We moved into our current home about a year ago and one of the first rooms we wanted to renovate was the bedroom. It was very dark and dated, but the main problem was the wall to wall carpeting. We have three dogs, so we try to avoid carpets. As a result, we threw out the carpet and bought boards to cover the floor, and from their remains we made two bedside tables with our own hands. It was not planned, but it turned out unusual, simple and beautiful.
Materials and tools:
- pine boards of different widths;
- plywood 1.5 cm;
- drill;
- miter, table or circular saw (I love my mini circular saw and use it all the time!);
- electric grinder;
- wood glue;
- roulette;
- level;
- hammer;
- screws;
- wood filler;
- brush and rollers;
- medium grit sanding block;
- primer and paint (or stain and varnish, if you prefer).
History of the bedside table
The bedside table came into use by people from France. The French mentality has a measured pace of life and a love of information. The first tables appeared near the beds of French gentlemen, whose morning reading of the latest press was considered an important ritual. The servants brought newspapers and a cup of coffee before the owner woke up. For this, the bedside table received a second name - a coffee table.
You can make an interesting coffee table.
The tables have retained their basic function since those times, but their appearance has changed and diversified. The common features of the first and modern tables have been preserved: the presence of a tabletop (the main flat surface of the table), smaller in size compared to a dining or work table.
Types of tables and their features
The diversity of this piece of furniture lies in the large number of modern materials and fasteners with which you can assemble the table.
The main types are divided into categories:
- Tabletop shape (round, square, oval, rectangular);
- According to the type of stability (one or more legs, cast frame base, vertical walls, a single cylindrical or cubic structure from the tabletop to the base);
- By materials (wood, glass, forged, plastic, fabric);
- By features (installation of wheels, mounting to the wall, presence of shelves and drawers built into the head of the bed)
Each type has operational differences. When choosing the type of table, you need to be guided not only by the aesthetic component, but also by its functional features.
Note! The material of some countertops has temperature characteristics and may not suit the client’s request. Before purchasing materials for manufacturing or a finished table, you need to familiarize yourself with the technical characteristics of the surface.
Even fashion designers use old car tires to create poufs and tables.
How to make a bedside table with your own hands
Decorating the interior of your home with a homemade coffee table is easy; you don’t need complex, expensive materials and tools. Some ideas are easy to implement and accessible to everyone. The stage-by-stage production of the table will allow you to calculate in advance the amount of material, the necessary tools and fasteners.
A wooden coffee table will fit perfectly into almost any interior style.
Before you start work, you need to choose the table that will complement your interior and solve the necessary problems. In order for a coffee table to become an accent in the bedroom, you need to choose unusual contrasting materials that will highlight its feature.
You can quickly make a table with your own hands.
Stages of creating a table:
- Development of a sketch, drawing of all structural details with dimensional drawing;
- Selecting material for the table, purchasing, preparing materials;
- Assessment of the work process, preparation of tools;
- The process of making a bedside table
- Decorating and painting the item.
Creating a sketch of the future table
At the first stage, you need to draw a sketch of the future table. It needs to be worked out, adhering to the dimensions and accurate measurements of the space where the piece of furniture will be located. Also, the drawing must be done in color in order to appreciate the full visual picture.
A small coffee table made of boards.
Then you need to make a drawing of the table, which will contain information about the size of each individual part of the structure.
Note! The sketch and drawing can be made in special computer programs that will allow you to achieve accuracy taking into account the thickness of the material.
What material is suitable for the table?
The material for the bedside table should be reliable and durable. When designing the structure, the floor covering and its features are taken into account. If the table is planned to be on wheels, then you need to think about the weight and shock absorption when rolling on the floor.
Wood is a popular material for making a table.
Wood is considered a good material for a coffee table. Natural wood can decorate any interior; besides, wood is a convenient plastic material that does not require special tools or skills when working with it. The most common types of wood for assembling a table with your own hands are: pine, fir, spruce, oak.
Wood is particularly popular among the many different materials from which furniture is made.
You can also get creative and use unusual things to create a table, such as a suitcase or a stack of books. When choosing a material, pay attention to technical properties, service life and care features.
Preparing tools
Depending on the material chosen, different tools may be needed. If we talk about wooden tables, then to create you need:
- Saw, hacksaw or jigsaw;
- Screwdriver;
- Miter box;
- Sanding machine or sanding paper;
- Roulette;
- Wood drill;
- Self-tapping screws or self-tapping screws;
- Nails;
- Hammer;
- Corners
- Wood glue.
