Thanks everyone for all your comments last week! I had a great time in France, meeting new people and eating lots (and lots) of croissants and pain au chocolats. The hotel/area was gorgeous, but they jam-packed our schedules so much I didn’t even get a chance to take a single picture! So I lugged my heavy camera around for nothing. Oh well, maybe next time.
While I was gone, Andoni was a bit bored so he worked on a few house projects on his own. The first one is something we had been thinking for a while: removing the foot of the bed we have. It’s one of those faux cast iron beds from Ikea, the discontinued Noresund model:
Image from Ikea
I bought it while I was still living with my parents and brought it here when we bought our apartment. It’s a lovely bed; the only problem is that the foot of the bed is too tall for our bedroom.
While it seems like the space is a bit tight between the dresser and the bed, in reality there’s more than 3 feet – more than enough to move around. It was definitely the height of the footboard (?) that was the problem. So we decided to remove it! Easy, right? Well, not quite. Since it’s a standalone bed structure (i.e. the sideboards rest on the footboard) we couldn’t simply remove the footboard and call it done. We had to build a new footboard entirely. Thankfully we still have wood left for projects like this one. We (well, Andoni) used a 2×4 and a 2×8 for the new footboard, plus three metal pieces (one for each side and one for the middle) so the sideboards/rest of the bed’s structure rest on those.
(Sorry for the quality of the pic – he took it with my old camera, that doesn’t focus properly anymore, because I had the good camera with me)
So after removing the old footboard and setting up the new one, here are the results:
Old vs. new view from the bed:
(The above pic was taken with late afternoon light; the one below with morning light, that’s why there’s a huge difference).
And how the new footboard looks below the duvet:
I thought about painting it black, but 1) No one’s ever going to see it and 2) It’s not like they’re really going to match, so why bother? We simply wanted to get rid of the footboard without cutting it up in case we ever get a bigger bedroom or want to sell the bed, but without having to spend any money on this project. So, mission accomplished, I think. And just in case you’re wondering why I really wanted to get rid of the footboard, here’s a picture that might help explain it better:
Opening the drawers with the tall footboard was a bit of a tight squeeze. Now we can sit on the bed while we sort through our t-shirts. So, what do you think? Was it a good call, or do you prefer beds to have a footboard?
UPDATE: We flipped the new “footboard” around after notching out the wood so that the full weight of the bed doesn’t rest solely on the metal brackets. Thank you so much Ali for your suggestion!
I like beds with a footboard, but not as much as I love furniture that functions in the room it lives in!
My bed at my mum’s house has four of the upright bars in the footboard removed to make a “hole” that Mr V can put his feet through! It’s not pretty but a lot less painful for him than sleeping a bed that’s far too small. Maybe we should have just made a lower bed foot like this….
PS. Bless Andoni for taking a picture while making this!
Wow, that really helps open up the space! Since Kevin is so tall, we can never really have a footboard. Since our bed is just a hand-me-down frame (sans even a headboard), we don’t have to worry about it.
And I agree with Annabel; yay for husbands that remember to take pictures for the blog when they’re working around the house.
Yeah, he’s awesome! He sent me pics of his progress as well, while he was working on it, so that I could see how it looked all the way from France
Yeah I like them too (that’s why I picked it, haha) but not for this space – they’re meant for much bigger bedrooms, I think.
By the looks of it, the whole room looks more open without the footboard! I actually am not a fan of footboards anyway because I think in a lot of cases they can chop the look of a room up!
Yup it looks much better this way! It’s one of those things that are meant to be seen in person
I don’t really like foot boards. I find they really break up a space and I feel too crowded sleeping on a bed with out. That’s just me though. The new set up looks great! Yay for Andoni doing it on his own and remembering to take photos- he’s a keeper!
I don’t mind them at all but in bigger bedrooms. I’m glad we found a way to work with our bed though, instead of spending the money on a new one or something like that.
Our bed doesn’t have a foot board, our bedroom is so narrow that we only have a foot between the end of the bed and the wall so if we had a foot board it would feel far to hemmed in.
Yay to husbands diy-ing while you are gone. Rodney was fixing the damage from the leak we had while I was at a hen do this weekend
xox
Haha, here’s to small bedrooms!
That’s smart. I like that idea.
Thanks John!
We have the same bed in our guest room. I never thought about doing this. I’ll have to remember this if we ever run into the same issue!
It’s a lovely bed as-is! Too small for our bedroom though.
Wouldn’t be better if you flip the wood footboard around so the metal bed frame resting on the wooden legs? This will help to reduce strain on metal bracket you’ve attached to the wood footboard
Hey Ali! That’s a great point, but the metal frame actually has some “edges” so it’s not possible for it to rest on the wooden legs. I don’t know how to explain it in writing, but the frame isn’t straight, i.e., the shape isn’t like this – but more like this ¬ so that’s actually why we added the metal bracket, so that the vertical side of the ¬ shaped frame “inserts” itself into the bracket. I hope I’ve explained myself better! You can check out step 2 from Ikea’s instructions to see what I mean.
Otherwise it would be best to do it like you suggest, of course!
Yes I can see that, you still should able to run over the wood before inserting into a metal bracket. Or there’s another way to do it as it looking very good from the front, you could add more wood under the metal bracket to help to give more support and to cut down strain? No one want a loud thud in the middle of the night
By the way, still a very good hack, making the room feel slightly bigger also given better access to drawers.
Oh by the way, look like you got another job to do, fix the top row of four drawers :/
Oooh now I understand what you mean, sorry! Yeah that would be way better! Maybe we’ll switch it later, thanks!
And yup, those drawers…
Hey Ali! Just wanted to give you an update, we decided to do what you mentioned. Andoni notched out the board and turned it around like you suggested. Thanks for the idea!
I just talked to Andoni about it and he says the problem is with the middle support. That’s why he wasn’t able to do what you suggested. But he’s thinking about it and by notching out the wood we might be able to switch it, so I’ll keep you posted, and thanks again for the suggestion!
Pingback: Footless Noresund - Home 101
Hi.
I absolutely LOVE this. I have the same bed and have been getting sick of the foot board for quite sometime now. I had never thought to attempt to remove the foot board until I saw this. Thank You.
Thanks Shannon! I’m glad you like it
This is such a great solution. I would love to see some pictures of the notching out you did later
Hi,
I have the same bed and was thinking about doing this but I don’t get what u mean “flipped the footend and notched out” . Is it possible for u to put up pictures so I can get a better idea.
Thank you
Hi! I’m out today but I’ll send you an update tomorrow by e-mail!