My mom and stepdad visited this past weekend. Surprisingly, my stepdad is *almost* just as into home decor as I am. I am typically pretty frugal when it comes to things I purchase for my home and love items even more when they are a good buy. The HomeGoods by my house is amazing and I get 80% of my accessories from there. However, my stepdad is WAY more thrifty than I am when it comes to cash. One of his favorite things about my home (because of price, creativity, and style) are my nightstands! I'll give you a heads up... they're not really nightstands!
Rewind to October 2014 when my husband and I were moving from a queen to a king size bed. We couldn't agree on a bed/ headboard to save our lives! While I was going for style, Ivan was going for practicality. The headboard we were ditching squeaked horribly and woke us up all the time since neither of us are very still when we sleep. (I know what you were thinking... shame on you! hehe) Ivan wanted a bed that he KNEW would never squeak, which presented a number of problems for me. I couldn't get ANYTHING past him! Then he decided our new bed needed to be high enough for our dog to sleep under since that's where she was used to sleeping. (Let's just make it as difficult as possible, right?!) He rarely puts up a fight when I'm picking out things for our home, but wanted full disclosure on the new bed. Ugh.
We finally found an amazing reclaimed wood bed from West Elm. It wasn't what I consider a "good buy" at all, but the fact that we actually agreed on something was victory enough. You can check it out here. As much as I loved this bed, it created a huge nightstand problem. The bed is low since the mattress is meant to sit inside. Regular hight nightstands were too tall. The nightstands West Elm sold with the bed (which I was completely against at first because I'd already blown my budget on the bed) were too wide. I felt like Goldilocks. Nothing was "just right." Then one day I was browsing the aisles at HomeGoods and saw the PERFECT fit...
Laundry hampers. Yep. You read that right. I bought laundry hampers for my nightstands. They were the most perfect hight! They also fit the rustic/ industrial look of the bed. My metal accents in my room were already silver, so I grabbed some complimentary mirrors to hang over my bed and the rest was history!
The only issue with hampers as nightstands was the room to sit things. We like to each have a lamp, and since Ivan told me *&#$ no when I asked him to install sconces on either side of our bed, I had to get creative. I opted for a floor lamp on my side of the bed (because I have more crap- and no... that's not what the top of my nightstand normally looks like- I definitely tidied it up for the picture!) and a table top lamp for Ivan's side. There wasn't room for a floor lamp on his side, plus I wanted to inconvenience him so he might decide to install my desired sconces. I still have no sconces, so obviously Ivan's lamp doesn't bother him. Oh well.
The only other issue (besides size) is the fact that there are holes in the top. The holes make spilling the WORST! They also allow dust to get inside the hampers... this wouldn't be a problem if I cleaned them out more often. I love that there are no drawers because it keeps us from collecting more hidden junk. And they were CHEAP! In my book, cheap nightstands typically start around $100... $200 for a pair. These cost me a total of $70 for BOTH! Score. And they look really cool. Double score.
So... if you ever find yourself in need of small nightstands, side tables, or accent tables... check out the laundry hamper aisle at HomeGoods. You never know what you might find!
