In this project, I’m building a pair of walnut nightstands for a client inspired by the mid century modern design. I focus on my process of how I mitered the corners so the grain flows across the top and down the side, so all corners line up perfectly.
Here are some of the specialty tools and materials I used in this build. Affiliate Links
• Pro For Sho Hearing Protection https://amzn.to/2wkQJbR 10% OFF Coupon Code: BENHAM84
•Table saw Fence Clamps https://amzn.to/2pQCCID
• Domino 500 – https://amzn.to/2ktOH5K
• Assorted Dominos – https://amzn.to/2jqm2Nj
• Titebond CA Glue Medium – https://goo.gl/X3afqX
• Leigh Dovetail Jig https://amzn.to/2CJZl1D
• Blum Tandum Drawer Slides https://amzn.to/2CGUmi1
• Blum Tandum Drawer Slide Template https://amzn.to/2pZfZSB
How to Build a Mid-century Modern Walnut Nightstand with Perfect Mitered Corners
I want to walk you through building this walnut nightstand I just finished. I’m going to share my method for cutting miters so the grain flows beautifully around the corners, and honestly, getting all four miters to fit perfectly tight on the first try is such a satisfying feeling.
Getting Started: Milling the Wood
Like any build, I started with the basics: cutting boards to length, milling to thickness, and jointing the edges. But here’s the key difference for this project—I kept the boards for the sides and top as one continuous length. This is crucial for ensuring the grain matches perfectly at those mitered corners. I waited to cut them apart until after the glue-up.
Once everything was milled to thickness and the edges were jointed, I used floating tenons to help keep everything aligned during glue-up. After the glue dried, I cut the sides and top to their final lengths. Pro tip: Label each piece right away! Trust me, you don’t want to end up with a mismatched grain pattern because you lost track of which piece goes where.
The Critical Cuts
When I lined up my track saw, I really took my time making sure I was cutting at exactly 90 degrees to the edge. This is super important because if you’re off even slightly and need to make a second cut to straighten things out, you’ll mess up that beautiful grain match at the corners. The more material you remove, the worse the match gets, until eventually the two ends are so far apart they don’t match at all.
After cutting to length, I cut everything to final width, making sure I was always ripping off the back edge to maintain consistency.
Prepping for the Miters
To get these pieces ready for mitering, I milled some scrap pine and edge jointed it to create a straight guide edge. I used CA glue to attach the pine strips to my workpieces, butting both pieces against the table saw fence to ensure the edges lined up perfectly.
Setting Up the Perfect Miter Cut
Now comes the most important part—setting up the saw to cut those miters.
First, I installed a sacrificial fence I could screw into. Then I used a scrap piece milled to the same thickness as my nightstand sides to set the height of my auxiliary fence and screwed it in place. The scrap piece should slide snugly underneath.
Next, I glued on a runner to ride along the auxiliary fence.
Here’s where you really need to pay attention: setting the blade angle. I carefully adjusted it to cut a perfect 45 degrees, then raised the blade so the outside edge of the tooth just kisses the outside edge of the auxiliary fence—no more, no less.
I ran a test piece to verify everything was dialed in perfectly before committing to the actual pieces. Once all the miters were cut, it only took a couple of taps from a mallet to remove those pine guide strips.
Reinforcing the Joints
Since glue alone doesn’t create a very strong miter joint, I used floating tenons to reinforce everything. If you don’t have a Festool Domino, don’t worry—you can easily set up a router jig to cut your mortises.
Before final assembly, I cut a dado in the back edge to accept the back panel.
Making the Back Panel
Walnut plywood is ridiculously expensive, and I only needed less than half a sheet for this project. So I got creative and used ¼” birch plywood as a core, then resawed some walnut to veneer over it. After cleaning up the edges, I tapped the pieces together, applied some glue, and threw it in the veneer bag. While the bag was sucking tight, I made sure nothing had slipped and everything stayed lined up.
