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Hackers Help: MOLGER benches as bed frame?

Jules Yap
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·13 Comments·1 min read

Molger Plan

molger-bench-brown__0155556_PE313629_S4
Photo: IKEA.com

I have just my first home and I need advice.

I am planning to use Molger benches as a bed frame and have sketched very roughly the plan using MS paint.

My questions are,

1) would the Molger benches be able to withstand the mattress + a combined weight of 200kg and

2) would it be advisable (or not) to use the single bed slats over the opening (will need to be trimmed down)?

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13 Responses

  1. Hi Everyone,

    Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. It is very much appreciated.

    Cost is not an issue here, space is. Why I planned this is because the most minimal bed frame takes up more space than I have, which will make walking around the area a chore. I need something which Is exactly the dimensions of the smallest queen mattress, which is 152 x 191cm (~60″ x 67″ ) here.

    Taking into consideration all your advice with regards to strains, weight, would it be any better if I switch it to Hol side and storage tables instead?

    Sincere thanks and appreciations all.

    Zee

    Reply

  7. why Molger benches? They would very quickly add up to a lot of money, and require a lot of fuss to make into a sturdy bed. I would just use continuous molger benches instead of hacking slats onto it

    Reply

  8. Do you already have 7 Molger units? At the current price this would not be cheaper than a bed frame. (although I do admit it would be quite different from current bed frame offerings). The Molger shelf portions are attached to the sides with long screws; the side wood does not go under the shelf wood, so you would be totally relying on the screws to hold the weight of you and the mattress and the bedding and +1. They are sold as benches so they can take weight, but you would be transferring all of the centre area weight to the inside edges of the units. You would have to attach all the units together (so they wouldn’t split apart with any tossing and turning) but the sides don’t line up so you would have to get creative.

    Reply

  11. Seeing as these are benches designed to take a human’s weight (or even two), they will be absolutely fine weight wise. However, using cut down slats is going to be a bad idea as you’ll be putting a lot of strain on the edges of the slats that overlap with the benches.

    I would advise filling that space with further benches. Maybe go for two full rows of benches (148cm wide) so that you have access to storage all the way under the bed? If the 3cm difference between width of the resultant frame and the mattresses bothers you, you could add a spacer piece of wood in-between (or if you want to match the colours, get another molger bench as a donor – I suspect the side beams are about 3cm thick).

    I woud strongly advise you bolt it all together rather than let if float freely. You might even want to add some wood glue – maybe just for the joints within each bench but not between the benches so that you can still disassemble it into separate benches for future transport. My reason for this thinking is that ikea bolts can loosen a bit over time and it’ll be a bit of a faff to take it all apart just to stop a bit of creaking.

    Reply

  13. I would think that the shelves would be able to support the weight, but a bigger problem is going to be the shear strain on the legs. The bed and frame will move side to side and in my experience that’s often the weak point. This could be reduced by connecting adjacent legs to improve stability, but it is still a cause for concern.

    Reply

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