Modified Bed Frame + How Not To Furniture Hack

I've recently moved into an unfurnished house and have been acquiring furniture for it from sites like Freecycle and the free stuff section of Gumtree. While these sites are great for getting cheap or free furniture, often it looks a bit shabby or has a few things wrong with it: "You might need to tape this bit together...", "Do you have a nail gun? That would probably help...", "Yes, it has all the fixings" (turns out to definitely not have all the fixings) etc. Hence why people are probably giving it away.

As I'm working on a budget, I'd rather get some free furniture that needs a bit of attention rather than buy new or second-hand. As my first attempt at furniture hacking, modifying furniture that I acquired for nothing was also a lot less stressful than hacking stuff I paid money for since, as you'll see in this tutorial, there's a lot of things that will probably go wrong as you go through the learning curve.

While a lot of these tips may seem obvious (and probably are obvious if you've ever done something similar before), as a complete newbie to the world of DIY these are all things I learnt the hard way, which was all part of the fun :)

Step 1: What you'll need

For this project, I cut down an old wooden bed frame with an ugly pine headboard to make a simpler frame, then painted it to finish.

For the modifications, you will need:

- A hand saw or hacksaw
- Pencil and ruler
- Course sandpaper or wood file
- Fine sandpaper or steel wood
- Wood or hobby paint

I haven't included specifications of the best types of tools to use as I was mostly working with what I had to hand. Where I've discovered particular tools that work well or not so well, I've included some tips in the relevant steps.

To dismantle and put the frame back together, you will also need the relevant fixtures and fittings and tools (eg, screws, dowels, nails, a hammer or a screwdriver / electric drill).