Assembly Time
Finally ready for the glue-up! I used CA glue to attach clamping blocks to the edges—this gives you something solid to clamp against. Then I flipped everything over to apply the glue. Before gluing, I pre-finished the inside faces and taped off the edges to prevent any squeeze-out from getting on the finish.
With all those floating tenons and edges to apply glue to, I needed extra working time, so I used slow-set epoxy for the assembly.
The top piece took a little convincing to get in place—okay, maybe a lot of convincing—but with some brute force and help from a few parallel clamps, it popped right in. I measured the diagonals to confirm everything was square, then let the glue set up so I could knock off those glue blocks.
Adding the Decorative Details
Time to cut the decorative bevel on the front. I put my sacrificial fence back on and elevated it slightly above the blade. This creates space between the blade and fence so the offcut won’t get trapped and potentially kick back.
The angle and height? Honestly, it’s just an arbitrary number I determined through test cuts on scrap wood. I adjusted until I found an angle that looked good to me that day. Then I muscled the cases up onto the table saw and cut the bevels.
Building the Legs
For the legs, I laminated some 8/4 lumber and milled it square. I set a stop on my miter gauge to cut them to length. The pieces were so short and the blade was so tall that I clamped each piece to the miter gauge as I cut them—safety first!
To cut the mortises for the floating tenons, I screwed some scrap plywood to the table to make a quick jig to hold those small pieces, then plunged away, cutting two mortises per leg.
For the corresponding mortises on the nightstand, I did a little layout on the bottom and, while standing on my assembly table, cut the mortises.
While keeping track of which side had the mortises (another good reason to label everything!), I marked out a decorative angle to be cut on the legs. I sliced the angles off at the band saw, using blue tape to hold the offcut on until I cut the opposing angle—seemed safer that way. Then I cleaned up the saw marks at the disc sander before gluing the legs in place.
Making the Drawers
Back to prep work—I took my time at the jointer to ensure I had good square edges. It makes fitting the drawer to the opening so much easier.
I used my Leigh Dovetail jig to cut the dovetails. Yeah, it’s a little complicated to set up, but totally worth learning if you’re doing any kind of production work.
Then I set up my dado stack to run a groove for the bottom panel. I positioned it to pass between the pins on the drawer front and through the lower tail on the sides. This way, when it’s assembled, you don’t see the dado, and I don’t have to deal with chopping out stopped dados on the ends.
Here’s a tip: I find it easier to cut the drawer sides a little long, then cut them to final length after cutting the dovetails. This way I don’t have to compensate for the tail length before it’s cut. I can do a test fit and measure exactly how much to trim off the sides.
Next, I cut the rabbet in the end of the drawer sides to accept the back, then did another dry assembly to measure the drawer backs.
Once all the parts were cut, I added glue to the dovetails, tapped them together, slid the back in place, and used a pin nailer along with some glue to install the backs.
No matter how careful I am, there’s always an edge that’s not perfectly flush, but nothing a few strokes with a hand plane can’t fix.
Installing the Drawer Slides
I’m using Blum self-closing drawer slides for this project. They seem complicated at first, but all you really need is their setup jig, and it becomes pretty straightforward.
You use the same jig to pre-drill all the holes—two in the back of the drawer for the alignment pin, then switch to a smaller drill bit and turn the jig sideways to pre-drill for the screws that attach the drawer slide to the bottom of the drawer. It’s that simple!
To install the drawer slides inside the nightstand, I cut two spacers to the correct height from scrap plywood. I rested the slide on the spacers while I pre-drilled and screwed them in place, then moved them to the other side to ensure both slides were installed at the same height. I did the same thing for the middle slide and just rested the bottom slide directly on the bottom of the cabinet.
And there you have it—a beautiful walnut nightstand with perfectly matched grain flowing around those mitered corners. The key is patience, precision, and not rushing those critical cuts. Happy building!
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.