Need to lift your bed off the ground for extra storage space? This tutorial guides you through making a DIY, budget-friendly bed riser in minutes!
Get the full DIY Bed Risers tutorial details below on making your own and creating more storage space under your bed.
You can make these easy and inexpensive bed raisers for less than $15.
(**cost subject to current wood pricing)
Do you have a tall bed or a short bed?
We have always had a taller bed so when we bought our sleep number we felt like we were sleeping on the floor.
Not cool! It was like driving a truck and then getting in a car. You know that feeling if you have ever been there.
It just wasn't going to work, so we had to devise a new solution to raise the entire bed.
Of course, purchasing bed risers can be fairly inexpensive but I have used those before and never felt they were super sturdy.
It was DIY bed risers to the rescue and these worked out great. These bed risers are incredibly simple and inexpensive, plus a super sturdy solution for a short bed when you need more storage.
Want to build yourself a set? Keep reading for the full tutorial.
What you will need for DIY bed risers:
- 1 4x4 piece of lumber
- 1 1x6x6 piece of lumber
- hole saw (1 inch)
- drill
- 2-inch screws
How do you make homemade bed risers?
I'm not sure you can get any easier than these wooden bed risers.
Before you get started, you will first need to gather the supplies you’ll need for your bed riser.
How long you cut your riser pieces will truly depend on how tall you want your bed but we went with 7 inches.
Chop down all your risers, and don't forget the middle support beams as well.
Be sure to take necessary safety precautions when handling the saw and cutting material!
Once you have made all of your cuts you will need to use a 1-inch hole saw to make your middle hole cuts to place the metal bed frame (without the wheels attached) down into.
Measure the length of your bed frame legs (without the wheels) as they may all differ.
Measure the center of the 4x4 so you will know where to make the hole cut and drill all of your holes.
We first tried to use the bed lifts with just the pieces of 4x4 wood block but they didn't feel near sturdy enough for us.
So, we then took a 1x6x6 inch board and cut down 6-inch pieces to screw onto the base of the 4x4 pieces (using 2, 2-inch nails in each base).
This allowed them to be nice and sturdy with no wobble.
Now that you have finished them (for right around $10 is what we spent on both pieces of lumber) you can then stain them a nice color, paint them, or leave them unfinished.
Even if you aren't needing to raise your bed because you don't mind it being short, these bed risers create awesome under-bed storage space.
Great for dorm rooms!!
They come in handy for off-season clothes, storing handbags (you ladies know what I mean), or whatever else you might need extra storage space for.
How much weight can you put on bed risers?
These specific bed risers are meant to handle the same amount of weight as your traditional bed frame as you will be using all your bed frame support points for making the base.
If you enjoyed this do-it-yourself project then be sure to stick around and check out these others.
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Heidi Lamb says
Has this held up well for you? Is a 1-in hole deep enough to support the bed on those risers? My bed frame has about 6-in legs now. Should I only go 1-in deep in the 4x4?
Melissa says
Heidi, yes they have. We are still using them, so it has been about 6 years or so. The 1-inch hole is the size of the hole saw not the depth of the cut. It should definitely be deeper than one inch as stated in the directions you will want to measure your bed frame. If your bed frame is 6 inches you will want to go down 6 inches. If you look at the photos the top of the leg should be resting on the wood riser. Hope that helps!
Emily says
I would love a wide shot of what the finished product looks like, Can you update? Thanks!
Melissa says
Emily, our bed skirt covers these up so a wide shot of the bed you can't actually see them.