38 DIY Midcentury Modern Furniture Ideas

Midcentury modern furniture is the style that refuses to go out of fashion, and the price tags have noticed. A single walnut sideboard now costs what a whole room used to, which is exactly why this list exists. All 38 of these are a build, a hack or a rescue: plywood cut into a nightstand and stood on hairpin legs, an IKEA Tarva sprayed two colors and given brass pulls, a $75 leather couch skinned and rebuilt into a sling bench, a Nelson bench copied for $136 instead of $899. Some are weekend woodworking with a Kreg jig and a miter saw. Others are a can of spray paint and four tapered legs screwed into the bottom of something you already own. Every outside project links back to the maker who worked it out, and the last two come from Sueeye’s own pages.

38 DIY Midcentury Modern Furniture Ideas

1. DIY Mid-Century Nightstand

Raw plywood open cube nightstand on three pronged black hairpin legs, holding magazines beside a woven basket and sheepskin

Four pieces of plywood and a set of hairpin legs, and that is genuinely the whole build. The maker cut two sides at 15 by 45 centimeters and a top and bottom at 45 by 45, glued the panels where they meet, pinned the base from underneath and let the top dry overnight before screwing 18 inch hairpin legs into the bottom. Use short screws so nothing pushes through into the cubby. She had planned to stain the plywood deep walnut and then left it raw instead, which was the right call. The open box holds magazines and the flat top holds everything else.

Get the full tutorial at Burkatron.

2. DIY Mid-Century Desk Wall Unit

Wall mounted shelf system with gold tracks and wood shelves over a fold down desk, teal chair, plants and framed art

A wall mounted shelving system built on four 70 inch twin track uprights, spaced 22 inches apart and starting 21 inches off the floor, with seventeen 11.5 inch brackets and three 18.5 inch ones carrying the shelves. The desk surface is a piece of three quarter inch plywood at 20 by 48, hung at the standard 29 inch desk height. What lifts it out of garage territory is the finish: every track and bracket got primer and two coats of gold metallic spray before anything went on the wall. Fifty pound drywall anchors do the holding. It came to around $230 and a few hours.

Get the full tutorial at Old Brand New.

3. Mid Century Modern Dresser DIY

White IKEA Tarva dresser hacked midcentury with six long brass pulls and wood legs, teal lamps against a stone wall

An IKEA Tarva, which is the raw pine dresser everyone hacks, turned two tone with brass. The knob holes get filled and the whole carcass sanded, then the chunky rectangular legs come off and go on a chop saw to be shortened, because in this style the legs decide everything. Primer first, then Bronze Storm as the accent against Silent White on the body, sprayed rather than brushed so the finish stays glass flat. Long brass pulls replace the original knobs. Use the wall mounting strap that came in the box; a tall dresser with shortened legs is not something to leave loose.

Get the full tutorial at A Vintage Splendor.

4. DIY Mid-Century Modern Side Table DIY

Round honey toned wood side table with open shelf and four tapered legs beside a yellow wing chair and arc floor lamp

Two 24 inch circles cut from one edge glued board, joined by three lengths of 1×3 maple, and stood on four tapered legs with angled plates. The circle is the only fiddly part, and the maker gives two ways to draw it: a homemade compass made from a tack and a piece of string, or a scrap of plywood clamped to the router base so it swings a perfect arc. Cut with a clean cutting jigsaw blade, then sand through 100 and 180 grit and finish with 0000 steel wool. Pocket holes hold the whole thing together, so no fixing shows. About $75 in materials.

Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.

5. DIY Live Edge Wood & Steel Table

Long live edge cedar dining table with black flat bar steel legs, white molded chairs, world map and bulb pendant

Three cedar planks laminated with pocket holes and glue into a top just over six feet long, three and a half feet wide and about two inches thick, sitting on a fabricated base of four inch flat bar steel at 26 inches high. The knots and cracks get filled with bar and table epoxy, sanded back, then finished with roughly six coats of water based satin clear. The steel was painted flat black and sealed with a clear flat. Wood ran $90, the steel legs $180, paint and finish about $90, so the whole dining table landed under $400.

Get the full tutorial at Lemon Thistle.

