Classic night stand

The first nightstand I ever built was in carpentry school. Our class shared the shop with the cabinetmaking program, and working in that space really got me thinking about the direction I wanted my woodworking to go. When I built this version, I thought back on the past decade and all the nightstands I've built. Many of the lessons I've learned since those years in school are reflected in this design.

One lesson I've learned is about how I treat the back of furniture. I think it should look as nice as the front, even if only to extend the usefulness of the piece. (One person's nightstand is another's end table.) The purpose of a nightstand is to hold things such as a lamp, an alarm clock, books and a glass of water, so the piece should accommodate those sorts of things. And when it comes to design, less is often more. That's why an understated approach with simple lines like this one will match almost any bed.

Download the plans for this project here!

Get started by dimensioning your rough stock if you didn't buy it pre-planed. I started with rough 8/4 stock for the legs (two inches thick), then jointed two adjoining faces flat and square. Rip the wood to width on your tablesaw and plane it to a final thickness of 1 5/8".

Next comes work with some rough 4/4 stock (one inch actual thickness). Lay out your boards and use a lumber crayon to mark oversized sections for the rails, drawer parts and panels. Mark around knots and defects, and think in terms of multiple pieces. The idea is to break long boards into manageable chunks that can be jointed and planed to final thickness. Rough-cut these pieces now, leaving an extra two inches at each end to allow for planer snipe and other defects. Plane the top, front rails and top drawer guides to 7/8". The remainder of the stock needs to be planed to 3/4"-thick for the door rails and drawer parts.