DIY Fun!

Since Brenden and I moved into our new place we have been short a single nightstand. This wasn't a problem at our old, closet-sized apartment when the only logical place for our bed was shoved up into a corner against the wall. We only needed one nightstand. We didn't have a bedroom furniture set so we kinda pieced things together as we collected them. That's how most of our house is right now- a conglomeration of cheap particle board, real wood, and plastic. It's a one-of-a-kind collection from IKEA, thrift stores, and family donations. We once read a woman's motto in a home decorating magazine, "My only rule is that there are no rules." Out of necessity, we have adopted this as our practice and have done so with pride.
See Exhibit A. (Click image for enlarged view.)

This couch was a lovely find at our local Goodwill. It's a good size, sturdy, and comfy. We'll probably get a slipcover for it eventually, but right now Brenden really likes its look. And I must admit, it's definitely unique.

Anyway, back to our nightstand dilemma. We have been to several thrift stores in the area, checked out craigslist a few times, and gone to IKEA. We've looked up garage sales and even planned our routes but when that Saturday morning comes, we haven't quite had it in us to get out of bed before 7am. (This has happened three times so far.) And so we have remained nightstand-less. It's a terrible place to be.

We were hoping to find something along the lines of this:

Or even just some simply shelving on it like this one:

But this past Saturday after a full day of driving around town to several thrift stores and finding absolutely nothing useful, Brenden had a brilliant idea.

I thought it was a great idea but apparently Brenden was joking. I insisted we do it and after sketching out some plans, he was convinced. And so we did it.

Cardboard Nightstand

For this project, all you need are:
- two boxes (one large and one small that will fit snugly into the larger one)
- box cutter
- packing tape
- pencil (OPTIONAL)

The actual process of making this nightstand is pretty self-explanatory so I'll just skip the tedious details. Here's a picture of our work in progress:

We considered keeping the box flaps for the smaller box to make a cabinet but we couldn't figure out a way to keep the flaps closed. So we cut them off.

And here's a picture of the finished product (Paris lamp and all!):

Look at that craftsmanship! We made sure to keep some of the original details of the boxes we used, like the wording on the side indicating "THIS SIDE UP."

(You may have noticed in the above picture our lack of a headboard. Another DIY project in the future? Perhaps.)