6. Plywood Mid-Century Modern Daybed-DIY

Walnut stained plywood daybed with tapered legs and one raised armrest, navy quilted cover and woven wall baskets

One 4 by 8 sheet of birch PureBond plywood cut down into a daybed, standing on seven inch tapered legs fitted with mounting brackets. The apron front attaches with pocket holes, 2×4 supports get glued and nailed in underneath, the armrest piece goes on last and a center leg carries the middle so the platform never sags. Veneer edgebanding hides every raw plywood edge, which is the step people skip and then regret. The stain is a custom mix, one part Special Walnut to one part English Chestnut, two coats with a water based topcoat over it. About $120 in materials per bed.

Get the full tutorial at Deeply Southern Home.

7. DIY Honeycomb Shelves

Two wooden hexagon honeycomb shelves on a white wall, one open and one with a grey painted back panel and a candle

Six lengths of wood, each about seven inches long, each cut with a 30 degree angle at both ends so they close into a hexagon. Cut the first angle, flip the board, measure your length and cut the second, then repeat until you have six matching pieces. A dab of wood glue on every joint and a few nails hold it, and a clamp or a vice keeps the shape honest while the glue grabs. The maker added stain so hers matched better, and points out you can back the hexagon with thin board tacked on if you want a solid shelf rather than an open frame.

Get the full tutorial at Burkatron.

8. Mid-Century Trellis DIY

White geometric trellis screen of open squares hung beside a carport, over a white gravel bed planted with fan palms

A geometric screen built from 2×2 treated boards and hung in the gap between a carport and a patio, so it breaks the sightline without walling off the view of the trees behind it. Each open square takes two 14 inch and two 11.25 inch lengths with 6 inch pieces connecting them, all cut on a chop saw from one repeated pattern. It hangs from hooks already fixed along the roofline, with the bottom buried in the ground so the weight is not all on the hooks. Long boards frame the finished panel, then exterior paint, then fan palms planted underneath.

Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.

9. Mid-Century Modern Table For Under $50

Three panel graphic showing a raw pine round tabletop and black hairpin legs above the finished light wood table

An 18 inch round spruce top from the hardware store and a set of 19 inch hairpin legs off Etsy. All the character comes from the stain schedule: a base coat of Minwax Driftwood, then Early American layered over it several times until the tone stopped being orange and started looking like light maple, then Minwax Finishing Paste to seal it without changing the color. Screw the legs on last. The maker was matching an existing sideboard, and that is the useful lesson here, because layering two stains gets you a shade no single can will ever give you. Under $50 finished.

Get the full tutorial at City Farmhouse.

10. Pink Mid-Century Inspired Sofa Makeover

Pale pink tufted midcentury sofa with gold and white tapered legs, green lamps and a black and white chevron rug

An IKEA Karlstad bought on clearance for $250, wearing a white replacement slipcover that got dyed in a bathtub. The first dye batch came out the wrong color, so she stripped it back to white with Rit Color Remover and mixed her own shade, Petal Pink warmed with yellow and tan, then soaked the cover until it took evenly. The legs are $2 midcentury style ones from Lowe’s with top plates, spray painted gold and white, fitted at the corners and the center. Buttons from a 7/8 inch cover kit, pulled through the cushions on upholstery string, add the tufting. Under $300.

Get the full tutorial at Melodrama.

11. DIY Mid-Century bookcase IKEA hack

White bookcase with pale blue painted back and angled wooden legs beside a bed, brass swing arm sconce and books

A plain flat pack bookcase flipped over so the angled cleat legs could be screwed straight into the bottom, with a brass swing arm sconce mounted into the side of the case. No drilling was needed at all: the particle board is soft enough that tapping the screws with a hammer to start them and then driving them by hand did the job. The back panel is painted a soft blue, which is what makes the shelves read as designed rather than assembled. Stood either side of a bed, the pair frames the headboard like an alcove and puts reading light exactly where you want it.

Get the full tutorial at Thou Swell.

12. Mid-Century Inspired Plant Stand DIY

Tall two tier plant stand with slim wood uprights and round white shelves holding a leafy plant and a terracotta pot

Two round shelves and four square dowels, held together with eight small L-brackets instead of any joinery at all, which is why this is an afternoon rather than a weekend. The circles are 10 or 12 inches across and at least half an inch thick, and the maker warns against buying ones with beveled edges. Buy them pre-cut or saw your own from a short length of 1×12 with a jigsaw, sanding up through 80 to 180 grit. The uprights are 3/4 inch square dowels bought at 36 inches and cut down to 28. Around $25 all in.

Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.

