard circle or semicircle shape. Finishing of leather or leatherette in this case is the most preferred, since it especially emphasizes the solidity and stability of the structure.

Installing the podium in the loggiaconnected with the room will perfectly fit into the living space of creative natures, which especially pleases the Japanese style. If you remove the subwindow unit, insulate the former loggia and build a podium adjacent to the window, the effect of an oriental note in the interior will be stunning. The additional heating system can be hidden under the same podium, and the room can be decorated with wallpaper with oriental patterns.To complete the picture you can put in the room a few colored rugs, pillows and handmade red lamps.

How to make a bed-podium with your own hands, see the next video.