After going around to several stores, I was lucky enough to show up at Home Depot just as a fresh delivery of Red Oak arrived. I selected the finest pieces from the pallet and got it all in my car....

The only lumber I could not obtain was the main posts (you cannot imagine how expensive a 4 X 4 red oak post is!). I decided to make them from 1 X 3 lumber which gave me the advantage of not having to cut out the mortises.

A dry fit to make certain I had the tolerances correct.

Laying out the opposite side of the mortise.

Ready to glue the posts together.

Instead of measuring every picket by hand, I built a jig that automatically centers the dowel hole for each one....when assembled, they fit exactly flush to the frame board.

The assemblerd headboard central structure.

All the headboard elements sanded and ready for assembly.

The footboard mortise layout.

The physical manifestation of Chaos Theory.

A doweling jig is indespensible when getting all those pickets lined up and flush.

The footboard structure glued and clamped.

After a detailed sanding (3 hours of it!) I assembled the footboard first. No glue was used as the joints were so tight....just #8 screws.

And the headboard.

The lonely leftovers.

The capped and trimmed footboard, ready for stain.

The finished headboard....just a final detailed sanding and it's ready for stain!

Some trim detail.

Since I had to stand the work upright to finish both sides of the piece, I screwed 12" X 16" ply scaps to the bottom of the legs....worked like a charm. This is after 1 coat. Only 3 more to go.

The sideboards.

The finished product.