Making a Dog Bed Out of an OLD Couch - Upcycle

In this Instructable, I am taking an old family couch, and turning it into something much more useful... a large dog bed!

This was a couch that had been handed down from generation to generation, but really didn't fit my style and I wasn't in need of a couch. HOWEVER, it is made of solid wood - so I couldn't just throw it away.

My dogs love what it's become, and the memory foam mattress I bought for it. The mattress is a Brindle Soft Shredded Memory Foam mattress that I purchased from Amazon. I'll actually be getting a new one because they finally shredded this one up...

This will hopefully inspire some of you all to think twice before throwing away your furniture and filling up those landfills. I did end up throwing out about half this couch, but still, I did what I could.

Supplies

Tools:

Dewalt Reciprocating Saw

Sander

Kreg Jig and Kreg Screws

Ryobi Drill

White Paint

Paint Brush

Step 1: Make the Cuts for the Frame

Since I knew the dog bed mattress was going to be 46" long, I measured 46" within the center of the couch and made my cuts here. My advice here would be to find your mattress first, and then make the cuts based off the mattress. You don't want to make any cuts and then go and have to find some custom mattress.

This particular couch also had 2 legs near the center of the couch so I could now use those as my 2 back corner legs for the new 46" cutout portion of the bed.

Lastly, I used a 1x3 for the new side end pieces and just cut them to fit the opening. I sunk the holes pretty deep so I could conceal the screws with a wooden dowel if I chose to someday.

I also took this time to sand everything with 220 grit sandpaper. The wood was already finished so it was smooth enough to where I didn't need 80 grit.

Step 2: Cut the Legs

I used 2x4s for the legs, and I only needed 2 front legs (again, since my couch just happened to have 2 legs in the center on the back side).

By cutting a quantity of 4 2x4s, I could pair 2 of them up in an "L" shape so this bed would really be supported.

These legs are 12" long, but will be installed within the frame so the total bed height won't really be that tall.

Step 3: Install the Side Ends

The side ends simply fasten securely to the old couch frame.

I applied wood glue, countersunk the holes for the screws, and then screwed them in with 2" screws.

Step 4: Install the Legs

The last structural piece of work had to do with installing the legs.

I connected 2 2x4s together with glue and a kreg screw.

Then I took the new "L" shaped leg and glued and fastened it onto the bed frame using 1 3/4" screws.

I did this on both sides of the bed.

Step 5: Paint!

Before painting, I wanted to be sure that I didn't get anything on the metal springs (although these won't be visible). So I taped a lot of the corners off to just make clean paint lines.

I also went with a white color to keep this looking classic.

I use this paint brush for almost all my painting projects. It cuts really clean.