DIY Platform Anything!

by Holly Prim

$60.00

1 Day

Medium

My daughter has been taking singing lessons for the last year, she loves it but has been practicing less and less as time goes on. As I work on my DIY projects I am realizing more and more that practice will make anyone improve so I decided I would build her a stage giving her a platform to practice on plus a constant reminder in her room that she needs to practice at least one or two songs everyday to improve. I was confident I had everything I would need to make a platform stage or a platform anything, bed, pet bed, step stool, etc.

diy wood platform, diy, how to, woodworking projects

To determine the size of the stage we picked a spot in her room and measured the length and width, plus determined a good height off the floor. To avoid a lot of wasted wood I chose to make each side less than 4 feet so that I could utilize the 1x8x8 boards I already had. I also had a ton of 24's from my ceiling project. We decided on a width of 36, length of 44 with a height of 7.5

Materials needed:

3 2x4x8 structural base of stage

2 1x8x8 for stage base appearance boards

2 1x3x8 for perimeter trim

I used one box of Laminate flooring for stage floor, flooring options are endless so pick what works best for you and your budget. I purchased my flooring at Home Depot, the link to my specific flooring is on my blog. Step 1

Building the base

Cut the 2x4x8 into 8 pieces each 7.5 long, I eventually affix the 18 boards lengthwise so want them to be the same height.

To create a sturdy right angled joint, I laid one piece of the 24 down against a straight ledge on my work bench and set the other block next to it to form the 90 degree angle and used two 3 Spax screws to connect them. These will act as the corners of the stage base.

Step Two

Then I cut one 2x4x8 into 2 pieces of 39 1/2 so that when I attach to the corner blocks and the appearance board I will have my desired length of 44. I cut another 2x4x8 into 3 pieces 31 1/2 long which I attached widthwise.

Screw the two 39 1/2 boards to each of the two corner blocks, you can use a clamp to keep them together and tight while driving in the long 3 screws. Then take the 31 1/2 boards and lay widthwise resting on top of the two longer "length" side with screws, this gives you a really strong corner joint. I added a third "width" board in the middle to make the center of the stage really strong since the idea is she will be bouncing around on this, I don't want her to fall through...

Step 3

Next I cut the 18x8 to the original lengths desired, two @44 two @36appearance boards. I didn't bother to miter the corners but you can if you want it to have a really polished look. I used clamps to hold the 18 board to the 24 frame to keep the board from moving while I used my 16 gauge nail gun to drive in 2 finishing nails.

Step 4

I picked up a piece of particle board from Loading Dock South for next to nothing. Someone had purchased part of a sheet but left what they didn't need. Be sure to check scrap bins where you shop, you would be surprised how often that happens. I had to "piece" them together since the dimensions of the stage were bigger than my particle board but I planned to add some type of flooring so it was no problem. Attach it with pneumatic nail gun. Since particle board is a little on the lightweight, thin side, you could also use OSB or a nice sanded plywood and be pretty much done with your platform.

For the perimeter of the stage I wanted it to give it a platform look so I cut a 13x8 into two pieces with outside mitered cuts, longer length of the two was approximately 45 1/2 and the other 37 1/2 then make the same two cuts on your other 1x3x8. I attached with a nail gun to the 18 appearance boards. Depending on the "flooring" you use, you may be able to skip this part.

Please find Steps 5 & 6 on my blog, I have a lot more pictures, too many to load here. Thanks for checking it out!

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3 comments

Hannah V on Jun 15, 2015
Awesome!

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Valerie on Sep 23, 2015
This is a great idea - and you could always open up the side and have drawers 'inside' it if ever she runs out of storage space.

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