13. Vintage Campaign Desk

Glossy coral painted vintage campaign desk holding a computer monitor, beside a caned wood chair with a fur throw

A $30 Salvation Army campaign desk with tarnished brass corners, repainted in Benjamin Moore Advance in Coral Gables at high gloss. Hardware and drawers come out first, then a light sand with medium grit, a wipe down, two coats of Zinsser Cover Stain primer, a fine grit pass between coats and three coats of color. Then the part nobody wants to hear: five days sitting in the garage to cure properly. The brass was polished with Bar Keeper’s Friend and Brasso and deliberately left with some patina. In warm light it looks orange, in cool light it turns pink.

Get the full tutorial at That Winsome Girl.

14. DIY Gold Sea Urchin Starburst Wall Decor

Two gold spiked sea urchin starburst wall sculptures on white paneling above a framed magazine print and pearl necklaces

Foam balls with about a third sliced off the bottom to make a flat back, then stuck full of bamboo skewers, starting at the top center and working outward and down toward the cut edge. Skewer length is matched to ball size so the finished burst stays in proportion. Two light coats of gold spray in a ventilated spot, never one heavy one, because too much paint weighs the skewers down and they droop. Leave them overnight to cure hard. Poke a small hole near the top of the back with scissors, hammer nails into the wall at an angle, and hang each one on its nail.

Get the full tutorial at Love Maegan.

15. Ruspan Leather Bench

Small wooden bench with a woven natural leather strap seat on a white cowhide rug beside a round rattan pouf and magazines

A small bench with a seat woven from wide natural leather straps, over and under like a basket, stretched between the side rails. The frame is plain square stock with a stretcher running between the legs at each end and one across the middle, so there is no joinery on show and nothing decorative anywhere. Everything interesting is the leather: undyed, thick, and it will darken and soften with use rather than wear out. Sitting on a cowhide beside a rattan pouf it works as a seat, a footrest or a surface for a stack of magazines.

Get the full tutorial at Wood and Faulk.

16. Mid Century Modern DIY Cal King Bed

Mid century modern platform bed in warm stained wood with tapered legs and white bedding, pendant light and patterned rug

A California king platform built from four 1×8 boards for the visible perimeter and five 2x4s framing the inside, with three cross supports set slightly below the top edge and four center legs carrying the middle. Pocket holes and corner clamps hold the frame square. The legs are 2.5 inch wide, 6 inch tall tapered ones on mounting plates, with adjustable feet underneath so an uneven floor stops being a problem. The finish is Polyshades cut one part to two parts satin polyurethane, two coats, buffed with fine steel wool between them. Around $170 in lumber.

Get the full tutorial at Effie Row.

17. Mid Century Modern Console Table

Long low wood console table with open shelf on four round tapered legs under two gold framed mirrors on a grey wall

Two four foot red oak boards twelve inches wide and two short side boards, joined into a shallow open box with dowels rather than screws, so no fixing shows anywhere on the finished piece. The maker labeled every seam with a number before drilling, three dowel joints per seam with a doweling jig, then glued and left it a full 24 hours before touching it. Round tapered legs with threaded inserts screw into the base about an inch in from each corner. Pre-stain conditioner, Colonial Maple and polyurethane finish it. Her own warning: the heavy top makes it tippy, so anchor it to the wall.

Get the full tutorial at Janery.

18. Mid-Century Modern Cabinet

Long white cabinet with brown faux wood sliding doors on slim metal legs against a charcoal wall, lamp and geometric print

Two white IKEA Besta units stood side by side on a plywood platform with metal cabinet legs screwed underneath, so the pair reads as one long low sideboard. Fiberboard panels cut to roughly 34.5 by 41.3 centimeters became sliding doors, running in plastic rails simply nailed to the inside of each case. The doors are covered in brown faux wood grain contact paper, which is doing all the work: from two feet away the white box with walnut doors is a convincing 1960s credenza. Against a charcoal wall it looks like a restoration rather than a flat pack.

Get the full tutorial at Petite Apartment.

19. Mid Century Inspired DIY Bed

Two panel graphic comparing an $899 catalog midcentury bed with a DIY wood platform bed in a green bedroom

A copy of the CB2 Drommen bed, which sells for $899, built for about $175. A queen takes two pine 1x4x8s and six 1x4x6s for the support frame, two 1x8x8s and two 1x8x6s for the boards you actually see, eight 1x3x6s for the slats and a piece of plywood cut to 60 by 31 for the headboard. Dowel pins, corner braces and metal ties hold the frame square. The headboard gets foam and fabric over the plywood and sits on support arms cut at 45 degrees. The maker had not stained hers yet, and recommends wood conditioner first when you do.

