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This is the third, last and most challenging of the three pieces of furniture. I bought plans and crib gate hardware from Rockler for this conversion bed. It can be a crib, a Day Bed or a full size bed by adding or replacing various panels.
I modified the slat design. The original design called for slats that had 3/8" diameter "dowel ends". I used mortise and tennon joints. I made a jig for my router to create all the curves on 72 slats! The corner posts were also modified to match as closely as possible, the design of the crib at the baby store. They came out fine except for one thing. The gate hardware expected the legs to come straight down, not curved back away from the mounting point. As a result, the bottom mounting point was hanging in free space! To fix the problem, I cut a piece of 3/8" dowel to act as a spacer and drilled a hole through the center. I tapered the end connecting to the leg to conform to the leg's curve. I used a long screw to attach the mounting point of the gate hardware, through the dowel and into the leg. You can't tell it's a "fix."
Gluing this puppy up was a big challenge. It was so much fun trying to get all the joints connected at once. There was lots of room for error here but it all came together quite nicely.
The Galley Rail Shelf, shown below, was made after-the-fact. I used crown molding for the bottom. I used 1 1/8" spindles for the rail. The boat was purchased in St Augustine, FL during one of our vacations. This really helped carry out the nautical theme.
 Head Board |
 Dry Fit |
 Gate Down |
 Ends Dyed |
 Foot Board Dyed |
 Galley Rail Shelf |
 Finished |
Last Updated: September 16, 2005