Desk to Nightstands with Concrete Tops

I mentioned earlier this week about the nightstands Jeff made for our bedroom update.  He got a free desk from goodwill because it was in such poor condition, that even they wouldn't sell it!  I had been looking for a desk to make into nightstands ever since I saw this post by Sugar Bee Crafts last year. 



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 The one Jeff found was perfect. Of course I don't have a good before picture because Jeff was too eager to rip the old desk apart and start on the project, but I managed to have him snap a few before he made too many changes. The desk had a lot of water damage, so Jeff ended up replacing the sides of the drawers with 1/8 inch plywood.  After, he basically rebuilt the shell, he sanded and painted them white and gray.

The top of the desk was so water damaged that it also could not be used, so we thought of different options for the tops.  More plywood, marble, laminate....and then Jeff had the brilliant idea of making his own concrete tops!  He built a "mold" using a piece of plywood as the base and then left over pieces of 1x2s that he clamped together.  He realized after a couple of cracked tops, that the best concrete to use is actually mortar.  It dries incredibly fast and left no bubbles on the top.

To seal the concrete he used this stuff.

Then he adhered the tops to the base using construction grade adhesive.

 

We chose these glass knobs from Home Depot to finish them off.

And here they are in our bedroom.  Its starting to come together!

(bonus sneak peak of our new headboard!)