A funky nightstand

Inspired by a dresser I saw while on the Duluth Preservation Alliance's 29th Annual Tour of Historic Homes, I knew when I spotted this nightstand in the alley behind my apartment that I had a project on my hands. It had great bones but was ugly enough that I wouldn't feel badly if my project failed.



Indeed, with chipped veneer, stains, and watermarks, the nightstand was in rough shape.





Menards carried a variety of stains, so I had plenty of colors to choose from.



I first tested out the design idea I had for the drawer fronts on a piece of scrap wood.







Satisfied with the design and my stain choices, I used painter's tape (the blue stuff, not the brown half-tape in the previous photos) and foam sponges to paint birch plywood cut to the size of each drawer front.



Then I covered all but a quarter-inch gap between each color with painter's tape and spray painted the seams white.

The next project was re-doing the tabletop: planing pieces of black ash, then using a radial saw to cut them to length, a table saw to cut them to width, edging them, and gluing them together. Then sanding, routering, more sanding, and finally staining.







The tabletop came together so well it made the original veneer sides look even worse by comparison, so we chiseled those off.



After I stained the sides (again from birch plywood) and black ash strips for the front to match the top, we were almost ready to assemble (just needed to wait for stain and glue to dry). Here are all the pieces (the drawer fronts are being glued on in the lower photo).





Once assembled, the nightstand was ready for a few coats of finish (clear, semi-gloss spray).