Nightstands

The long-awaited night stands are finally completed and installed. Now we have a matching set of bedroom furniture - bed, nightstands, and cabinet. Actually, night-stand may be a misnomer as these are wall-mounted and therefore not really standing on anything. Here are some pictures of the bedside units, including some "in the making" photos, so you can see that there was a significant amount of electrical work that went into these in addition to carpentry.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of all were the drawers. One drawer each. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult. But then you'd be wrong. We made the drawer fronts to fit *very* snug within the frame. A little too snug, really, as it gave us no room for error in mounting the drawer guides. Next time, if there is a next time, I think we will leave a little wider opening for some slop. Of course, I am not really thinking there will be a next time. Thank goodness we did a built-in closet system purchased online instead of building our own dresser! Live and learn, I guess.

These nightstands were partially inspired, as most of the bedroom and bath, by our trip to Japan. In many of the hotel rooms in Japan you could control nearly the entire room from the bed! Ah, who needs to get up? It was great. Also, lighting is very important there, they do not believe in the blaring lights we have the USA. Much more subtle lighting schemes. So we installed two integral light sources in the nightstands themselves. (Keep in mind we already have indirect puck lights on the beam above the window for nice evening lighting, and two wall sconces for brighter lighting). One is the bedside lamp for reading. We cannibalized some LED lights from IKEA to make these. The other was actually inspired from the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco and points down underneath the table and acts as a nice nightlight.