The final chapter! So I’m done with the nightstands. And the headboard. And they are all in place in our freshly-painted bedroom. And it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. The color of the bedroom is called Almond, and really sets off the headboard and nightstands. Here’s the final pics I’m going to post:

The sealant I used to attach the ceramic tile to the nightstand frame is showing as white, but will dry as clear (according to the instructions on the sealant). I took these pictures at 2:30 this afternoon and now the sealant is almost completely clear. Also, I’ll have to get Casey to get us matching lamps; the ones you see here are just two lamps that we had that will work for now.

I still have to do some touch-up on the paint. Some places didn’t get enough and there are streaks in my current paint job. Also I’m not particularly pleased with the paint job I did on the corner of the wall and ceiling. But I do have some ceiling paint and can touch it up as well. All in all, it’s a pretty good job and (most importantly) Casey is pleased!

So… Now I have the second coat of polyurethane on the nightstands and headboard. I also have a third coat on the “high traffic” areas: the shelf, the front faces, top areas, etc. And it’s not the basic stuff, it’s Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane; this stuff is almost like putting down a coat of metal on it. I’ve seen this stuff last 15 years without any change in the finish on some items I’ve built in the past. So the finish on these items will last probably longer than we need it to.

I’ve mounted the duplex outlet at the rear of the nightstands and wired in an extension cord cut to connect to the duplex outlet. All that’s left to do with these is to mount the front handle and cut the ceramic tile down to size and then glue in the ceramic tile. Next weekend I’ll paint the bedroom and move the furniture around, taking out the existing “cobbled-together” headboard and setting up the new headboard and nightstands. It will be busy but it will be great to finally get that done!

And now the photos:

OK, so it’s been a while. I’ve been pretty busy on other things and haven’t had a lot of time to spend on the nightstands… until the last couple of days. So I’ve got the drawers assembled, well at least the boxes for them. Then after a bunch of sanding and staining, here’s the result:

Next up: a few days to put a few coats of urethane on the headboard and nightstands. I still have a little assembly to do, but I want at least one coat of polyurethane down before I do the drawer glides and put the face on the drawer front.

Well, with the last three weeks of my life being dominated by Neocon, I can now get back to working on the nightstands. I did some things, but I’m limited because I’ve only got a few clamps and there’s a lot of gluing going on at this stage.

I machined each leg first by cutting a rabbet joint to accept the shelf and second by using a roundover bit with the router. Then sanded a LOT. Next I cut a 1×2 down to two 1×1′s to be the edge of the shelf and then cut a rabbet joint in it to accept the 1/4″ plywood that is the shelf. I then glued the 1×1′s to the plywood, opposite sides per day since I only have two long clamps – one of the pictures shows this for the shelf on the second nightstand. Next day I glued the other two sides to the plywood. Then assembled the legs to the box and inserted the shelf. I used screws and glue and clamped it all together. One day later I got what you see in the pictures.

There’s still a LOT to do: finish up the front edge with a 1×2 at the bottom, make the drawer, mount a duplex outlet facing the bottom, install the ceramic tile top, stain and seal all of it. But…. I’m a little farther along the way now.

So I’m done with the headboard except for the two to three coats of polyurethane I’m going to brush on and I thought I’d get the nightstands done next. That way I can brush on the urethane on all and not worry about stirring up the dust that would stick to the finished products.

I actually worked on the first part early this week. I cut 1×4′s down to 1×2′s and glued them together to make 2×2′s. You see, Menards doesn’t carry 2x lumber in hickory. I stated this in an earlier post about the headboard. And since I’ve only got 8 clamps, I could only glue up two legs at a time: four clamps each on two different legs, and each night gluing up two more legs (the glue has to dry for 24 hours according to the label).

Today was cutting on the table saw. I cut the 2×2 legs of the nightstands to be even on the glued sides – approximately 1/16th of an inch off each side 8 times. Then I cut the 1×6′s that are going to be the sides, front and back at the top. I also cut a simple rabbet joint that will accept the ceramic tile that will be the top of the nightstand, as well as a simple rabbet joint for the back end of the nightstand. After cutting them out on the table saw and making sure the rabbet joints were clean using a Dremel tool (well, the Menards version of a Dremel tool!), I dry-fitted the parts to make sure they were a good fit. Then it was glue the pieces, clamp them and then run two screws into the back side of each one. I drilled a 1/2″ hole about 1/4″ deep and then continued with the pilot hole for the screw; after the screw is in place, I glued a plug to cover the hole. Right now, the plugs stick out but they’ll be sanded later. Lots of stuff to do before then.

And now… the photos: