sorry… no plans for the center support. I made it the same size as Anna’s center. The support piece had 2x2s around the perimeter, and 2x2s were glued and screwed into the boxes below that. The tabs that lock it all together are just pieces of plywood that I screwed in to hook it up.

I would recommend the technique that I used in the “oak” bed on my site since it is much more simple. Just build the center support, and attach the 2x2s to the boxes for support. Once the bed is assembled and square, drive 3″ screws down to hold the center piece into the supports. Much easier than Anna’s technique, and extremely solid… hope that helps.

The plywood that I used i this project as ~30/sheet… I don’t think there really is “hardwood” plywood per se… the expensive stuff may have an Oak veneer (which is hardwood), but the intermediate layers are likely not Oak. The $45/sheet stuff will have fewer voids, put it is not critical to get the high-end stuff if you are able to fill it with wood putty and paint it a solid color. I got expensive plywood (Oak veneer – $50/sheet) for the bed that I stained since it was important to see the wood grain. If you need to save money on the plywood, shop around a bit (if you can).

a note on the sizing: plywood is a hair less than 3/4″ of an inch thick, but it doesn’t really matter for this project. The only thing you should take extra care with is the center divider for each bench. I cut my pieces after measuring the actual opening size on the first bench to see what size to make them.

MDF will look better initially, but I WOULD NOT use it. It is tricky to glue, screws pull out, and it will not last many years. In the end it will end up on the curb… just like all the other MDF furniture that nobody wants anymore. Plywood is not real wood, but it will provide you with a vastly superior product to use 5 years from now.

The sheets of plywood for this project were ~$30/each. The trim for this bed was basic pine furring strips that are very cheap… take care to find the straightest ones in the pile since some end up being pretty warped/cracked. Since the plan was to paint it from the beginning you can save a few bucks and get the lower-grade wood. On my second bed I used $50/sheet plywood because it was getting stained… that bed had oak trim and cost almost three times as much to build after paying for all of the stain.

The time for this painted bed was probably 20 hours or so. I spent considerably more time on the stained version with oak trim. Each cut for the trim needed to be much more precise, and I used a miter saw for that. For my second bed, I also utilized an air nailer with 1/8″ brads… that saved a TON of time… definitely worth the price.