Build A Hanging Daybed, step by step

Back in October we mentioned our plans to add a hanging daybed to the covered portion of our front porch and our whole family could not be more excited that it is at last done.

Hanging daybeds like this are especially popular in our area, and we have consistently had a soft spot for them. Is there anything better than reading/napping outside on a lazy Saturday afternoon?

One of the Airbnbs that we stayed at in Costa Rica last January had one that fairly much cemented our feeling that they are simply about the ideal outdoor lounge spot. Sherry and our daughter spent hours there, each leaning up against a side arm with their legs extended towards each other, reading and chatting and swaying.

Then, lo and behold, we realized that we had a near-ideal spot for one on the front porch of this house. It is covered to protect us from rain and the hot sun. It has pleasant strong exposed beams to hang it from. We even have a fan right there to keep the area cool.

The only reason I say near- and not totally-ideal is that there was not quite sufficient depth to create the typical twin-mattress-sized daybed. We could have crammed one in there, but it would’ve encroached on our frequently-used path to our outdoor shower, and we did not want to cramp that area. We also stand at that wicker storage bin and load beach chairs on and off of our backs when we are leaving for or returning from the beach, so extra clearance there is key.

Thankfully the cushion that we landed on is simply three inches shorter than the length of a twin mattress (still clocking in at 6′ long!), but it is 10″ less deep, which is certainly appreciated. Even with 10″ shaved off, it is still nearly 30″ deep, which is fairly much a typical sofa cushion depth, and quite comfy (twin mattresses are significantly deeper than the average sofa). And we have plenty of clearance when we walk through to the outdoor shower or while grabbing beach chairs out of the wicker bin.

That egg chair above swivels BTW, so whoever is sitting in it can rotate to face anyone who is hanging out on the daybed. But back to the whole finding-the-goldilocks-of-daybed-cushions dilemma…

Finding An Outdoor Daybed Cushion

Even though the cushion would be covered, we still needed something that would be outdoor-friendly. My understanding from neighbors is that when someone uses a regular twin mattress, they zip it into a waterproof mattress cover and then cover that whole thing with outdoor fabric. If you are good at sewing you might be able to make one yourself – or plenty of Etsy sellers offer them (this one seems to be well-rated).

We first looked into doing something like that, but substituting the mattress for a custom-cut mildew-resistant foam pad instead. Not only was the price adding up quite swiftly, we also worried we’d end up with some oddly heavy or bulky cushion that would be a pain to move around whenever we needed to take it off the daybed (like in a storm or to clean it).

Then we realized that we could order a replacement outdoor cushion that is already made for outdoor furniture and simply build a daybed frame to fit that – if we could simply find one that was the right size for our spot. That way it would be MADE to weather the elements, nicely tailored, ready to ship versus waiting on a custom order, and significantly less pricey than something custom-made might be! After a bit of hunting, we found this replacement cushion for the Pottery Barn Cammeray Outdoor Sofa -which was simply about the ideal size, color, and material.

So way back in August, we ordered it during an end-of-summer sale (we got the bottom cushion and three large back pillows for $399). At the time they were back-ordered and the estimated ship date was October. So much for things being ready to ship and fast. We at last got them right before Christmas.

But they were well worth the wait (FYI, they are now shipping for mid-February delivery). They are pleasant and lightweight, they dry truly swiftly, and so far are quite straightforward to clean. We have had plenty of rain, sun, and various child-related spills, and we are quite glad with the durability and how swiftly it dries out.

Materials

In addition to your mattress or cushion, here is what else you will need to build your hanging daybed. The quantities below are for building our specific swing (our cushion was 28″ x 72″), so you will need to adjust things if you are building one around a standard twin mattress, which I mentioned is 3″ longer and 10″ deeper (38″ x 75″). Also, if you plan to stain, not paint, your wrapped up swing, you will not want to buy pre-primed wood like we did.

