First, I want to say a huge thank you for all of your sweet comments and shares on my king size bed I shared last week.  It was awesome reading your encouraging words and watching the post really take off thanks to you guys.  As promised, I am back today to share the free plans for my DIY nightstands I built to go with the bed.

So… Here they are!  Check out my DIY Nightstands Free Woodworking Plans!

DIY Nightstand Free Plans by Shanty2Chic

How cute is it?  I love them!  I now have the perfect place to stash my blanket and heating pad (yes I sleep with both :-)) and a perfect drawer for books and other things.

As always, I will walk you through the entire build below, and you can also download and print the free plans by clicking HERE or the button below!

Print Free Plans DIY Nightstand

Here we go!

The first part of this build is creating the box of the nightstands.  I used 3/4″ PureBond Plywood Birch for this part.  You can find it at the Home Depot in 4×8′ sheets.  I have the guys at Home Depot rip mine down for me so I am able to get it in the car and home.  If you are building one nightstand, the plans only call for a 4×4 sheet.  Since I was doing 2, I did a full sheet and had the guys rip it two times at 17.25″.  I took those boards home and cut them down to the length I needed using my miter saw.

I used my Kreg Jig to make all of my pocket holes.  I used my K5, which is the model I would recommend if you are looking to purchase a Kreg Jig yourself.  I think out of all of the models, it is the most user friendly and the price tag isn’t bad at all (considering it can build you a house of furniture)

I made 3/4″ pocket holes on this entire piece.  You can see in our plan that we have marked where to put your pocket holes to make it easy for you.

making pocket holes

I used my Ryobi 18V drill to make all of the pocket holes.  The drill bit for this comes with the K5.

To attach the base of the box to the sides, I first drew a line for reference and then added a line of Gorilla Wood Glue where the boards would line up.

side of nightstand

I used my Kreg Right Angle Clamp to hold the side in place while attaching the other pocket hole screws.  The driver bit I use on this part comes with the Kreg Jig as well.  I used 1.25″ pocket hole screws for this part.

Build nightstands pocket holes

This is what the base of the box will look like after the sides are attached.

nightstand base pocket holes

Next, you will add the 1×2 pieces at the top.  I used 3/4″ pocket holes for this part as well.

making pocket holes in 1x2

And again… The right angle clamp is super handy to hold your pieces steady while attaching.  It’s like having an extra set of hands helping you.  I use mine on nearly every build.

pocket hole screws

building nightstands

The next step is building the face frame.  We have noted measurements on this part, but it really is best to measure your piece as you go to get an exact fit.  The base of the face frame is 1×6.  I used 3/4″ pocket holes on this piece as well as the rest of the face frame.

pocket holes on plywood

base face of nightstand

For this part, I used my Kreg face clamp to hold the frame down to my workbench while I attached pocket hole screws.  This isn’t a must, but I like how it secures it for me.

building the face frame

Once you have the frame put together, you will attach it to the front of your box using 1.25″ pocket hole screws through the pocket holes you created on the box.  I also used wood glue and 1.25″ finish nails on the front of the face frame and into the sides of the box to secure it.

base of nightstand

Now for the drawers!  This nightstand uses wood drawer slides you will create.  I love using these over the darn metal ones.  First, you will attach the 1×3 pieces to the sides.   I used 3/4″ pocket holes and 1.25″ pocket hole screws on this part as well as some wood glue.

glue on drawer supports

back of nightstand building the drawer supports

building top of nightstand drawer

Next, I used wood glue and 2″ finish nails to attach the 1×2 pieces on top of that.

drawer supports attaching

Drawer glides

My next step was adding the half legs.  I LOVE these half legs!  I worked with Osborne Wood Products to design and create them for you guys.  You can buy them HERE from Osborne.

I first ran a line of wood glue down the sides of the front of the nightstands…

glue half leg

Next, I clamped the legs to that using my new Kreg bar clamps.  Love these things.

Kreg Clamp to attach legs

Kreg Clamp

While those were drying, I started on my drawers.

I used 3/4″ pocket holes and 1.25″ pocket hole screws to build the drawers.

