Advice on Bed-Frame Brackets

[Argus]

Bit of advice needed, please.

I’m in the process of making a double bed frame. It will consist of a headboard and footboard section each connected by wooden side rails, typically 4” x 1½”.

I need to locate a set of substantial connecting brackets. What I’m hoping to avoid are the typical pressed-steel hook-plate assemblies which appear cheap and probably flimsy. Are there any better-quality brackets available?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[ED65]

With the passivated-zinc plating so common now they can look terribly cheap but any decent one isn't flimsy. And the appearance is (I would have thought) irrelevant as they're never seen.

A number of good alternative styles though, example, and as an option you could go with the typical workbench method of a bolt that engages a nut in a drilled hole or mortise.

 

[Brentingby]

I would suggest bed bolts, too. Such as these. The heads of the bolts can be recessed in counterbored holes. Short tenons on the ends of the side rails into mortises on the posts will hold the alignment.

If you don't want the bolts to show at all. You can embed the nut in the post and use a piece of threaded rod with a pair of nuts locked on as a head.