A recent rearranging of furniture has us looking for two matching night stands to flank our bed. We want them to be compact, simple, and - here's the challenge - practically free. Here are five ideas we rounded up that cost less than $5 each...
This is extraordinarily cheap, but two night stands are simply not in the budget right now. An inexpensive option will allow us to test the waters of height, shape, and placement. If we like the arrangement, we'll eventually make it a priority to invest is something more permanent. But until then, we're happy considering these $5 solutions:
• 1 A stack of books, like these thick ones in matching covers, can work as long as your bedtime read isn't on the bottom. Via rol.vn
• 2 Try making a solid cardboard nightstand. Making it yourself allows you to customize size and shape so it fits your space perfectly. For inspiration, check out Look! Our Corrugated Cardboard Nightstand.
• 3 Make a bedside shelf: it would require only two brackets and a small piece of wood for the top. For another look, a very small shelf might even be supported by a single centered bracket. Image: Jakob Solgren
• 4 Maxwell temporarily used a cardboard box in his home, but it was softened with a fabric top.
• 5 IKEA offers a few solutions: the Fniss wastebasket turned upside down, at $1.99 or the Evert stool (right side up), at $4.99. The Fniss might be a little short for anything but a low platform bed, but the Evert's considerably taller.
Related: Good Questions: Stylish Temporary Bedside Solution?
10 No-Fail Decor Tricks & Tips for Small Spaces
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
what, no milk crates?? :)
actually, wooden apple crates are better looking than milk crates. i saw tons upstate ny this weekend whilst apple pickin'. cough five finger discount cough
I have one of the common ikea wicker baskets turned upside-down as a night stand right now. It's small enough to fit in the small wall space between the bed and the closet door. And since it was lying around the house not being used at the moment, it was free.
This is more than a $5 solution, but the Frosta stools from IKEA are still pretty inexpensive (under $30) and would look miles better as nightstands than cardboard boxes or plastic buckets.
Go to a thrift store like Goodwill or Salvation Army and find a traditional looking nightstand for $5.
I appreciate the intent and creativity, but I can't get on board with a cardboard box.
My favorite bedside table: a stack of vintage suitcases.
I've acquired all of mine for free through my family, but it seems like you could easily find a few at a good thrift store.
fairydogmother, i agree - and neither could i fathom using a bucket turned upside-down.
i'm still looking for a bedside table, but there were some great ideas here - mostly the encouragement to look elsewhere in my home instead of purchasing more things, and to be creative. thanks guys! :)
We have a a few large planter pots that (due to the same budget & free time woes keeping us from refinishing and relocating the beautiful Heywood Wakefield nightstands we do have-- they have been pressed into service as emergency living room end tables) are currently unoccupied. A large ceramic planter turned upside and topped with a square record frame ($10-15 at various framing stores) with a pretty piece of fabric or cloth inside was an emergency night stand for a while. Right now we've "upgraded" to cardboard boxes that can't fit anywhere else topped with similarly sized gold frames that I don't have mats for currently. Covering them with fabric a la Maxwell is a new thought-- obviously it's temporary to the point of silliness, but it would be nice to have not quite such an eyesore when we have guests.
I agree with going to a thrift store. And if it isn't fine furniture and you prefer funky or modern, paint it.
I'm currently shopping for nightstands and, in the meantime, I'm using two extra chairs from my dining room.
AT recommending a cardboard box? With fabric on top? That left me gobsmacked.
...afterthought...a simple kitchen chair (from your kitchen or thrift store) with a flat-surfaced seat works well and has an ample surface.
I think a small drawer is a necessary component of any self-respecting nightstand. To hold, um, grown-up "supplies" that oughn't sit out in the open...
I have black tray tables. Perfect height. $5 each from Target and they look great. No one has ever guessed what they really are.
Iphigenia, mine is open with a couple of shelves, so I have my adult products in a little hatbox sitting on one of the shelves. Another friend has hers in a beaded jewelry box type thing sitting on the top of her table next to her lamp.
Does anyone else think the IKEA stool and trash can look like Devo hats?
That cardboard box might be acceptable if you upholstered the entire thing instead of essentially placing a placemat on top.
I am debating on the stacked/ bundled cardboard "table" I saw it in Met home a few months ago and love the idea.
1. go to thrift store.
2. buy something cheap.
3. spray paint it.
OR
1. go to thrift store.
2. buy two matching speakers from the 1980s.
3. lay them on their side, or not, depending on the height of your bed. (this is our solution. and it looks kick ass.)
Voila.
You can get a sturdy cardboard box, tape it up securely, then cover it with attractive wrapping paper (that doesn't look like wrapping paper). Use an unusual sized box and put a little tablecloth on top.
I used some striated kraft paper from Michael's and a natural linen topper on some workstation boxes and they definitely did not look like cardboard boxes. Actually they looked a heck of a lot better than the photo above.
I was given a set of matching, nested hatboxes one Christmas. I have them stacked beside my bed right now to hold a lamp, picture, and my glasses at night.
I used to have a milkcrate with some christmas lights stuffed inside, gave a nice effect to the milk crate.
and i agree with everyone else, that cardboard box was in bad taste. it wasnt even an interesting one, like the ones that apples come in... with a design and decoupage that could look nice, but brown?