Kreg Right Angle Clamp

building the drawer

The base of the drawer uses 1/4″ plywood.  I added glue to the bottom of the drawer frame first, and then attached it using 3/4″ staples with my Ryobi Stapler.

build a drawer

attach bottom of drawer

The stapler is really good for thin material like this.  Nails tend to shoot straight through it.  You will get a much better hold using staples.

Now that my legs were dry, I added the small piece of cove molding to the front of the table using glue and finish nails.

wood glue on support

brad nailer for trim

adding molding

At this point, I set my drawer in place.  You can add a couple of screws to the back of drawer to act as a stop and keep your drawer from pushing in too much.  I also added two 1×2 boards along the top of the drawers like this.  These act as a guide to keep the drawer from tipping down as you pull it out.

drawer support

My final step before staining was building and attaching the planked top.  I used 3/4″ pocket holes and 1.25″ pocket hole screws for this part.

planking top of nightstand

planked top of nightstand

I added wood glue to the top of the table before setting my planked top on, and attached it with 1.25″ finish nails through the top and into the table.

glue top of nightstand

I stained these using the same stain I used on the bed.  It’s called Varathane Ash and you can find it at Home Depot.

Varathane Wood Stain Ash

I did add a coat of Varathane Triple Thick Polyurethane to the top of that.  I LOVE this stuff.  It’s the thickness of three coats of poly in one and it dries in under an hour.  I used it on my dining table as well and love the results.  I used satin not the gloss that is pictured!

Varathane Triple Thick

All finished!

I found the baskets super cheap at Home Goods.  I was able to find several options that worked at Home Goods and Marshall’s.  These were actually considered a laundry basket, but they worked perfect.

The lamp is from Target.

The hardware… Oh the hardware.  I love it.  Home Depot recently sent me a box of fun hardware from a line that Liberty Hardware is launching at the Home Depot.  This is a pack of hardware that comes with the pull and the 4 corners.  The pack is $8 on Home Depot’s website.  You can see it HERE.  I LOVE LOVE the look.  This line is so fun… Just search Liberty Vintage Restoration on Home Depot’s site to see all the goodies.

I think that just about sums it up!  Here it is again…

DIY Nightstand Free Plans by Shanty2Chic

DIY Nightstands by Shanty2Chic

I hope you love them as much as I do!  Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.  As always, we would LOVE for you to share these, pin these and whatever else 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Ash and I will be on set today filming our pilot for HGTV… Did I just say that?  Crazy.  We are so thrilled and cannot wait to share details with y’all later this week.  In the meantime… Go #buildlikeagirl !

~Whitney

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14 Comments

  1. Sounds good. For those still learning remotely, assessments need to in person to sidestep kids being coached by others at home. Rotate in 10% of the student body at a time to assess the students.

  2. Hello! I just went to order the legs from the Osborne website and was bummed to see that they want to charge me the same price as the cost of the two legs in shipping ???? Is there an alternative you can recommend?? I’ve already started building two of the nightstands….
    Thank you!!!

  3. Hello Ladies! I have always been a minwax fan but have recently been looking into the Verathane line of products. for my poly i typically thin it 4-1 with mineral spirits and spray it with a gun. Can i do this with the 3x line or would you suggest only using a brush?

    1. I want to respond to this because I. Use the Varathane products. I am not quite sure what you mean when you say you use yours 4-1. What is the product you use for this? Personally I use the 3x Varathane poly and love it! It really puts a nice coat on there and it doesn’t look as if it has 3x. It is quite thick and would certainly need to be thinned for a spray gun.

      1. HI Shirley, I mean that for every 4 oz of poly i add 1 oz of mineral spirits. I typically do this with oil based minwax poly

  4. It may just be my phone but the link to the half legs is not showing up within the text and I was unable to find them on Osborne’s website or Amazon without it. Just wanted to let y’all know and congrats on this huge opportunity with HGTV!

    1. I couldn’t get the link to work either and I’m on my laptop so maybe this will help to fix it…Thanks love your blog and Congrats!