Finished bed.

Where we came from (before).

View from below.

This project took me two days. I didn't take any pics on the first day unfortunately. So on the first day I cut all the rail boards to length and sanded them. Next I drilled all holes for dowels  (1/2" oak) and attached the supports for the planks to the rails. I then glued in the dowels. Now I was ready for day two which was to assemble everything. In this pic I have attached the right side rail to the wall studs using 31/4 lag screws. I have an awesome stud finder I found at Costco. Highly recommend it.

Here I attached the head rail first by jamming the 3 dowels from the right rail into the 3 holes on the head rail. This took some doing and some wild hammer flailing but I got it together. Then I drove in the lag bolts. I looked over my work and thought "This is good".

Now it was time for the left rail which also meant post time. I decided that I would have to attach the post to the rail before I attached the rail to the head rail. So I did using my dowels. That odd board sitting on top of the post is scrap I used to bang stuff into place. I think in this pic I was pounding the post on to the dowel rods. That blue thing is the bad mama jama stud finda!

With the post in place you can now see my little dowel configuration. One rail left.

I used 1"x6" decking planks for the supports (planks). Once cut to length they just pretty much fell into place and BAM, done.

View from underneath.

I was concerned that the post might get kicked or a body thrown at it so I decided to use my Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and put 4 screws from the post into the floor. It ain't movin'. Oh yeah, FINISHED.