Use only professional tools.
Before work, all tools must be in good condition and at hand.
Manufacturing and assembly process
The entire manufacturing process can be represented in 3 stages:
- Cutting parts on sheet or other material. When working with a power tool, the parts can be placed end-to-end without any reserve. Each detail is marked using a tape measure, ruler and pencil.
- Gradual assembly of parts into a single structure, taking into account the features of the sketch and drawing;
- Screwing additional parts, such as wheels, drawers, doors.
Making a table is easy!
The manufacturing process depends on the sketch of a particular table.
Some wooden structures use a technique for gluing parts of the product, so construction can begin after all the pieces have dried.
Types of coffee tables
Since a coffee table has no special definitions, there is only one requirement for it - height 40-50 cm. The remaining parameters can be absolutely anything: width, length, shape and finish depend on wishes.
Coffee tables differ in design depending on their purpose and the materials from which the items are made.
| Construction type | Scope of application |
| Miniature dining table | Able to imitate a full-fledged place for eating in the living room while watching TV or meeting with guests. |
| Furniture | Designed for storing books, magazines and other leisure items. Can serve as a bedside table and place a lamp on itself. |
| Transformer | Changes shape, size and height, combines a coffee and dining table. |
| Matryoshka | The product includes several elements of the same style, but of different sizes and shapes. Used to create unusual cascades. |
| Decorative table | It is distinguished from others by its unique external design. Serves as an accent when creating an interesting and extraordinary interior of a room. |
The abundance of materials for creating tables makes it possible to make an item that matches the style of the rest of the interior components. To do this, all kinds of manipulations are carried out in order to ultimately obtain the ideal product.
| Natural wood | The tables are made from natural material, therefore they are environmentally friendly and very expensive. The nature of the material allows you to give the product any shape and make it suitable for many styles (country, retro, classic, loft, minimalism). |
| Glass | Feels great in any interior style. A glass coffee table visually looks weightless, so it does not burden the space. Gives free rein to imagination and the implementation of any design solutions. |
Also, coffee tables are made of metal, cork, combining several materials at once: glass and wood or metal and other options. They are also decorated in different ways: they are painted with special paints, simply painted, a pattern or design is created on the wooden base itself, or figures made of glass, wood or metal are attached.
Table made of wooden boxes
A simple and cheap table can be assembled from wooden fruit and vegetable boxes. The boxes can be taken either ready-made or pre-knocked from slats. This table is large in size, as it is made up of 4 drawers.
A table made of wooden boxes will look interesting in any interior.
In this design, the drawers must be sanded using a sander or by hand and coated with varnish or paint before assembly. Assembly in this design will begin only after the coating has dried.
For the base, you can use sheet plywood or a sheet of chipboard or MDF. You can use any durable wooden sheet material with a thickness of at least 0.8 cm. Such a bedside table will be more functional and mobile if it is made mobile. The wheels are screwed to the base on the reverse side using self-tapping screws.
Making such a wonderful table is also quite simple.
After preparing the base and drawers, you can begin assembly. The boxes are installed on the base in such a way that the side wall of one box should rest against the bottom of the other box. Each is secured to the base using self-tapping screws. As a result, a small hole is formed inside the structure to the base of the table. Using a tall flowerpot with a fresh flower, you can decorate a coffee table.
Multifunctional pallet table
Pallets are used for interior decoration as a universal material. With their help you can assemble not only tables, but also any other furniture. A bedside table made from a pallet can have several types depending on the dimensions of the sketch.
A table from pallets can be made in one day.
The simplest option is a table on wheels two pallets high. An extra section is cut off from the pallet (before the cubic legs in the middle of the pallet) if the size of the whole pallet (120 * 80 cm) is too large. The blanks are polished and then screwed together using self-tapping screws. Wheels are screwed to the bottom of the table. The table is covered with varnish or paint of the desired color.
There are a huge number of different models of bedside tables.
You can put thick tempered glass of exact size on the tabletop or cut blanks from boards. They are attached to the table using self-tapping screws.
Note! When assembling wooden products with self-tapping screws, it is necessary to drill a hole to prevent cracking of the rock.
Desk with drawer
This model will appeal to those who need to store useful little things close to the bed. Assembling such a product is not at all difficult. You can even do without fasteners; just connect the parts of the structure using wood glue.
To work you will need:
- plywood sheet 2440x1220 mm thick 12-18 mm;
- 4 wooden or metal furniture legs 550-700 mm long;
- 2 furniture handles;
- varnish and stain or interior glaze;
- sandpaper;
- glue, optional self-tapping screws.
