The bed needed some sort of support for the mattress, and I decided to use 18 pine slats to do the job.  I used a 1/2” roundover bit on the router to soften the edges, and sanded them smooth.  I laid them out on the bed, and attached them to each other in 2 sections with strips of leftover oak.  All that was left was to flip them over, and they’ll support the mattress.  I’ll probably use a couple of screws to secure the slat section to the bed once it’s in the room.

Rough pine slats

Smooth slat sections on the bed.

I finally got back to working on this bed over the Labor Day weekend.  Next on the list was to assemble the rails.  I had already cut the rails to length, planed them to 1” thickness, and run a dado to accept the support brace.  I cut the support to length, drilled some pocket holes and glued them into place.

Pocket screw to help tighten into place 

Completed rails

After a bit of research on bed rail brackets, I decided to give these these brackets from Rockler a try, and have been happy with how it turned out.  They don’t come with the screws, but are easy to use, and do the job well.  I marked the locations to pre-drill, and screwed them onto the rails first.  After measuring twice to make sure of the location, I attached the second part of the set to the headboard and footboard.

Punch location for pre-drill, so the bit doesn’t jump

Bracket attached to the rail

Rails attached to the headboard and footboard

Joined bracket