Get the full tutorial at Bigger Than the Three of Us.

20. Painted Drawer

Wood dresser with five drawer fronts painted flat pale pink, tapered legs, a fiddle leaf fig and a floral still life above

This one is a technique rather than a build, and it fixes the three things that ruin painted furniture: brush strokes, flashing and a finish that stays tacky forever. The maker’s answer is Sherwin Williams Pro Classic rolled on with a mohair roller. Sand lightly, clean it, load the roller and make about three passes, without chasing full coverage on the first coat. Then put the roller down and walk away. Going back to fix a patch while the paint is setting is what wrecks it every single time. Her own photos show how much a freshly rolled drawer levels out as it dries.

Get the full tutorial at Vintage Revivals.

21. Mid-Century Buffet Table

Dark walnut stained buffet cabinet on hairpin legs with a sliding door, patterned fabric lined interior and a record player

A legless buffet rescued for $10 from an architectural salvage yard, stained Minwax Dark Walnut inside and out and sealed with General Finishes High Performance satin topcoat. Hairpin legs bolted to the existing support structure are what turn it back into a midcentury piece, and the maker is straight about it: the legs are the focal point and everything else supports them. A light sand takes off the marks first. The nice detail is inside, where a grey and white patterned fabric is stuck to the back panel with Mod Podge, so the cabinet has something going on every time the sliding door opens.

Get the full tutorial at Brepurposed.

22. Nelson Bench Knock Off

Two panel graphic showing a slatted maple Nelson style bench with black trapezoid legs on a cowhide rug

A Herman Miller platform bench is $899. This copy came to $136.52. The top is twelve four foot maple slats cut from seven 1x2x8 boards, joined to cross braces with a slot and tab dado so the whole deck locks together rather than relying on screws through the face. The legs are two trapezoid rings from 1×3 maple, top brace 16.75 inches, bottom 13.25, sides 12.125, cut at 98.6 and 81.4 degrees. Legs get ebonized with three coats of Minwax Polyshades in Classic Black and a satin topcoat; the maple top keeps an oil based clear. Felt sliders underneath.

Get the full tutorial at East Coast Creative.

23. DIY Mid-Century Coffee Table

Kidney shaped white gloss coffee table on three pale tapered legs on a patterned shag rug beside a grey sofa

A 4 by 4 foot sheet of five eighths MDF, three 15.5 inch tapered legs and two cans of white gloss lacquer. Find the center of the board, put a temporary nail in it, tie string to the nail and a pencil to the string, and draw a circle. Then freehand the circle into a jelly bean, dropping one side lower than the other for that asymmetric look. Cut it with a jigsaw, sand the edges smooth, screw on angled top plates and legs, and spray. It took multiple coats, and her lesson was to wipe every speck of dust off first. Under $50.

Get the full tutorial at Wonder Forest.

24. Ugly Sofa Upcycled Into Leather Safari Sling Bench

Wooden safari sling bench with a tan leather seat and back, patterned cushions, beside a brass trunk and fiddle leaf fig

A $75 leather couch from a ReStore, skinned for its hide and rebuilt as a safari sling bench. Keep the leather in the biggest pieces you can, the whole back and each arm intact. The frame is two 2x2s at 34 inches, two at 28, two 1x4s at 46, two 1x2s at 24, two 1x3s at 25, two half inch dowels at 16 inches and two at 5, plus sixteen bolts and seven yards of upholstery webbing. Channels for the leather and dowels are cut with a drill and a jigsaw rather than a router. The 1x3s are cut to 24 inches with a 10 degree angle at each end.

Get the full tutorial at Vintage Revivals.

25. Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover

Tall dresser with white painted body and rich walnut drawer fronts on tapered white legs, photographed outside by a fence

A $40 thrifted dresser taken back to two materials: a crisp white painted body and bare walnut drawer fronts. The top is sanded through 80, 150 and 220 grit, the drawers sanded inside and out, and chips filled before anything goes on. The body gets two coats of Annie Sloan Pure White sprayed, over a Kilz water based primer that stops the old wood bleeding through. The drawer fronts are finished with tung oil cut 50/50 with mineral spirits, then a second coat of pure tung oil, which brings the grain up without a film. A new quarter inch plywood back cost about $20.

Get the full tutorial at Thrift Diving.

