Have you ever seen one of those big front farmhouse porches with one of those beautiful swing beds? Did you ever want a swing bed of your own? Well, even if you don’t have enough room on your own front porch, you might have room somewhere else in your yard or maybe in a stand on your back porch. Building a swing bed is not that difficult, and can even be completed in a single afternoon if you have all of the tools and materials. Follow along with these plans and you could have your new swing bed built and installed in a single weekend.

Pro Tip: Sand all of your pieces with 120 grit sandpaper before you begin assembly. This will not only remove potential splinters, it will also save you a ton of time trying to sand at the end when there are a lot of hard to reach areas.

If you have any questions, leave us a comment down below. Also, if you do build a swing bed from these plans, or build anything from any of our plans, we would love to see the finish product. Please take a minute to register and share a few pictures of the finished product.

Materials Required

• 3 – 4×4 @ 8′
• 2 – 2×6 @ 10′
• 2 – 2×4 @ 8′
• 6 – 1×2 @ 8′
• 5 – 1×6 @ 8′
• 2 – 1×4 @ 10′
• 4 – post top ball finial
• 1 – 74″ x 30″ Cot mattress (6 to 8″ thick)
• 4 – 3/8 x 6″ eye bolts
• 8 – 2″ fender washers.
• 8 – 3/8″ nuts (use two per eye bolt to ensure they don’t come loose)
• Chain or rope as needed

Tools Required

• Saws
  • Table
  • Miter
  • Circular
• Drill / Driver combo
• Finish nailer
• Clamps
• Sander and sand paper
• Square
• Wood glue
• 1 5/8″ deck screws
• 3″ deck screws
• 6″ structural screws

Step 1: Build the frame

Start building your swing bed by ripping your 2×6’s down to 5″ wide. I recommend taking about 1/4″ off of each edge in order to eliminate the standard round-overs for a squarer profile. Then cut your two long pieces to 76 1/2″ in length and your two shorter pieces to 33 1/2″ in length.

For the two shorter pieces, you are also going to have to cut out 2 dados in each. These rabbets should be 3 1/4″ in from the ends, run 3 1/2″ long, and be 2″ deep. Your 4×4 beams should fit in these snugly after they are cut.

You’ll want to use your wood glue and two 6″ structural screws per joint. Pre-drill the holes for the structural screws, adding a 1/2″ counterbore to allow plugs that will hide the screw heads later.

Step 2: Add the beams

Next comes the 4×4 beams. Each of these should be 86″ long. You will also have to drill a 1/4″ hole all the way through the beam 1 1/2″ in from each end. The holes should be centered in the beams.

Use wood glue and one 6″ structural screw through the beam and into the frame at each intersection. Again, pre-drill these holes and include counterbores.

Step 3: Cut and attach posts

Now that your frame is built and your beams are attached, it’s time to move onto what are the most “difficult” parts of this entire build (and I say “difficult” when these posts are not very difficult at all). It’s time to cut two 4×4 posts at 20 3/4″ long, and two more posts at 26 1/2″ long. Once you have the posts cut to length, you’ll need to cut out a 1 1/2″ deep by 5″ long rabbet from all four posts. This will work as a half lap joint when attaching the posts to the frame.

The easiest way to cut the rabbets efficiently is to clamp all four posts together, ensuring the ends are aligned. Then use your circular saw to gang-cut the rabbets on all four boards at the same time.

Once your posts are cut, position them in the corners and use three 3″ deck screws through the long frame board and into each post. This should hold them in place while you add a 6″ structural screws through the face of each post and into the short frame board. Remember to pre-drill and counterbore before adding the structural screws.

Step 4: Add the rails

The rails of this swing bed come next. These are simple 2x4s. One cut to 72 1/2″ in length for the back, and two cut to 30 1/2″ for the sides. The back rail should be mounted 2″ down from the top edge of the back posts. Pre-drill and counterbore for two 6″ structural screws through each post and into the back rail.

The side rails should be attached 8″ down from the top edge of the back posts, which should mean that they are 2 1/4″ down from the top of the front posts if you have them level. Again, two 6″ screws per end, pre-drilled and counterbored.

Step 5: Inner side stops

Now your swing bed should actually be starting to look like a swing bed, so it’s time to keep going to get this thing done! Now it’s time for the inner side stops that hold the side slats in place. This will be two boards, both 3/4″ thick and cut to 30 1/2″ in length. The upper side stop is a 1×2, while the lower side stop is a 1×6 that also needs to be ripped to 4 1/2″ wide. Use wood glue and 1 5/8″ wood screws to attach the lower side stop to the frame. For the upper inner side stop, use the 3″ deck screws, screwing up through the side stop into the rail. Note that the inner side stop should be inset about 1 1/4″ from the inside of the rail, putting it directly above the lower side stop.

Step 6: Side slats and spacers

Now cut four 12″ pieces of 1×6 to use as the side slats for each side of your swing bed (so eight in total). To have the slats evenly spaces, the outer two side slats should be positioned 1 1/16″ in from the posts, and then there should be a 2 1/8″ gap in between each side slat. Use wood glue and your finish nailer to secure the slats in place.

The spacers shown in light purple below are completely optional. I personally prefer them not because I think they look better, but because it prevents dust, dirt, bugs, and all sorts of other debris from building up in between the slats over time. Unfortunately there is just no easy way to clean between the slats, so I think it’s better to just fill in that space. These spacers can simply be glued and tacked into place with some finish nails.

Step 7: Exterior side stops

Use your finish nailer to tack on two more 1 1/2″ side stops on each end of your swing bed. If you’ve aligned everything correctly, the outer edges of these stops should be flush with the rail and the frame.

Step 8: Inner back stops

Now you are going to go through a similar process to install the back slats. For the back slats, the exterior lower side stop is going to be a 1×6 ripped down to 5″ in width, and 72 1/2″ in length. The other stops are all 1x2s, just like for the sides. Your back slats should be 18″ long, and you should need nine of them.

Step 9: Seat slats

You are now in the home stretch! It’s time to add the seat slats. These are just ten pieces of 1×4 cut to 30 1/2″ in length. Space them evenly apart, and use two 1 5/8″ deck screws through each seat slat into the 4×4 beams to hold them in place.

Step 12: Ball top finials

Your build is on the last step of construction. Just drill some pilot holes into your posts and screw in your finials and you can put most of your tools away.

Hopefully you followed our advice at the beginning of these plans and did all of the pre-sanding so you won’t have to do it now. If you did, that means it’s onto staining or painting and then hanging this new swing bed up!

To prepare your swing bed for hanging, thread a 6″ eye bolt through each hole in the beams, using a 2″ fender washer on top and on bottom of the beam. Then use two nuts on the bottom of each eye bolt. Snug the first nut nice and tight, then add the second. The friction between the two should keep them from coming lose better than any lock washer.

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