Clean and Modern DIY Nightstand // an Ikea Hack

Do you remember the time I had just two kids, back when I had time to do things like, say, take a shower (and actually blow dry my hair) and dream about a room design before proceeding to put that design into play. Yeah, I’m beginning to forget what that feels like.

I’m totally excited to share with you one of the fun projects I managed to wrangle together before baby bunny made his speedy appearance (yes, I still plan to share more on that soon… once I get a decent shower and sleep, *wink*). Back when I shared the inspiration board for our shared master bedroom and nursery, I mentioned these nightstands and a brief explanation on how we put them together. The story behind these little consoles is that I had an idea in my head of what I wanted; I could see it, the crisp lines, modern feel and bright white offering us a clean bedside table… but I couldn’t find what I wanted. I searched online for a few days, finding similar items at a high cost and finally finding a table that mirrored the picture in my head, but at a size that wouldn’t fit my space and a price tag of almost $1000 each, um, yeah, that just wasn’t happening. Next, I decided to make them myself… well, I started bribing my husband to make them for me, with a little help of course, and we began pricing out wood, paint and tools for the project. Then one night it hit me and I immediately hopped online to check out these Expedit shelves from Ikea. We measured again just to be sure, and YES, we could fit one on each side of our bed, and for a price tag of under $40 each, it was a steal.

That same weekend we loaded our trunk with goods from the great Swedish box store and I put my feet up while Chris went to work putting the shelves together… and it took him a whopping five minutes since we only used three of the pieces included in the kit.

He wasn’t sure how they’d hold up structurally, since the nightstand didn’t have the support that the full shelving unit has, but four months later, they’re still good as new. I think being wedged between the wall and our bed helps a little… there’s no room for wobble. We had planned to reinforce with L brackets underneath if we thought the extra support was needed, but this setup works perfectly for us.

Can you tell which bedside table is mine?

I styled our nightstands with Emily Henderson’s three rules:
1. Something with height — in this case, lighting.
2. Something solid and horizontal to ground the table, like the books or a tray/box.
3. Something sculptural to soften the difference between the vertical items and the horizontal items (I may need to add or change a little somethin’ to nail this one on the head).

I plan to add a little more excitement and color with a small print or two leaning against the wall in the near future, but for now, I love this space and the clean lines we’ve created. That’s the fun part of design… making a place that works for you. Clean lines and order make me feel more at ease, and with three little ones running around (or filling diapers), Lord knows I need that.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about our art on the wall… no they’re not originals by me or my children, though they easily could be. Those paintings were actually brushed by, wait for it, elephants in Thailand. And, yes, I have polaroids of the cute little tuskers painting this art with their trunks to prove it. How fun is that?! Chris and I actually picked them up from a little shop in Chicago when we were first married.

Have an excellent weekend, friends.

xo

P.S. Aliyah and Brayden’s shared room is featured on one of my fave sites, Apartment Therapy, today!! You can see the article here.