26. Mid-Century Desk In Hurricane

Slate blue painted midcentury desk with bare stained wood drawer fronts and legs, black task lamp and metal chair

Hurricane is the paint color, a moody blue with heavy grey in it, and the heading is named after it. The desk came out of a flea market needing about thirty five veneer chips patched before anything else could happen. The body took roughly three coats of Country Chic in Hurricane with a satin topcoat and a 320 grit pass between them. The legs and the drawer fronts were not painted at all: they were sanded back to open the grain, stained in Cappuccino and sealed with a hemp oil and beeswax mix, so warm wood sits against cool blue.

Get the full tutorial at The Driftwood Home.

27. Wes Anderson Inspired Entryway Console

Three pale pink cabinets with raised panel doors on green and brass legs, gallery wall above and black and white tile floor

Three paintable cabinets set in a row, painted Behr Marquee in Belle Mia to match the kitchen, standing on Pretty Pegs Estelle 70 legs in Sherwood Green with brass Stina 40 knobs. The doors get the trick: Walnut Hollow wood plaques glued together in a centered stack, cut vertically down the middle, then sanded, painted to match and nailed and glued onto each door so every cabinet carries a raised rectangle frame. Fit the leg mounting brackets before you paint. A darker shadow stroke painted around each plaque is optional and it is what pushes the whole thing from pink cabinet to film set.

Get the full tutorial at PMQ for Two.

28. Mid Century IKEA Chest Makeover

Yellow and walnut IKEA Rast chest with glass knobs and brass capped tapered legs against a navy geometric painted wall

An IKEA Rast, chosen because it is about as plain as furniture gets. The drawers are painted Behr Saffron Strands and the frame stained American Walnut, so one cheap pine chest ends up looking like two different materials. A spruce board glued to the bottom gives the angled top plates something solid to bite into, then 5.5 inch tapered hardwood legs from the hardware store screw in, with the brass caps sprayed Rustoleum brass metallic. Vintage 1940s dimpled glass knobs off Etsy finish it. Assemble the carcass first and leave the drawers out, because painting drawer fronts flat is always easier.

Get the full tutorial at Sincerely, Marie Designs.

29. Vintage Night Stand

White nightstand with a natural maple drawer front and bright turquoise painted cubby on splayed wooden legs, books inside

A frumpy little nightstand with a plywood drawer front, cream paint and legs far too short to be useful beside a bed. The drawer front comes off and a quarter inch maple veneer panel, about $13, gets glued on with heavy clamps and finished with several coats of Danish oil. Tapered hardwood legs replace the stubby originals and gain real height. Everything else gets CIL Smart3 primer and Benjamin Moore Advance, a waterborne alkyd, in Snowfall White on the body and Tropicana Cabana inside the open cubby. A modern bar pull goes on the new drawer front.

Get the full tutorial at Visual Heart Creative Studio.

30. DIY Mid-Century Modern Sofa

Low midcentury sofa with a pale walnut frame, tapered legs and two long grey woven cushions against a concrete wall

Seven 2×6 boards ripped down to 5.25 inches to lose the rounded factory edges, then joined into a platform with biscuits and sanded square. The back support is built with half lap joints across the horizontals and doweled into the platform with mahogany dowels, which is why there is no visible hardware anywhere on the frame. The legs were 12 inch ones cut down to about 10. Finish is Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil, which carries the stain in it. The cushions and upholstery were made locally for around $200, and the build is dimensioned around those cushions rather than the other way round.

Get the full tutorial at Modern Builds.

31. Curvy Coral Dresser

Coral painted dresser with wave shaped drawer fronts and ornate silver pulls, white oval mirror and milk glass vases above

A dresser with wave fronted drawers sprayed in Sherwin Williams Ravishing Coral 6612 through a Husky HVLP gun, then waxed with Minwax Furniture Paste for a soft sheen rather than a plastic shine. Spraying is the right call on a piece like this, because a brush drags in the hollows of a curved drawer front and leaves ridges you cannot sand out afterwards. The original silver hardware was kept and sits beautifully against the warm coral. Legs were added into holes already in the base. The paste wax is the step that stops the flat color looking like a rattle can job.

Get the full tutorial at Salvaged Inspirations.

