Jeff Miller lives the story-book life of a furniture maker. His suburban-Chicago workshop is set conveniently behind an inviting brick-walled showroom, where customers can mingle with his finished work and get immersed in the sawdust of his works in progress. He teaches students there and he produces a prolific portfolio of handmade custom furniture.

Here’s your chance to be Jeff Miller, or at least build furniture like him with this 16-page excerpt from Miller’s book Beds.

Miller designed this modern and contemporary full-size bed based the common construction elements used in traditional Shaker furniture but took many liberties of his own; it is not an actual reproduction. And you can be thankful for that, the original Shaker beds measured only 28-in. to 34-in. wide and 70-in. to 72-in. long. Shakers also added casters, so the bed was easy to move around and clean underneath. How industrious.

The drawings and construction plans detailed in this 16-page PDF download take you through making the turned legs, headboard and footboard planks that double as structural rails, and cleats that are integral with the side railing design.

See below for the free PDF woodworking plan for this Shaker-style bed.

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