Walnut Nightstands

Walnut Nightstands

Pair of nightstands with box-joint drawers and branded maple AA monogram.

November 2023 4 weeks Walnut, Maple
woodworking joinery CAD

Overview

Fitting off-the-shelf nightstands into our tiny bedroom was a challenge. We wanted to maximize the storage space in our bedroom, but with our 1906 house with big radiators, nothing we could find would fit. Each nightstand is exactly 418mm wide to take advantage of the available space. Strangely, DWR doesn’t let you filter to that size…

maple drawers so things in drawer are easier to find, and an opportunity to highlight the contrast in some box joints

Design Process

This was another project where a ton of CAD up front made for smooth sailing later- not only in construction, but in showing a clear deliverable for my client- my partner and I. Having precise CAD to refer to ensures we were on the same page for what I was building.

so many iterations

Design Details

I knew I wanted to have the grain wrap across the mitered joints of the boxes to really accentuate the grain. This meant a lot more planning and preparation, but really takes these nightstands to the next level.

waterfall grain

Many builders prefer to use only the heartwood (darker) parts of walnut. I enjoy the contrast of the sapwood and heartwood. Additionally, since these drawers don’t have pulls, I wanted it to be obvious where the drawer should be pulled from- the small sapwood highlight suggests this.

tasteful sapwood

Finishing

Sanded to 320g for extra pizzaz, plus two coats of Osmo Polyx hardwax oil for a very natural finish.