The Arlington Bed

The Arlington 
Live Edge Bed 

This bed is a pretty cool project. Not only is it our first spotlight project, but this client has a great story of how this bed came to be. We were contacted by the family some time ago. They told us they had a large amount of slab wood and wanted to use it to make a bed.  When we went to get the wood, they told us that the wood was cut from the timber on the lot they bought to build their home. Some might say ok whatever. The lot that the wood was harvested from was in the middle Arlington, Virginia just minutes from the Pentagon and D.C.; so the fact that a wooded lot was still available was impressive. 

The wood picked for this bed is cherry and maple. The client took a liking to these two woods. The cherry more so, since they had already been able to use it for flooring around their home and for a beautiful kitchen island. Their main goal is to take the hardwoods from the land and put them back into the home. This kind of love for reusing materials was right up our ally.

Progress Photos

PROGRESS UPDATE!!!!!

The last few days we have been using our off time from work trying to get some orders done, so we can get caught up. Once the mock up was done for the bed, it was time to get to sanding and shaping. 

The shaping we did with a tool that was sent to us for a review from Tack life tools. This angle grinder was the perfect tool to sand down the accent side pieces to the same contour as the live edge. The sanding disc they sent in combination with the grinder did everything I wanted it to. The sanding we started with an older ridgid belt sander that is the of all our major sanding jobs. Then we sand through the grit with a palm sander.
By no means do we claim the next tip is the end all be all, and I am sure there is better way to address the problem of your power tools with cords coming unplugged from your extension cords while moving around working. I got a photo of what I do and wanted to share it. 

I plug in and shove it in my pocket. This solves multiple problems. The first the plug doesn't come out. The second is that the extra cord doesn't get in the way of the tool on the working service. 

So, we have moved on and have finished the bed parts. Everything from the headboard to the feet. We used Arm-R-Seal from General Finishes. This oil and poly mixture makes for a very nice and durable finish for anything live edge you may be doing. This product really brings the amazing character out in the material its being used on. This is the footboard for the bed a very nice piece of maple.
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The next picture is the feet for the bed and footboard. The client wanted a modern feel to this bed, so we went with the average height of a modern bed and then kept the clean lines mixed with the lines of the live edges. This project has been awesome, educational, and challenging at times. We can't wait to get this in its new home.