The only tool the craftsman will need is a saw, and if he wants to strengthen the structure with self-tapping screws, he will also need a screwdriver. The specified amount of materials is needed to make two bedside tables.
The work begins with purchasing a sheet of plywood. You can cut it into the necessary fragments yourself, but most hardware stores provide a cutting service for the material. The master can provide store employees with a diagram of the arrangement of parts on a sheet of plywood and pick up the already cut parts of the future product.
If the master makes parts of the structure himself, then to simplify the work he can first cut out all the parts from paper, then arrange them compactly on plywood and trace them with a pencil. It is advisable to cut the edges of the lower, upper and side parts of the body, as well as the desk drawer, at an angle of 45 degrees using a circular saw.
The lower part of the body must be glued to the side parts, and the side parts to the top. After the glue has completely dried, the back wall should be glued to the structure. If desired, the product can be strengthened using self-tapping screws.
While the glue dries, you need to prepare the legs. If they are made of wood, then it is advisable to make a cut at the top of each leg at an angle of 10 degrees so that the legs on the finished table diverge slightly from the center. Then the legs and other wooden parts should be sanded with sandpaper.
After this, the upper ends of the legs must be greased with glue and glued to the table, retreating approximately 80 mm from each edge. The legs can be additionally attached to screws, but this should be done before gluing the main parts of the product .
After this, you need to drill a hole to attach the handle to the front of the drawer. Then all parts of the drawer are connected to each other and the finished drawer is inserted into the bedside table.
The product can be painted with any wood paint or covered with several layers of furniture varnish. To improve the aesthetics of the product, it can be coated with water-based furniture glaze. The glaze should be applied to the plywood with a brush, roller or sponge in 2 layers.
Rustic style: table made of logs and logs
Logs and logs are used to create a rustic style in the bedroom. Using a finished log, you can make a base for a bedside table, and choose a tabletop from plywood or glass. An interesting option for decorating a bedroom would be a table made of logs of different or the same diameter.
This table will harmoniously fit into the interior of the cottage.
The logs are glued together, starting from the center in a circle, using strong glue. The central log is surrounded by rings from other blanks. After gluing all the parts, the table is fixed in a circle with a thick rope and left to dry.
To give the table an original appearance, you can decorate it with stickers.
To achieve a smooth surface of the countertop, you can use a plane or sanding machine.
Materials for the cabinet
Most often, do-it-yourself cabinets are made from wood or its derivatives. This could be furniture board, natural wood, plywood, MDF or chipboard, etc. Each of them has its own pros and cons. For example, chipboard is produced using fairly toxic adhesive components, so it is worth purchasing the option that meets modern environmental and sanitary requirements, especially if a person has respiratory diseases. In this regard, MDF, as well as furniture board and plywood, are the safest materials. Actually, natural wood is the best option in terms of health safety, but it costs more than all other varieties. In general, all of the listed materials are characterized by sufficient strength and durability, subject to proper use and processing of the finished product, as well as compliance with operating conditions.
Bedside table made from old suitcases
Also, cabinets can be made of metal or glass, but the work on their manufacture will be much more difficult than creating cabinets from wood. By the way, sometimes very interesting products can be obtained using scrap materials or something that, it would seem, is time to throw it in the trash. So, beautifully decorated cabinets made from fruit boxes look quite interesting. Brick blocks, wooden pallets, etc. can also be used.
To make a cabinet you may need various accessories. Guides for drawers, door handles, awnings - all this is worth purchasing along with the material itself for making furniture products. Mounting materials will also be required.
Bedside table with retractable tabletop
As for tools, you will need a jigsaw, a sander (which can be replaced with sandpaper), brushes for applying paint and varnish materials, as well as a screwdriver and a drill. They can be purchased or rented. A tape measure and a pencil, as well as a metal corner for taking measurements and marking the material, will also come in handy.
To decorate the bedside table, you can use paint, varnish, stain, fabric materials or eco-leather. By the way, if you plan to cover the bedside table with paint, then it is important to also buy a primer - it must be applied before applying the paint itself, otherwise the consumption of the latter, as well as the saturation of its color, will leave much to be desired.
Original bedside tables in the bedroom
Retro style for travelers: table made from a suitcase
This type of coffee table will appeal to lovers of retro style and travel. To create a table you need a strong frame suitcase. An important aspect is strength, so it must hold its shape well. You can make the legs yourself from solid wood (block, log) or buy ready-made fittings at a furniture store.
