How to Hang an Outdoor Swinging Bed

Well, I’m sure by now you’ve seen the beautiful swinging bed that my hubby built. Once it was finished, I thought we were only minutes away from using it.  Boy, was I wrong!!  I had definitely underestimated the time it was going to take to get it to the “fully functional” point.  It’s all those finishing touches to a project that always seem to add minutes which turn into hours which turn into days.  Now, we needed to know how to hang our outdoor bed.

First of all, this thing was heavy.  Because the base of the bed was constructed of SOLID WOOD, the pounds added up quickly.  Mike estimated that it weighed over 100 pounds.  So, how were we going to hang this beast of a thing?

We ended up with the following supplies to hang our bed.  Believe me, this is NOT the list that we started with. But, it’s what we ended up with after a couple of trips to Lowe’s.  It was a bit of trial and error to get the correct supplies that worked for our bed.

1. Eight eye bolts with washers and nuts (4 bolts that were ½” x 12” and 4 bolts that were 3/8” x 6”)
2. Eight ¼” anchor shackles
3. 36 feet of 3/16” galvanized chain
4. Two 4” x 4” cedar beams
5. 50 feet of ¾” manila rope

Our screened in porch already had 2” x 6” beams that ran across the width of the porch. But, they weren’t at the right intervals for hanging our bed.  So, Mike added two 4” x 4” cedar beams to sit on top of the 2” x 6” beams.  We stained these cedar beams prior to him putting up them up. He spaced the beams 45 inches apart (49″ from center to center).

He then drilled holes in the ends of the cedar beams so that eye bolts could be screwed in.  The drilled holes were placed 49” apart on the cedar beams and the 3/8” x 6” eye bolts were screwed in and attached with washers and nuts.  There were four 6” eye bolts in total that were attached to the cedar beams. Ugh! How much longer was it going to take to hang our outdoor bed?

Next, he used the ½” x 12” eye bolts to attach to the base of the bed.  To insert these, he drilled holes in the base of the bed that went through both the bed base and the end vertical board.  The drilled holes were placed 49″ apart from front to back and 84″ apart from side to side on the bed base and the 12” eye bolts were screwed in and attached with washers and nuts. Again, there were four 12″ eye bolts in total that were attached to the bed base.

In order to attach the 3/16” galvanized chain to the eye bolts, we used these handy dandy 1/4” anchor shackles.

As you can see, there’s a pin on the shackles that you remove to put around the eye bolt and it also enables you to insert the end of the chain.  We attached the shackles to the eye bolts on the top cedar beams first along with the galvanized chain.  We used 84″ of chain on each of the eye bolts.

When determining how much chain to use on each corner, we had to keep in mind the mattress that we planned to put on it.  We had already purchased a full-size 10” Serta Gel Memory Foam mattress that I happened to catch on sale for $100 off the original price. (yea Dawn!! – The $100 off has absolutely nothing to do with this story other than the fact that it was a proud purchase moment for me – tee-hee!).  So, when figuring our chain length, we accounted for the 10” mattress height and made sure that we could easily sit on the bed from a standing position just like we were going to sit on a couch or chair. Just for a point of reference, when our bed is hanging, it is 16″ from the floor to the top of the bed base.

Then, we only had to lift up the base to attach it to the chains.  Did I mention how heavy this thing was?  Lol!  Since it was just the two of us trying to lift it up, we ended up using one of those rolling stools to prop it up. Then, we attached the 4 remaining shackles to the chain and the eye bolts on the bed base. Wow! It was quite a process to hang our outdoor bed.

As a finishing touch, we purchased manila rope to add a fun and decorative aspect to our bed.  We started at the top of each chain. We tied the rope at the top then twisted it around the chain at even intervals.  Mike is a perfectionist. (Well, and I may have a little of that in me also). So, we made sure that each of the 4 chains had the same number of twists for an even and consistent look. 

When we got to the bottom of each chain, we tied the rope into a knot and put a piece of tape on the very end before cutting it.  The tape was placed around the end so that the rope didn’t unravel.  Obviously, we didn’t want a piece of tape around our rope ends permanently, so we later went back and used a technique called “rope whipping” to secure our ends.  This is basically where you take a piece of twine and wrap it tightly around the rope end which created a very tidy and professional finish.

Woo-hoo!! Now our bed was hung and ready for sitting and swinging.  For some reason, every time I sit on this bed, the country song “Swingin’” by John Anderson pops into my head. (Yep, I just went all Oklahoma country girl on ‘ya).  If you don’t know this song, you are definitely NOT from the South.

Since we were able to hang our outdoor bed, it was technically ready for use. But, it looked so lonely sitting there with no mattress or comfy pillows. So, you know what that means?  Another project for us!!!