DIY Simple Wooden Nightstands

These are the DIY simple wooden nightstands I was so excited to share with you. I really do love the outcome but there was more work and preciseness than I gathered from my source. The 'simple' in the title of this post refers to the style not the process. 

I found this DIY project from Design Sponge and if you are interested in making this I would definitely recommend following along with their instructions but I want to point out some tips I found to be helpful along with some revisions I made. 

The first thing I wanted to change was the height of the table. Their table is considered a side table and only measured 22'' tall. The average nightstand is 24''-28'' tall so I decided to change the side panel cuts from their 20'' to 24'' making the final height with the top and bottom pieces, 26''.

The second thing I changed was instead of using two 6'' planks for the sides, top and bottom, I went ahead and used a 12'' board to get rid of the seams. When I did this I didn't realize that my lateral support boards were going to be to short so you can see in some of the pics they come up a little short. I already cut them so I put them in the back :) 

Materials:

-Chop Saw

-sanding block

-hammer

-engineered square

-2 boxes of #16 1 1/4" brad nails

 These cuts are for 1 nightstand, I doubled them to make two.

Board lengths for the base:

(6)- 1'' x 2'' x 12'' Corner supports

(4)- 1'' x 12" x 18" Top and Bottom Panels

(4)- 1" x 12" x 24" Side Panels

Board lengths for the drawer:

Same as Design Sponge:

"(2) — 1” x 6“ x 15” front and back planks

(2) — 1” x 4” x 9.5” side planks (one on each side)

(2) — 1” x 3” x 11” outermost side planks

(2) — 1” x 4” x 15” bottom end planks

(1) — 1” x 3” x 15” bottom middle plank"

I started with the sides of the stand. Nail a 1" x 2" x 12" flush to the top and the bottom of both the 1" x 12" x 24" panels. 

I then put those two pieces aside and made the drawer.

Line up both 1" x 4" x 15" panels with the 1" x 3" x 15" sandwiched between them. I recommend pre-nailing the brads into the boards halfway because you will have to balance these three panels on top of the two 1" x 4" x 9.5" to nail in. So in the picture below you flip the drawer is 180 degrees. 

One of the cool factors about the nightstand is that there are no nails showing from the front of the drawer. To do this you take the 1" x 3" x 11" and center it along sides to lay flush against the back and front panels of the drawer. This is pretty tricky to balance again so I recommend nailing the brads in half way again so you can line it up exactly.

This step was one that would have saved me a lot of time on the first nightstand. I took the finished drawer and laid it on the side panel I made in the first step so I could measure exactly where I want to place my final lateral support 1" x 2" x 12". 

I marked both sides of the drawer and then used a straight edge to draw a straight line a little lower than my marks to leave some wiggle room so the drawer can slide easily.

Then all you have to do is line up and nail in your top and bottom panels: 1" x 12" x 18". 

Slide in your drawer and you are done!

More Tips:

-Be sure to use hard wood

-When you make your cuts, mark one at a time and cut rather than marking all along the board and cutting all at once. There is a lot of room for error this way.

-I haven't stained mine yet but whether I do or don't I will be sure and seal it with a polyurethane so you don't get water rings.

-I would recommend using wood glue to put the pieces together then nail in the brads. I wish I would have done that on mine to help with all the balancing.

-Be as precise as you can because it will show if you're not! If you look close you can see gaps here and there on mine but I'm not to worried about them.

-N