replacing king mattress with queen mattress

twohappycampers

Well-known member
Hi. Sorry, I should get all my thoughts together and post all at once.

We could easily do with just a queen size mattress in here. We currently have the king. Has anyone (well, I know someone has :)) simply replaced the king mattress with a regular (not rv) queen size mattress? There must be a few inches of plywood (mdf) left showing on the length and width of the board that the mattress sits on. Does this result in a problem getting in and out of the bed, know what I mean? Cutting at your legs. How have people solved this? Or just cut down the plywood (mdf) to the width and length of the base and leave the base as it is?

Is there any particular reason for the modifications to make the current kingsize bed base into a queensize, and not just change the mattress? Or do people do it mainly for more room in the bedroom? We have enough room, really. And we have a lot of storage room under the bed currently and don't want to lose that.

Seems to me the bed would be easier to make up if the mattress wasn't so close to the walls at the upper sides. And regular queen sheets would fit nice and snug. And we'd save on the price of a queen vs the price of a king.

Your ideas and experiences would be much appreciated! Lorna
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Hi. Sorry, I should get all my thoughts together and post all at once.

We could easily do with just a queen size mattress in here. We currently have the king. Has anyone (well, I know someone has :)) simply replaced the king mattress with a regular (not rv) queen size mattress? There must be a few inches of plywood (mdf) left showing on the length and width of the board that the mattress sits on. Does this result in a problem getting in and out of the bed, know what I mean? Cutting at your legs. How have people solved this? Or just cut down the plywood (mdf) to the width and length of the base and leave the base as it is?

Is there any particular reason for the modifications to make the current kingsize bed base into a queensize, and not just change the mattress? Or do people do it mainly for more room in the bedroom? We have enough room, really. And we have a lot of storage room under the bed currently and don't want to lose that.

Seems to me the bed would be easier to make up if the mattress wasn't so close to the walls at the upper sides. And regular queen sheets would fit nice and snug. And we'd save on the price of a queen vs the price of a king.

Your ideas and experiences would be much appreciated! Lorna

If just moving the mattress to make the bed is desired, folks have covered the plywood (OSB) with linoleum, tile, even plastic tarps so the mattress will slide easily. Some have cut down the bed platform, itself, but doing that may depend on what type of slide mechanism you have and how it's mounted under the bed. With ours, cutting down the platform width would only work on one side due to the location of the hydraulic mechanism and the actual frame.

If you keep the current platform and put a smaller mattress on it, I'd recommend covering the platform (at least the perimeter) with something slippery, like I mentioned. You can trim the edges with inexpensive corner trim so that you don't get slivers from the exposed edges. I tiled our platform and used Liquid Nails to stick a fake wood (structural foam) corner trim around the edges. Mattress moves easily and the edges are smooth.

View attachment 16456

View attachment 16457
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Lorna & Doug, Most folks that remove the King do it for more room. A standard Queen will be fine lengthwise but at only 60" wide will leave about 5" of platform exposed on both sides. Try measuring the base of the bed's platform under the OSB. You may find it to be 60" or less. If so, you could trim it to better fit the Queen. You would only need to go up as far as the hinged area and you could then fabricate some pieces to fit in between the mattress and slide wall as side tables.
For our needs, we kept the King and covered the OSB platform with vinyl fabric so we can slide the mattress down for changing linens.
 

billm

Member
We replaced our king bed with a Select Comfort expanded queen. We found the quality lacking on the mattress that came in our Big Country 3250TS. We are Work Campers and live in our RV for 6 months and have a Select Comfort in our home.The mdf edge was a little rough on the legs if you were not careful. I put a strip of gorrila tape around the edge and it took care of the problem.
 

twohappycampers

Well-known member
If just moving the mattress to make the bed is desired, folks have covered the plywood (OSB) with linoleum, tile, even plastic tarps so the mattress will slide easily. Some have cut down the bed platform, itself, but doing that may depend on what type of slide mechanism you have and how it's mounted under the bed. With ours, cutting down the platform width would only work on one side due to the location of the hydraulic mechanism and the actual frame.

