DIY Console Table with Drawers

In this post, I’m sharing how to build a DIY console table with drawers using basic 2x4s and plywood!

This DIY console table is actually one part of a five piece matching office furniture set that I built for my dad’s office.

He needed somewhere to store and display some of his product samples for his customers.

But if you didn’t need it for a storefront (because it’s probably rare that you would haha), it would also work great as an entryway table or a console table in a dining room, living room, or home office.

The design is somewhat unique with the two deep drawers at the bottom–great for storing books, dishes, toys, even shoes.

It’s almost like a dresser combined with a bookshelf which makes this build great for both storage and display.

If you want to build one of your own, I’m sharing the video tutorial and the DIY console table building plans below!

Tools & Materials

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What to Know Before Building

I kept this build easy and inexpensive by using birch plywood and basic 2x4s from The Home Depot. 

But, obviously, you can use any wood type you wish for this project if you’re building it yourself.

Matching Office Furniture Pieces

This is one part of a five part series of matching office furniture that I built for my dad.

You can check out the whole matching series of pieces here.

Building the Leg Posts

As part of this matching series, you’ll notice from the image above that I used large 3″ square posts for the legs of each piece.

I made these by gluing up 2x4s and trimming the edges down on the table saw.

You may already know this, but 2x4s are actually 1 ½″ x 3 ½″ (not 2″ x 4″) and they typically come with rounded corners.

So if you glue two of them together, you’ll have a post that is about 3″ x 3 ½″ but where the rounded corners meet, it won’t look all that great.

To clean those edges, I’ll run them through the table saw to remove about ¼″ on each side.

Then I’ll have nice, square 3″ posts.

However, if you don’t have a table saw, this isn’t absolutely necessary. You can definitely leave them as is.

Just note that your legs will be 3″ x 3 ½″, so you may have to make some minor adjustments to the measurements in the plans to accommodate.

Overall Dimensions

The overall dimensions of this two drawer console table is 19″ deep x 30 ¾″ tall x 48″ wide.

How to Build a DIY Console Table with Drawers

This is a great weekend project and is an intermediate level build. It uses basic joinery methods to keep assembly quick and simple.

If you prefer to watch, check out the video tutorial below.

I’m sharing the building plans for free in the post below, but if you prefer to print your plans, you can grab the printable building plans here.

Step 1: Assemble Console Table Legs

I started this project out by gluing up 2x4s to make the leg posts.  See notes in the “what to know before building” section above.

To glue up the legs, I trimmed down my 2x4s to roughly 32” long pieces and glued and clamped four sets of 2 together to make four leg posts.

Once the glue dried, I took them to the table saw to clean up the edges and trim them down to a square 3” x 3” post. 

Since 2x4s are about 1 ½” thick and 3 ½” wide, I had to remove about ½” from the width to match the thickness of 3”.

NOTE: if you don’t have a table saw, you can simply sand the edges clean and leave the posts as 3′ x 3 ½″. Just note that if you leave the width 3 ½″, make sure to assemble the frame with the legs oriented so the wider side is on the WIDTH of the piece and not the depth.

Once the posts were 3” square, I took them to the miter saw to trim them to 30” long.

I tapered the ends of these leg posts for some extra detail.  This is a totally optional step, but to do this, I adjusted my miter saw angle to 60 degrees and cut two adjacent sides from the center at the bottom out to the edge.

Once the legs were trimmed and tapered, I could move on to the fun stuff—assembly.

Step 2: Assemble Console Table Side Panels

The main frame of this project was built with 2x2s.  You can purchase precut 2x2s at the lumber yard, but I like to cut my own from 2x4s.

RELATED: How to cut your own 2x2s

Either way, I just cut six pieces of 2×2 to 12″ long to build two identical side frames like shown below.

I assembled the pieces using 1 ½″ pocket holes and 2 ½″ pocket hole screws.

RELATED: How to use a pocket hole jig to drill pocket holes

Notice that the 2x2s are attached so they are flush across the INSIDE of the legs and the tapers face the inside corners.

I used wood glue at each pocket hole joint.  I find that using 2 pocket holes in a 2×2 will usually cause the wood to split, so I like to use wood glue with just one pocket hole screw with my 2x2s. 

However, feel free to use 2 if you’d rather.

Since the bottom of this piece has drawers, I wanted to install a solid panel at the bottom of both side frames so I could mount the slides to it. 

I cut two pieces of ¾″ plywood for this and installed then into the side frames using ¾″ pocket holes and 1 ¼″ pocket hole screws.

RELATED: How to cut plywood sheets

Notice that this panel is attached so it’s flush across the INSIDE of the legs and frame.