A table made from a suitcase is an excellent interior decoration.
Another option for this design would be to secure the suitcase to a wooden base and install wheels. The top of the table can be covered with a glass top or left in its original form. The condition of the suitcase and the general appearance of the final product will help you decide what to put on the coffee table for decoration.
Popular types of designs
The standard bedside table design is a four-legged tabletop, but there are many other options. Each user can choose a model that best suits his needs, interior features and room size. Currently, the following options are particularly popular:
- On wheels. The advantage of such a table is that it can be easily moved from place to place. For example, place it on either side of the bed. In addition, the apartment resident can set the table in the kitchen and then move the table to the bedroom. Such designs are especially relevant for small-sized apartments. However, before purchasing such a model, you need to make sure that the wheels will not damage the floor covering.
- Side tables. This design is equipped with additional shelves on which you can store useful little things.
- Forged. Metal harmonizes perfectly with most classic and modern interiors and is durable. However, you will have to pay a considerable amount of money for a wrought-iron bedside table.
- Folding structures. This is an excellent solution for those who prefer practical furniture and care about saving space. When unfolded, such a table can be used for work, studying, and eating.
- With a mirror. This model will not only perfectly complement a modern interior, but will also replace a dressing table.
A bedside table can be purchased at a furniture store, but it is much more profitable to make it yourself.
This table can be either standard or unusual. For example, tree cuts, concrete blocks, old pet cages, suitcases, old books or folders, stools, ladders, and pipes connected to boards can be used as bedside furniture.
Table painting and decor
To make the table look finished, you need to paint it, varnish it or decorate it. There are some features in decorating a coffee table with your own hands; it should:
- do not contradict the functionality of the table;
- not be toxic;
- improve and protect the rock and material.
The simplest option for a bedside table.
Classic decor is considered to be coating the surface with varnish or paint, especially when it comes to wooden tables, but there are alternative ways to decorate a piece of furniture.
Note! As an alternative coating to wood paint, you can use a varnish-based stain, which will give the wood the desired shade, preserve the structure of the wood and protect the surface.
The glass table looks interesting in the interior.
There are many ways to decorate a coffee table. The following types of decor will allow you to further protect the table, create an unusual surface and give it a special look.
- Design with stencils when painting;
- Decorated with stones, beads, buttons;
- Fabric covering;
- Decoupage;
- Glass mosaic;
- Inserting an LED strip to create a 3D effect;
- Shells and colored sand;
- Epoxy resin
The bedside table decorates the living room of many people.
Dimensions and functionality
Having decided to assemble a bedside table with your own hands, you need to determine its dimensions in advance. To do this, you need to find out how much space in the bedroom can be allocated for the structure. Standard sizes of cabinets found in furniture departments:
- height - level with the bed;
- width - 50 cm;
- depth - 30–35 cm.
Advantages of glass TV stands, ways to place equipment
If you plan to store a lot of things in the cabinet, then it can be made larger than standard sizes. Then it will simultaneously serve as a compact linen closet, dressing table and coffee table. To resolve the issue of furniture functionality, its structural elements are determined. First of all, the content is selected - drawers, shelves, compartments.
It is convenient to use a cabinet with lower and upper shelves closed with doors. It can fit a sufficient number of things. An additional storage system will be a flat countertop.
Those who love perfect order prefer designs with drawers or roll-out drawers. Their main advantage is the ability to sort items into separate compartments. Thanks to the door, dust will not settle on things.
Bedside tables can consist of only open shelves. Such a convenient, functional design is the easiest to make. The main drawback of this furniture is the lack of a door, which is why the things inside will not be protected from dust and dirt.
If the bedroom is not cramped and the bed is not close to the wall, you can make a nightstand of any size. The ideal option is when a person reaches all objects without getting up. In this case, they are located on the furniture tabletop or inside it.
An alternative to a table is a bedside table
As an alternative to a bedside table, there is a nightstand, which can also be made by hand. Methods for its manufacture and design can be taken from ideas for making a bedside table, or you can come up with new ones.
You can also make a table that will look modern and stylish.
A distinctive feature of a cabinet from a table is the presence of shelves and drawers, which can be designed from ready-made drawers or assembled with your own hands.
The dimensions of the parts depend on the size of the door and the selected table height.
Any ideas for creating furniture that are brought to life with your own hands have a right to exist and deserve pride. Individual design and a creative approach create comfort in the house. And using the simplest materials with intelligence and imagination can make them reveal themselves in a new light.
