I have been living in San Francisco now for 6 weeks. Since I didn't know how long I was going to be here I slept on a mattress on the floor for the first 5 weeks instead of throwing down hundreds of dollars for a bed-frame.

After organizing and tidying up the instructables office a couple weeks ago, we realized we had an extra bookshelf that wasn't needed. I was bummed because I just bought a bookshelf for my room for $30 and the only piece of furniture I needed was a bed... but then I thought there has to be a way I could use it. I took the specs of the shelf and my twin size mattress was exactly the perfect size to fit on the shelf if it was lying down.

Thus, here is my awesome re-purposed bookshelf bed!

Step 1: Materials

This bed (not including mattress) cost me about $40 including:

Bookshelf - Free
Piece of plywood (1/4" thick, the same width and length of the bookshelf) - $30, you could use any flat board like thing that does not bend easily
Screws (8) - approx. $1
Contact Paper - $10. You can keep it simple with clear contact paper or get more exciting with animal prints!
Screwdriver - already had
Drill - already had

Although you may not be able to find a bookshelf for free, check out yard sales and craigslist. You will be surprised how cheap you can get them for. They are often much cheaper than buying a used bed frame. Also, make sure the edges of the bookshelf are thick like this. If they are thin the bed will be flimsy and may not support your weight and it will be hard to attach the plywood.

Step 2: Attach Plywood

Measure the length and width of the bookshelf and buy a piece of plywood (or whatever board you chose, I chose plywood because its strong and sturdy) that is the same size.

Mark on the plywood where you will be drilling. Put two screws in each corner of the plywood and shelf. I measured it out so the screws would be exactly the same distance from the corner and in the middle of the shelf frame (i.e. the thickness of the frame of the shelf and the shelves is 2", so the screw is 1" from the edge )

Drill a starter hole for the screw so the wood doesn't split and the screw goes in easily. Then drill the screws in.

Sorry about my final picture. I took it at a weird angle and thought I would be able to just rotate it 90 degrees, but it didn't look good (or give me a headache) at any angle but this.

Step 3: Attach Contact Paper

I didn't want to leave the ply wood bare so I decided to line it with contact paper. This works well because you can make cool designs with it and switch it up if you get bored! You could also sand and paint the wood.

Measure the contact paper so it covers the entire bed and stick it on the wood. This is pretty self explanatory. I used two types of contact paper and made stripes!

You can see the paper hangs over the edge. Cut it so it's all the same length. (You can see its the same length in the next step)