Building a Two-Tone Nightstand

How I built a white oak mid-century modern nightstand with a waterfall grain case, two-tone finish, and built-in charging outlet. Plus the joinery and finishing decisions I made along the way, all for a client in Colorado Springs who wanted a custom nightstand.

Milling the Lumber

I started by breaking down the rough stock. These slabs were eight-quarter white oak, which means they’re thick and they’re heavy. Rather than wrestling a full rough-sawn board across the jointer right away, I used my track saw to rip a straight edge on each piece first. That saved me a lot of grunting and made it a whole lot safer to feed them through.

Since I don’t have a long enough track to do it in one pass, I used my level as a straight edge to mark a reference line, then moved the track and made two cuts to get from end to end. Once I had that clean edge, I could run everything through the table saw to get it to the final width, and then hit the jointer for a cleanup pass before glue-up.

I set up a jack stand as a safety rest at the infeed side of the jointer, just a hair lower than the table surface, so the board always references off the jointer and not the stand. These boards are big enough that having something to rest the leading end on makes a real difference. I also kept waxing the table every so often to keep things moving smoothly.

About halfway through milling, I found a couple of chunks of metal buried in one of the boards. Not the first time. Probably won’t be the last. Still had plenty of thickness to work with, so I just kept going.

Gluing Up the Panels

Once everything was milled flat and square, I did a final jointer pass on each mating edge to make sure the seams were tight — close enough that they’d basically disappear in the finished piece. For the glue-up, I used floating tenons between the joints, not because the glue needs the help, but because they keep everything aligned and prevent boards from sliding around under clamp pressure.

Cutting the Case

This is where it gets a little more involved. The nightstand has a waterfall design — the grain flows continuously up the side, across the top, and down the other side. To pull that off, I cut the glued-up panel into three chunks using the track saw at 90 degrees first, then took those pieces to the table saw to cut the 45-degree miters.

I did it this way on purpose. The track saw has a little play in it when you’re setting a bevel, so a 45 from the track saw is “close enough.” My table saw is dead accurate. For miters that need to meet tight, I want to use the tool I trust. And since I lined up the miter cut right at the edge of the 90-degree track saw cut, I was barely removing a blade’s worth of material — so the grain match stayed clean.

For the sides, I set my fence to account for the 45-degree miter so the finished dimension came out to exactly 29 inches tall. Both side pieces were cut at the same fence setting so they’d be guaranteed identical.

Edge Details

The client wanted a half-degree bevel along the front edges. Small detail, but it matters — especially because it has to line up at the mitered corners. I used a feather board to keep everything tight to the fence and consistent the whole way through.

Around the bottom edge, there’s a decorative saw kerf that wraps around that bevel. Running a piece at that angle across the blade is a little awkward, so I built a simple jig with clamping fins to hold it securely. Ran each end separately since one side goes through forward and the other goes through backward.

Inner Structure

With the outer case figured out, I moved on to the inner parts — drawer dividers, web frames, and shelves. I resawed some of the material I’d cut earlier so I could get the thickness I needed without wasting extra stock. The thin slice I took off during the resaw ended up getting veneered onto plywood for the drawer bottoms, which kept the colorway consistent through the whole piece.

For the web frames between the drawers, I used floating tenons. One rail glues to the back of the cabinet, the other glues to the front — and since those two sides can move independently with seasonal wood movement, I only glued the tenon into one side. The other side lets the frame float so the wood can expand and contract without fighting itself.

The nightstand also has a small open cubby at the top, so I glued up a shelf panel for that and cut everything to the same width with a stop block at the miter saw. That way, all the internal parts were guaranteed to be the exact same dimension, and the case would go together square.

The Electrical Outlet

This is a detail that makes the nightstand actually useful. There’s a hidden charging outlet built into the back of the cabinet from Mockett. I hogged out most of the material at the drill press to reduce the load on the router bit, then used a template and a pattern bit to cut the clean opening. I also drilled a pass-through hole for cords to route from inside the cabinet to the outlet, and softened the edge of that hole at the router table.

Finishing

The finish on this one was two-tone — dark stain on the outside, natural wood on the inside faces, with a satin finish.

After the client reviewed the stain sample, they decided they wanted the grain to pop a little more. So I added a step that wasn’t in the original sample: a black glaze coat worked into the grain first, then sanded back so only the deepest pores held the color. Then the main stain coat went over the top of that. The result really shows off the waterfall grain. Once that glaze is in there, the continuous flow from the side up across the top and back down the other side reads a lot more clearly.

I pre-finished the inside faces before assembly so I wasn’t trying to spray into a fully assembled box. Masked off all the glue surfaces so the finish didn’t get where it wasn’t supposed to. Did the same thing on the drawers, and finish everything before you put it together, tape off the joints, and the assembly goes much cleaner.

For the case glue-up I used a slow-set epoxy. There are a lot of parts going together at once, and I didn’t want to be racing the clock. The extra open time let me get everything checked and clamped without stress.

Drawers and Hardware

The drawers went together with a dado along the bottom edge to capture the drawer bottom panel, glued up with the pre-finished pieces, and masked joints. I’m using Blum Tandem undermount drawer slides. I have a separate video that walks through exactly how to install Blum undermount drawer glides, if you want the details.

For attaching the drawer fronts, I used a reveal spacer to hold each front in position, put a small amount of glue on the back, and clamped it by screwing through the pre-drilled handle holes temporarily. Once the glue dried, I pulled those screws, drilled properly, and installed the handles.

The same spacer let me set consistent reveals between the drawers and along the sides.

The last step was snapping in the charging outlet in the back, and that was it.

The finished custom nightstand came out exactly how the client wanted, with a dark-stained exterior, natural interior, waterfall grain on the case, and a hidden outlet in the back. White oak is a workout to mill, but it’s hard to argue with how it looks when it’s done.

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