Step 3: Assemble Middle Shelf Panel

Once the two side panels were assembled, I was ready to build the rest of the frame, but first, I decided to attach the middle plywood panel between the two middle supports.

I cut a piece of ¾″ plywood to use as the middle shelf panel (cut to 15″ x 40″) and drilled ¾″ pocket holes around the edges.

Then, I cut six 2x2s to 40″ to use as the front and back frame pieces and drilled 1 ½″ pocket holes into the ends of each.

To make things easier, I “preassembled” this middle shelf by screwing the panel into two of the 2x2s like shown below using ¾″ pocket holes and 1 ¼″ pocket hole screws. 

I attached the shelf so that it was flush across the top of the 2x2s and used a clamp to help hold the pieces together while I drove the screws.

Step 4: Assemble Console Table Frame

I secured the middle shelf between the side panels so that the top of the shelf was even with the top of the middle 2×2 pieces.

Then, I installed the other 2x2s in with wood glue and 2 ½″ pocket hole screws—two at the top and two at the bottom.

Keep in mind that for the 2x2s, you will use 1 ½″ pocket holes with 2 ½″ pocket hole screws and with the ¾″ plywood, you will use ¾″ pocket holes with 1 ¼″ pocket hole screws.

Then, I added some 2×2 pieces in the middle at the bottom to separate the two drawers. 

Since these pieces were small, I couldn’t get in to drive a pocket hole screw at the bottom, so I just did one at the top and used a 2 ½″ wood screw to attach these divider pieces at the bottom.

Then, I screwed another 2×2 between them to give me somewhere to mount the drawer slides.

Step 5: Attach Top to DIY Console with Drawers

I cut a piece of ¾″ plywood for the top to 19″ x 48″. 

I applied iron on edge banding to the sides of the top to clean up the edges a little before and gave it a good sanding before attaching.

RELATED: How to apply iron on edge banding

Then, I installed it onto the base using 2″ wood screws through the top 2x2s. I left 1” overhang on the front and on each side.

NOTE: If you left your legs 3 ½″ wide in step 1, you will leave only ½″ overhang on the sides…not 1″. Or you can cut your top 49″ long and leave the full 1″.

Step 6: Build and Install Drawers

I installed two pair of 16” ball bearing drawer slides into the shelf so that they were 1 ½” inset from the front edge.

RELATED: How to install drawer slides

After the slides were installed, I cut ¾″ plywood pieces for the drawer boxes and some ¼″ plywood pieces for the drawer bottoms like shown here.

I cut the pieces needed to make two identical drawers.

I cut ¼″ dadoes ¼″ deep ½″ from the bottom edge of the drawer box sides to install the ¼″ plywood drawer bottom.

However, you don’t have to cut dadoes if you don’t want. You can simply glue and staple or screw the plywood bottom in place.

RELATED: How to Build Drawer Boxes

I edge banded the drawer box tops—which is an optional step, but looks really nice so I think it’s worth doing.

RELATED: 5 Secrets to Professional Looking DIY Furniture

Then I assembled the drawer boxes using ¾″ pocket holes and 1 ¼″ pocket hole screws.

Then, I installed the drawer boxes into the shelf so that the bottom of the boxes were about ¼″ up from the 2×2 frame piece below it.

RELATED: How to install drawer boxes

Step 7: Build and Install Drawer Fronts to Shelf Drawers

To dress up the drawer fronts a little, I added some cove molding trim to the front edges.

First, I cut the the ¾″ plywood drawer fronts to size (9 ¾″ x 19″ shown in blue below).

Then, I cut to fit cove molding to frame out the front edges.

I just used a little wood glue on the molding and painters tape to hold the pieces in place until it dried. Once the glue dried, I removed the tape.

Then, I installed the drawer fronts onto the drawer boxes using 1 ¼″ wood screws from the inside of the drawer boxes leaving ⅛″ gap around all sides.

Step 8: Add Trim on Sides (OPTIONAL) & Finish

I also added some cove molding around the side panels—I just glued these to avoid the nail holes, but you could also brad nail these pieces if you wanted.

To seal and finish this DIY console table, I simply gave it a couple coats of Minwax Helmsman Water Based Poly to keep its natural color, then added some simple black handles to the drawers.

And now it’s ready to be put to good use. 

I’m loving the option for both storage and display with this DIY console table with drawers. It’s going to be perfect for my Dad’s office.

If you’re interested in all the matching pieces from his office builds check them out here.

Looking for more Console Storage Table Ideas?

If you’re looking for more project ideas and inspiration, here are a few other storage and console style tables you will love!

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Until next time, friends, happy building 😊