I’ve been trying to find some cheaper projects lately and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to make myself a new nightstand more fitting of what I want the final bedroom set to look like.

Similar to my other projects I always like to try at least a few new things, the main thing on this one is the combination of the Dark Brown stain and the natural Walnut. After using black panels on the last project I really liked the overall dark appearance of the piece so I figured using a dark natural wood like Walnut might compliment this style well. I was unsure about how this would look because in my mind the two colors were very close, so by using it in a small project I could get a real world sample, and I can safely say the final piece did not disappoint, the colors worked together beautiful and I will definitely be using this look a lot more in the future.

Another good test was working with red oak instead of my usual ash. The red oak proved to be the all-around better wood to work with since it machines well, cuts nicely with hand tools and takes the stain really well. One of the things I found interesting about the red oak was the ray flecks and how they add some subtle detail to the finished stained pieces. Normally I hate the look of ray flecks in white oak, but the smaller size in the red oak suits my style much better!

Finally the drawer fronts, this was a last minute decision that easily took this project from being just another smaller project to making its way into the top 10 overall projects. I’ve seen drawers that look like this and always wanted to try it out but never really understood the process. So, after sitting down and doing some math I figured out what I needed to do and just went for it. As you can see from the picture it worked very well, even if I did end up losing the bookmatch every so slightly.