How to Build a Pair of Night Stands for Only $50 {With a Charging Station Drawer} • Keeping it Simple

The year of 2017 is the year of redoing my master bedroom. It first started with adding ship lap to the back wall and then that made me rearrange all the decor and finding new lamps. Then about a month later I painted the walls and ceilings. We had that for a couple months but then we decided to buy a big reclining chair, so we had to rearrange the furniture again. Our old night stands were mismatched and big, so it was time to get rid of them and get new night stands, that actually matched. I looked online and at stores for night stands but the ones that I like were $70 each and I didn’t want to spend that much. Plus there weren’t any with the exact look I was looking for, so I decided to make some. I love how they turned out and how they look in my room! My master bedroom is finally complete!

Here is what our bedroom and night stands looked like before.

Before I get to the dimensions and instructions, I wanted to let you know that when you use cheaper wood like 2x2s, not all pieces that you buy will be the exact same, so when you are building these you will want to measure for yourself because the dimensions that I used may not be the exact sizes that you will need. That is the joy of building your own things, you can make it the exact width and height that works for your space :).

This is how I made the night stands:

I started with the top of the night stand. I wanted it to be roughly 17″x17″, so I cut piece of wood to be 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches using a table saw.

Then I cut two pieces of a 1×3 to be 15 3/4″.

I glued the pieces onto the middle piece and then nailed it in using 2″ finishing nails and the RYOBI Air Strike Straight Nailer.

For the next two sides, I cut two more pieces of 1×3 wood, this time they were 17 1/4″ long, then I nailed those into the top board.

Once all the sides were nailed into the top, I cut the legs out of 2x2s. I cut 4 pieces 28″ long (I wanted a taller table, this is taller than most night stands). Then I sanded the wood really good.

Next I glued the legs onto the bottom of the table top and then nailed them into place (I just put in one nail on each side, just enough to make them stay and then I added more nails when I had the shelves on).

Now for the bottom shelf. I measured the distance between the legs at the bottom and I got 13 1/2″, so I cut a piece of particle board 13 1/2″ by 13 1/2″ and then I cut 4 pieces of 2×2 13 1/2″.

I then glued and nailed those 2×2 pieces onto the particle board.

Using a 2×6 as a guide for where I wanted it to be, I put the shelf onto the bottom of the legs and then nailed the shelf into the legs. I nailed them by going through the leg into the shelf (it’s the hole that you can see at the bottom right of the picture), I did this both directions to make sure the shelf was secure.

Next I flipped the table over and screwed in some L brackets with a drill for added support (these are seen at all). I used 1/2″ screws.

Now for the middle shelf. I did the same thing that I did for the bottom shelf, but the measurement was different (2×2 wood isn’t the straightest wood :D). So instead of it being 13 1/2″, the distance was 13″ inches in between the legs at the spot where I wanted the middle shelf. So the particle board is 13×13 inches and the 4 2x2s are 13″ long.

I put the top shelf on the same way, but to measure the distance from the top, I used a 2×2 that I cut as a guide (it was 6 1/4″ long).

Once everything was built, I then went back and put more nails into the shelves and legs. I did about 4-5 on each side with the table top, and then 2-3 on each side of the legs and shelves.

Now to fill in all of those holes I made with the Air Strike. I used wood filler and filled in all of the gaps and holes.

Then I sanded down the whole surface to make it smooth.

Here are the two night stands that I made. They don’t match up perfectly but for me building them by myself, I was pretty happy that they were this close :). The wood for the two tables are definitely different, the 2x2s that I found for the one on the left is more flat and only had one rounded edge and the 2x2s on the right table were very rounded and slightly thinner. So that is why you have to measure each one individually.

Now time for the “drawer”. It’s not a real drawer because it’s not on rails, it’s more of a box :). So once again you will need to measure these for both tables, because they may be a little different. For the bottom of the drawer I used the particle board and I cut it to be 11″ wide and 13″ long. Then I cut two pieces of 1×6 wood 13″ long.

I glued and nailed the sides onto the board, this time using 1 1/2″ finishing nails. Then I cut two more pieces of the 1×6, 12 1/2″ long.

Since I wanted these drawers to be like a charging station for our devices, I drilled two holes in the back of them. I used a 5/8″ bit (this fits the USB port).

I then glued and nailed the front on the drawer and this is what the back piece looks like. I then glued and nailed that onto the back.

I then filled the holes in and then sanded it.

Here is what the table looks like unfinished. It’s starting to really look like a night stand, woohoo!

Now for the fun part, painting! I painted the night stand a beachy blue called Beachside Drive by Behr.

I then painted the drawer to be a nice, light gray. Since I didn’t want the bottom of the “drawer” scraping up the table, I glued some felt onto the bottom of it.

And here it is all painted. I then added a pretty crystal knob to the drawer.

And that’s it! Aren’t they so much fun?! I am pretty proud of myself for building these by myself. They really weren’t super hard to make either, so I bet that you could make them too :).

Here is a break down of the cost and what materials you need to make a pair of them:

5 2x2s at $1.92 each= $9.60

2 1x3s at $1.82 each= $3.64

1 1x6x10ft at $9.32 each= $9.32

1 4ft x 8ft particle board at $13.93 each= $13.93

8 L brackets at $.67 each= $5.36

Total= $41.85 leaving about $8 for supplies like paint or glue or wood filler.

And here is what they look like in my master bedroom! I love how they turned out. They are just the perfect size for our room and I love that they are little taller than regular night stands (they ended up being about 29″ tall).

One of my favorite things about these stands are the charger station drawers. I hate the look of cords all over the place. So I just got a 5 USB port charger for each stand and that way I only have one cord going in the back of the stand. All the other cords are in the drawer, contained!