A King Sized Greene and Greene-Style Bed

[Dave Richards]

This is a queen sized bed designed based on a couple of twin beds designed by the Greene brothers for the Gamble House in Pasadena, CA. I did the model for plans for Fine Woodworking awhile back. A woodworker is planning to build a king sized version of the bed so I thought I'd give him some possible design options.

His idea is to just make the central panels wider thusly.


I'm not a huge fan of the wide panels and would break them up. Maybe something like this:


For the example I only copied the original stiles on either side of the panel and moved them in but maybe they need to be slightly narrower.

My other thought was to add the width in spindles but there's not enough room to add an extra spindle at each location without making them narrower or something. So that option is out.

Anyone got any other bright ideas?

 

[Don Baer]

I would think more spindles perhaps in the center would look better. with two smaller solid pieces on each side. spindle, panel, spendlis panel, spindles.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Another vote for Don's suggestion.

The corner junctions are intriguing, ditto the footboard bottom rail to mid rail transition. Some things to think about there.

 

[Ted Calver]

How about splitting the long panels in the middle and inserting a center section of three spindles at both the head and foot? Incidentally, how does your revised design address the center leg typical of kings?
Edit to add Oops...didn't see Don's response

 

[Dave Richards]

Interesting ideas. Especially adding some spindles in the middle. I think the intent is to stick as close to the original design as possible although the originals are only twins.

As for the center leg, the plan would be to add a lengthwise rail down the middle and put one or two legs under it.