Beds are too small. "Double beds" are akin to saying a "3 man tent" is adequate for three people camping. I've always wanted a monster bed, and finally did it.
Stage 1 was to prep the bed for widening. This meant raising the existing bed slats to become flush with the top of the outer rim of the bed all round. You can see here I've added an extra runner down the full length of the bed on top of the old one in order to raise those slats.
The intention was to leave the old queen sized bed completely intact. That meant I'd need to cut a new support beam for the new outer-length of the bed. I did this from the last of my leftover reclaimed deck timber.
Here you get an idea of what is actually going on.
New slats in place. This whole new section is quickly removable with 6 allen key screws. (I used threaded inserts, made the job easy)
My queen sized bed is now KING length in both dimensions, making it a MONSTER-KING.
I've had this spare narrow mattress for years. It fills the gap well. I now sleep across the bed at 90 degrees to the old intended direction, meaning my feet are on the new part. This ensures my hips/shoulders etc are on the nice futon part. You don't even feel the break in the bed across your legs. Eventually I'll buy king fitted sheets to stop that extra mattress bit from sliding away every now and then.
