We bought a great queen-sized bed a few years ago. The seller told us it had been handmade. Big huge solid wooden headboard and footboard. But the wooden side rails (imagine a 1x12, vertical, with a 1x4 screwed to the inside, on each side, with 1x8s laid flat across the width, resting on the edges of the 1x4s, meant to support the weight of the mattress and boxspring) kept coming apart, and the bedrail hangers on the corners bent out of shape. (My wife and I between us are about 500 lb.)

So I'm thinking I want to do one of two things. And I'm not sure which will be best. Let's just say I want the result to be solid enough that (a) it won't fall apart again, even under our weight, and (b) the kids don't hear anything banging against the wall when we're having "special mommy and daddy time". %-)

1. Get new corner hangers that will be more sturdy (I'm thinking the traditional "hook" kind, like this), and find some new way to support those 1x8s across the bed between the bedrails (e.g. something like this; or

2. Buy a "regular" steel bed frame with brackets to allow us to screw the frame to the headboard and footboard (e.g. something like this.

I figure 2. is going to suck, unless there's something really solid and awesome out there that I don't know about. 1. might be best, but I'm not sure exactly what the best way to do it is. Anyone out there have experience with "making a queen bed really really solid"?