How to Build Modern Nightstands

Proving that DIY doesn’t have to be difficult, here’s an easy, beginner-friendly way to DIY your own attractive, modern nightstands.

How to Build Modern Nightstands

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Beginner-Friendly Modern Nightstands: A DIY Tutorial

Cut Maple Plywood to Size

To begin our build, we’re going to use half-inch maple plywood. A 4ft x 8ft sheet is plenty sufficient

Take your sheet and cut it to size using the dimensions shown above.

Add Pocket Holes

We’re going to assemble this nightstand using pocket holes and wood glue, so let’s start by using a pocket hole jig to put the pocket holes in place

Start Assembly

With the pocket holes in place, we can apply wood glue and start to fasten everything into place

Since wood glue has a tendency to squeeze out and spill, we can use some tape, applied where the two pieces of wood join, which will act as a kind of “bib” to catch the spilled glue. Once everything dries, just remove the tape and you’ll have a clean piece of wood.

We can then continue adding in the pocket hole screws and assembling the nightstand like so:

Eventually, we’ll have something that looks like this:

Build the Drawers

With that done, we can start building the drawers.

The important thing here is to measure the width of the gap inside the nightstand frame and then subtract an inch. This gives you a half-inch on either side to add the drawer slides.