Whitewashed Ash Bed

Aloha Everybody! Welcome to the latest installation of the Rust & Root blog. Thank you for reading! We really appreciate you!

This past week, a client contacted us asking for us to make two beds.

Here is the inspiration that we were given. This bed looks like weathered douglas fir (could be something different), around 4" thick boards. We didn't have quick access to that lumber here in Hawaii, so we had to go with something similar.

Below, I'll go through the build. I didn't take super detailed pictures, but I had two beds to build in a week, so I was a little preoccupied. Building two beds at once is slightly more efficient... just cut two sets of everything!

Ash lumber

This 8/4" ash and plywood make up most of the bed. They're ~12' long boards, and it was a little scary driving them over the Pali.

Closeup of the ash grain

Love the beautiful open grain in the ash.

Headboard leg glueup

I wanted the legs to be around 4" thick, so I glued two 8/4" boards together. 4" ash doesn't really exist around here, sadly.

Headboard in progress

This part of the headboard was made of 3/8" thick ash boards, screwed and glued onto plywood.

Headboard ready for paint

Solid 1" thick ash board on top, followed by the series of four boards from the previous picture. Underneath is a rail to support they plywood platform.