If you keep the current platform and put a smaller mattress on it, I'd recommend covering the platform (at least the perimeter) with something slippery, like I mentioned. You can trim the edges with inexpensive corner trim so that you don't get slivers from the exposed edges. I tiled our platform and used Liquid Nails to stick a fake wood (structural foam) corner trim around the edges. Mattress moves easily and the edges are smooth.

View attachment 16456

View attachment 16457

Thanks John! The MDF platform board measures 68 inches wide. We would be able to cut off 3 inches of the platform on the one side (to the left when you're facing the headboard). We should be able to just take a jigsaw to it still in place - there are no hinges or anything in the way that we can see. There really isn't enough overhang on the right side to cut anything much away. That leaves 68 minus 3 = 65 inches of platform to set the new queen mattress on. The queen will be 60 inches wide, leaving 5 inches of platform exposed. If we center the mattress on the platform, that leaves 2 1/2 inches of platform exposed on either side. That will make it easier to get at to put on the fitted sheet at the head of the bed. We could then cover the exposed bits of platform with whatever - maybe something a little padded as well as slippery then we can just slide out of bed :) The length we won't have to touch, the RV king mattress and the standard queen being the same length - 80 inches.

We have plenty of room between the bed and the mirror door closet already, thank goodness! So we don't have to touch anything on that side. And cutting down the left side of the platform by 3 inches will give us some much-welcomed extra room between the bed and the bathroom wall.

Does anyone see anything I haven't figured on, or does it all sound good?

Take good care - Lorna :)
 

twohappycampers

Well-known member
We replaced our king bed with a Select Comfort expanded queen. We found the quality lacking on the mattress that came in our Big Country 3250TS. We are Work Campers and live in our RV for 6 months and have a Select Comfort in our home.The mdf edge was a little rough on the legs if you were not careful. I put a strip of gorrila tape around the edge and it took care of the problem.

Thanks! By expanded queen, do you mean it is larger than the standard queen 60 X 80?

I must look for this gorilla glue and gorilla tape that everyone talks about. I've never seen it here in Canada, but then haven't looked for it specifically either.

Thanks! Lorna
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Thanks John! The MDF platform board measures 68 inches wide. We would be able to cut off 3 inches of the platform on the one side (to the left when you're facing the headboard). We should be able to just take a jigsaw to it still in place - there are no hinges or anything in the way that we can see. There really isn't enough overhang on the right side to cut anything much away. That leaves 68 minus 3 = 65 inches of platform to set the new queen mattress on. The queen will be 60 inches wide, leaving 5 inches of platform exposed. If we center the mattress on the platform, that leaves 2 1/2 inches of platform exposed on either side. That will make it easier to get at to put on the fitted sheet at the head of the bed. We could then cover the exposed bits of platform with whatever - maybe something a little padded as well as slippery then we can just slide out of bed :) The length we won't have to touch, the RV king mattress and the standard queen being the same length - 80 inches.

We have plenty of room between the bed and the mirror door closet already, thank goodness! So we don't have to touch anything on that side. And cutting down the left side of the platform by 3 inches will give us some much-welcomed extra room between the bed and the bathroom wall.

Does anyone see anything I haven't figured on, or does it all sound good?

Take good care - Lorna :)

Sounds like a plan! The platform is actually an chipboard type of plywood, not MDF (unless they've changed it). Were it MDF, it would be considerably heavier. So long as you trim the edges, similar to the way I did it, you should be able to leave the tweezers in the medicine cabinet.
 

twohappycampers

Well-known member
Sounds like a plan! The platform is actually an chipboard type of plywood, not MDF (unless they've changed it). Were it MDF, it would be considerably heavier. So long as you trim the edges, similar to the way I did it, you should be able to leave the tweezers in the medicine cabinet.

You're right there, now that I think about it. And MDF is smooth, isn't it? It's what furniture and the like is built from? So this is chipboard or pressed board, same thing?

And speaking about heavier, when choosing a mattress we'd want to consider the weight of it too. One mattress we had was solid foam and memory foam, and man was it heavy!
 
Top