Two For Christmas and Her Birthday

With two days separating Christmas and my wife’s birthday, if I make one something, I always have to make two. These are two matching side tables for my wife to put to use. I started this project as a way to get rid of on old chair that she has her alarm clock and sleep apnea machine sitting on, and I am afraid she now wants me to re-stain our bed to match these tables and our dressers. I wish I could be angry with her about staining the bed, but I never liked the way it looked to begin with.

These are 26” tall by 14” wide and 19” deep. The lumber came from some Pine pallets that I got from work: cheap wood is great! I don’t really like working with pine because of the amount of dust it creates and it wreaks havoc on my sinuses, but she wanted them to match her bed, so as it always goes: what she wants, she gets. She also wanted a semi-distressed looked so the pallet lumber worked great: I didn’t need to bother with filling the staple holes.

Finish is dark walnut stain and two coats of poly (so far: I plan on adding two more coats, but the temperature dropped too much to finish them right now). I saved this wood from the scarp yard, but I know for sure that I am tossing the old chair she currently uses.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.