DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Nightstands

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Priority number one for the “finish the master bedroom project” was to find proper nightstands.

I searched high and low for something that I loved + suited the space + wasn’t a gazillion dollars and I finally determined that it didn’t exist. I fell in love with the Sausalito bedside table from Pottery Barn early in my search and could never get it out of my head. The $499 price tag instantly made it out of reach. My sweet friend Jen from The House of Wood swooped in and saved the day by whipping up some plans for me that made building these DIY bedside tables so easy that I still can’t believe we pulled it off!

The first step of our nightstand build was collecting the materials. We ended up purchasing the lumber from The Home Depot. I really wanted to try using a hard wood like maple but I couldn’t find a lumberyard locally that had everything in stock. Also, this was our first “real” piece of furniture that we’ve built so I wanted to be sure we could do it before spending on the “good stuff.” We ended up using Poplar which ended up being great to build with but not the easiest to finish.  Next piece we build I’m totally going for the maple! I reached out to the wonderful folks at Osborne Wood for the furniture feet. They have such a great selection and the Mission Sofa Leg was the perfect choice for our nightstands.

We took our cut list to The Home Depot and had them cut the large pieces for us and then we cut the smaller, more precise cuts using the Table Saw from Ryobi.

I wanted a beachy, weathered look similar to the PB version. Since the poplar wood has a bit of a green tinge, I was really apprehensive about how it would stain. Instead of attempting to mix stains and get the PB look, I grabbed my favorite gray stain and I’m so glad I did.

We followed Jen’s plans to a tee and both nightstands ended up taking severals days working on them several hours per day. Matt ended up building one nightstand completely before beginning on the next one. He mentioned that next time he would try to work on them at the same time to save time.

These nightstands totally changed the look and feel of our room all on their own I can’t wait to add the other elements that I’ve been planning.

You can snag the plans for this nightstand over on The House of Wood, just click the button below. Jen is amazing, so go give her some love! And can you believe, these nightstands are mine? And that we made them?!!!!!!! <—— Yes, I need that many exclamations points. That’s how excited I am about this! Happy Wednesday 🙂