• Three 8′ long 2 x 4″ boards (for the frame)
• Four 8′ long 1 x 4″ boards (for the slats)
• Three 8′ long 1 x 8″ primed boards
• Three 8′ long 1 x 4″ primed boards
• Two 8′ long 1 x 3″ primed boards
• Three 8′ long 1 x 2″ primed boards
• A box of 2″ exterior screws
• A bottle of exterior-grade wood glue
• Four 5-gallon buckets
• Eight screw eye hooks (we got these for the ceiling and these for the bed)
• 3/4″ natural hemp rope (we got this rope in the 48-foot length)
• Outdoor-rated paint and primer (we used semi-gloss exterior paint)

Building The Daybed Platform

I was a little nervous about constructing a hanging bed, but it turned out to be straightforward and extremely straightforward. When it came to figuring out the design that we hoped, we merged our experience building bunk beds at our beach house with this walkthrough that we tweaked from Plank & Pillow, which has a pleasant clear step-by-step breakdown (and quite fancy 3D renderings). Low and behold, we achieved a final look that we enjoy, and it works truly well for our space.

The structural core of the daybed is this plain frame made out of 2 x 4″ boards. It is built to the exact dimensions of our seat cushion, and we connected it using outdoor screws that we had on hand. This would not only support the cushion (and those sitting on it), it would also be where our hanging hardware would eventually go into.

Since 2x4s are not the prettiest wood on the block AND we hoped the daybed’s base to look a bit more substantial, the next step would be to wrap all sizes of this frame with thicker wood. We chose 1x8s, but you could select something thicker or thinner depending on your desired look. And since we’d be painting our daybed, we purchased primed wood when possible, simply to make our lives easier.

The only thing to consider here is how much you want your cushion or mattress to be recessed within your platform (how much is exposed vs. how much is hidden below the lip). Our cushion is not especially thick so we hoped a minimal amount covered (nothing is worse than sitting on a bed when the mattress condenses and you scrape yourself on the bed frame). So our goal here was to have simply sufficient of a lip to keep the cushion in place but not too much that we’d ever scrape against the lip. So before we attached the 1x8s around the side, we propped up our 2×4 frame on some scrap wood until we got the height of our lip simply right.

Note: you will also want to be sure to account for the slats that you will be adding to the platform in the next step, that is why you see one resting on the frame above – to ensure that we were factoring those in as well.

So below you can see our wrapped up frame, once all of the 1x8s were screwed on. As you saw above, we screwed from the inside of the frame, that way we did not have to patch holes on the outside.

Next, we nailed in a bunch of low-cost 1×4″ boards that we cut to size, creating our own Hands-on platform bed slats.

The next day we primed and later painted all of our exposed wood using the same exterior paint that we used on our outdoor trim/railings/etc (Moderne White by Sherwin Williams) – top, bottom, sides – we did it all. Perhaps this was overkill, but we hoped to assist protect the raw wood from the elements as much as possible.

You can also see that we propped it up on some 5-gallon buckets, which I will explain a little later. It in fact made a certain step a whole lot easier.

Building The Daybed Arms

The construction of the arms and the side rails of your daybed is largely personal preference, and in our case we hoped to mimic the horizontal railings that we have around our house. We also opted to NOT build a back rail, (we simply did two end rails, but not a third rail along the back side) which I realize might seem like a controversial decision.

We worried it would simply encourage us all to sit against it, kinda like a couch, meaning we’d end up facing the house – rather than looking out towards the trees and the sunshine. Sherry & our daughter’s end-sitting experience in Costa Rica likely sealed the deal since they had a back on that daybed and did not use it. The choice feels fairly risk-free since we can consistently add one in the future if we miss it for some reason.

Whether you are adding a back or not, you still need to start this step by adding plain posts to all 4 corners of your daybed’s base. These are each made from two 1×4 boards attached at a right-angle.

Arm height is also personal preference, but we kept ours relatively low – simply sufficient to support a pillow for leaning back on each side (we also carefully measured so our horizontal rails could be evenly spaced). Our corner posts were 17.25″ tall.

I should add here that any piece from here on out is attached with a combination of exterior wood glue and brad nails. The nails make it fast and straightforward to patch, the glue helps it hold for the long haul. You can see that I attached my 1x4s to the frame individually…

…and then nailed them together along the edge where they met.

Once my vertical posts were secured to each corner, I brought in the horizontal rails using 1x3s. I nailed and glued these from the inside and used some scrap wood spacers to make sure they stayed level while I attached them (you can spot the spacers in each corner below – they are simply small blocks of wood that I cut to the right side and put in each corner below the rail I was nailing – but they pll right out and can be used on all sides as you go around).

I repeated that same step with my upper horizontal rail, making sure it was flush with the top of my vertical posts.

Next, we attached another 1×4″ board across the top to create a flat arm rest of sorts.

The last little detail we brought in was a 1×2″ board along the bottom edge of the frame, between all 4 corner posts. This was purely decorative, so could totally be skipped or tweaked depending on what final look you are going for.

Once everything was constructed, we wood-filled our nail holes, sanded them smooth, caulked the seams, and painted everything with that same outdoor paint (SW Moderne White in a semi-gloss finish).

Once everything was dry, we were ready to hang it!

Hanging The Outdoor Daybed

I am in fact going to write a separate post about how we hung the daybed because we tried a couple of distinct methods – hanging from two anchor points (as you see below) and later hanging it from four anchor points (which had a lot more benefits). We made a detailed video to show you exactly what worked the best to save you time, trouble, and money (our multiple hanging attempts meant that we had to purchase the rope twice and that we wasted a stupid amount of time on a subpar initial method).

If you simply want the material details so you can order it while we get that post together for you, we used this 3/4″ natural hemp rope, heavy-duty eye hooks (these in the ceiling, these in the bed), and some basic knots.

The rope was straightforward to cut with regular scissors and it does stretch out a bit under the weight of the bed, but that is where those buckets come in handy. I read in several places that your daybed will feel a little too high when it is propped up on the 5-gallon buckets, but they keep it level and assist with placement. And once you tie your ropes and remove the buckets, your rope relaxes (ours did within the first use – once some weight was put on the daybed) and it ends up at the ideal height.

I will get into more detail in a follow-up post, but the main thing is to make sure you find joists or other strong anchor points within your porch ceiling that you can trust. We were lucky that our ceiling is mostly exposed so we had plenty of visible anchor points to choose from. Note: we have also written about painting this porch ceiling and why we chose a haint blue.

Even though the hanging method in these photos did not end up being our go-to – now that everything is rehung, this spot is swiftly becoming one of our go-to places to lounge around. We have been lucky sufficient to have several warm days over the last couple of weeks to in fact enjoy it!

Thanks to our 6′ cushion, it is plenty comfortable for two people to sit upright at either end with their legs tucked under them, or out like this:

It is even big sufficient for a certain 6′ tall dad to sprawl all the way out on:

Budget

Apart from the cushion, the project was fairly budget-friendly. And I still feel like getting a long outdoor couch cushion, plus 3 matching oversized pillows for $399 was a fairly good find (we have the 3rd pillow stored under our bed as a spare).

Here is the cost breakdown:

• Wood: $150
• Buckets: $14
• Eye hooks: $25
• Rope: $28
• TOTAL: $217

And when you add the outdoor cushion set for $399, that brings us to a grand total of $616, which is not low-cost, but considering that many custom made ones (like these) are in the $1000-2400 range (!!!), this is a strong way to get it done for 1/4 to 1/2 the price.

Also please know that more than showing you how to hang a daybed the right way (to save you time & money) – our next post is going to be a fantastic example of why we will never have an HGTV show. The video… let us simply say it is one continuous outtake. So there is that to look forward to.

Want to keep browsing our building projects and furniture upgrades? This archive is fully dedicated to them. You can also see every single project and update we have done to this house over the last 8 months in this spot.

*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.