DIY Hardwood Nightstand

This cute little nightstand took me more than a week to design and build.

Here is the video of the building process.

This nightstand is built with 100% hardwood. I used 6mm beech even in the back panel and drawer back. During the building process, it did frustrate me a little bit since such kind of board is more likely to warp. However, after a few times adjusting, I finally figured out how to overcome this problem.

Wood: 25mm beech

Most of my projects start with this step. All my rough saw beech needed to be strictly treated by my jointer, my miter saw, my planer and my table saw. After all these steps, I finally got some useful dimensioned boards.

There are five major boards in this build. I used Titebond wood glue to join them together.

I always cut the tails first. To make sure all my tails are clean and straight. I used the dovetail guide I made.

Here is the link of how you can build 5 dovetail jigs in 15min.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-5-Dovetail...

You can also check the video if you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjdq09TMVI&t=54s

I cut a dado in the middle of two side panels. Since I don't have a dado blade. I just slightly adjusted the table saw until I finally got the right width.

This back panel is 6mm and slightly warp after putting in the air for a night. I first cut the groove with my router. However, I only have 5.5mm router bits and I don't want to adjust the fence. So I decided to use my hand plan to just remove a little material on the inside part of the back panel. The good thing is that this can't be seen from outside and even inside.

I used half-blind dovetail joints for building the drawer front. And most of the material was removed by router first. Then I hand cut these joints. Since the drawer back is made of three thin glued beech panel. It just warped ridiculously when I came back from the restroom.

This at first pissed me off. I almost gave up this stupid 100% hardwood idea and wanted to use some plywood. But after I clamped the board to the workbench and moisture it a little bit. The condition became better. And I can still use that board. I didn't glue it and left some gaps to allow wood movement. Hope it won't split in the future.

This kind of legs are originally designed for milk stool (three legs stool). I actually not sure how this will turn out if it was used for making cabinets. But I'd love to give it a try. If anyone knows the reason people don't use it for cabinets, please let me know in the comments below.

Anyway, the outcome seems no problem and I will keep an eye on the long term use.

I glued in the legs and hammered in the little key. Then I used some washers to level the whole piece. Then mark the legs with a pencil.

I sand the whole piece thoroughly with #220 sander.

For the outside corner, I used a router.

For the inside corner, I used a plane.

I first applied some linseed oil to the piece. Then I applied three coats of water-based polyurethane. Just don't forget the inside of the nightstand and drawer.

The nightstand is finished!

I love how it looks and it will look even better as the wood ages and gets darker.

If you like this one please check some of my other projects on my youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVelA4V0Z33YmzVOoPP1qAQ?view_as=subscriber