a nightstand

The aftermath of Halloween is in full swing around here. Other than picking through their candy to throw the gum away, I have been very hands off this year. As long as the wrappers make it into the trashcan, whatever goes.

While they’re in the kitchen gorging on tootsie rolls, I’ve been in the garage finishing a nightstand we built this week.

We’ve been slowly changing our bedroom bit by bit, starting with painting the walls and planning furniture to custom fit the limited space we have in there. I have to admit, I was not ecstatic about building a nightstand at first. Seemed like a lot of work for so small a piece, but after several weeks of searching for one that was exactly 31 inches tall and 24 inches wide, I gave up and asked Caleb to start designing.

list of cuts.

Monday was COLD and windy. Jon played in the garage while Caleb started construction.

The saw is loud.

This is the back and sides of a drawer. We used medium density fiberboard for the invisible parts to cut down on the weight of the nightstand. The long grooves are for the drawer bottom. Caleb’s idea was for the drawers to fit together…

like this.

While he cut wood, I assembled the drawers with wood glue and brad nails.

I also got assigned pocket hole duty. We drill these holes to connect two pieces of wood without the screws showing. It takes a lot of pocket holes to build a nightstand. I had to change the battery pack on the drill TWICE.

On his THIRD castle.

Caleb assembled the top and sides of the nightstand. Then we flipped it upside down and built in the drawers one at a time.

Here’s the completed piece from the front, and a view from behind before we put the back on.

The last three days have been like this: stain, wait, stain, wait, polyurethane, wait, trick-or-treat, wait, sand, polyurethane, wait… etc. If you need a lesson in patience, I highly recommend finishing furniture.

I’ll be in the garage. Happy weekend!