32. DIY Telephone Bench

Raw pine telephone bench with a seat, one armrest and a stepped side table holding a yellow vase and a bicycle cushion

A telephone bench, which is a bench with a small table attached at one end, and it is a genuinely clever thing to put by a front door. The back legs are two 2x2s screwed together at 7 and 10 degree angles; the front legs are 2x2s at 7 degrees, one about 17 inches and one about 22 for the armrest. Side supports are 1x3s roughly 8 inches long with 7 degree ends. The seat is a 1×12 with notched corners and the side box is 1×12 with a drawer from 1×6 and quarter inch plywood. The maker preferred it unfinished.

Get the full tutorial at Woodshop Diaries.

33. Mid-Century Modern IKEA Hack Sideboard

Walnut toned sideboard with a gold brass geometric inlay across four doors on gold hairpin legs, brass lamp and prints

A plain IKEA sideboard with a brass inlay pattern glued across the doors and four gold hairpin legs underneath. Assemble it without the legs first, mark and drill starter holes, then screw on 8 inch two rod hairpin legs powder coated Spanish Gold. The pattern comes from ten brass strips, sixteen thousandths by a quarter inch by 36 inches, laid out first with patterning tape so you can move lines around before committing. Cut the strips with kitchen shears or tinner snips, peel the tape, glue each piece down with Gorilla Super Glue Gel and leave it overnight. Roughly a third of the West Elm price.

Get the full tutorial at Kristi Murphy.

34. Century Modern Record Console

White record console with a dark Ipe hardwood top on hairpin legs, turntable and receiver on the left, vinyl stored right

An IKEA Besta shelf and height extension unit rebuilt as a record console. The internal divider moves left so one side swallows vinyl and the other holds a receiver and a deck, which is the only structural change and the one that matters, because stock cube spacing does not fit records. One shelf gets cut down to suit and the other is left out entirely. The top is Ipe, a Brazilian hardwood, made at a local woodshop, and it sits on hairpin legs the maker already had from an earlier project. White case, dark top, steel legs, records on show.

Get the full tutorial at IKEA Hackers.

35. Make a DIY Mid-Century Modern Sofa Table

Narrow pale wood sofa table with a dark red drawer front running its full length, standing on thin steel hairpin legs

A narrow console designed to sit behind a sofa and hide its back, built from one 36 by 48 piece of three quarter inch hardwood plywood and a 24 by 48 piece of half inch MDF for the drawer. Top and bottom are 12 by 48, sides 4.25 by 12, back panel 3.5 by 46.5, drawer box 10 and an eighth deep. Three quarter inch wide, three eighths deep rabbets take the case together with glue and clamps. Set the back panel with a three sixteenths reveal rather than flush, because that shadow line is the detail. Hairpin legs go close to the front and back edges.

Get the full tutorial at Curbly.

36. Mid-Century All Purpose Cabinet

Tall black cabinet with doors covered in hand stained wooden hexagon parquetry, brass pulls, and a small before photo inset

A $50 flat pack melamine wardrobe, which is about as unpromising as a starting point gets, covered in roughly 350 two millimeter hexagonal ply tiles and turned into a parquetry cabinet. The toe kick comes off and new plywood top and base go on, the melamine sides are sanded and sprayed Dulux Duramax flat black, and custom feet cut from pine framing timber get stained and angled. Every hexagon is hand stained in a mix of Golden Teak and Oak at varying ratios so no two tiles match, then edges are sanded flush and the front gets about six coats of Scandinavian oil. Brass bar pulls, $8 each.

Get the full tutorial at The Painted Hive.

37. Mid-Century Modern End Table

A boxy white end table with four turned wooden legs capped in brass, built as a pair for a living room and then repeated for a daughter’s bedroom as nightstands. The appeal is how plain it is: a simple case, no hardware, no detail, and all the character carried by four tapered legs and their metal ferrules. That is midcentury design in one object, and it is why the style keeps coming back. These hold the things that always end up on an end table anyway, a phone, a remote, a drink, and they cost a fraction of a shop bought pair.

Get the full tutorial at Sueeye.

38. Easy DIY Mid-Century Bookcase With Free Plans

A tall asymmetric bookcase in three quarter inch maple plywood, with shelves at deliberately uneven heights and splayed legs cut into the base, and it comes with free downloadable plans. Uneven compartments are the point: tall slots for records and files, low ones for boxes and plants, so the whole wall of storage stays interesting rather than reading as a grid. A Kreg jig drill bit, screws and plugs hide every fixing, and the hardware store will cut the sheet down for you before you leave, which turns the hardest part of a plywood build into somebody else’s problem.

Get the full tutorial at Sueeye.

38 DIY Midcentury Modern Furniture Ideas