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  3. Upcycling – turn your bedside table into a charging station

Upcycling – turn your bedside table into a charging station

Decoration
Project
A white wooden bedside table is standing next to a bed. A phone is resting on top of it, charging.
This innovative bedside table looks great, and it charges your phone at the same time.
  • Difficulty
    easy
  • Cost
    50-100 £
  • Duration
    1-3 h

Introduction

If you have a long day ahead of you when you wake up in the morning, it’s best to leave the house with a fully-charged phone. Our innovative upcycling idea will turn your bedside table into a chic charging station. We’ll show you how it’s done.

Have you heard about our 18-volt system yet? It offers a huge variety of devices for many different applications. What makes the project below so special is that you can use the same rechargeable battery for every part of this build. Simply swap out the battery pack, insert it into a different device that’s part of the 18-volt system, and move on to the next step.

It should go without saying that your safety is paramount at every stage of the project. Make sure you take the necessary precautions to protect yourself. You can find everything you need to know about the protective clothing you need for each type of tool in our guide.

You need

Let's go - step by step

Step15

Marking and drilling holes

A cordless combi drill being used to drill a hole in the wooden board of a side table.

Before making any marks, think about where you would like the charging station to be.

You need:
Cordless combi drill
,
Brad point drill bit
, pencil, Charging station, Side table

First, mark where you would like the charging station to be on the top surface of the side table. To do this, place the charging station in the desired position, and trace round it with a pencil. Then, drill a hole using an 8 mm Brad point drill bit inside the marked circle.

Before you drill the hole, check where the nearest power socket is to your bed. Once the table is ready, the cable should go as directly as possible to the power socket.

Step25

Sawing out the hole

A jigsaw being used to saw out a hole from the top surface of a side table.

Make sure to wear the proper safety equipment when sawing.

You need:
Jigsaws
,
Curve-cutting saw blade T 101A0
, Side table from step 1

Now, using a curved jigsaw, carefully saw along the marked circle – starting from the hole you drilled in step 1.

Step35

Sanding

A cordless multi-sander being used to sand the inside edges of a sawn hole.

A fine sanding sheet is being used to smooth out the inside edges of a hole.

You need:
Multi-sander
,
80 to 120-grain sanding sheet
, Side table showing the hole sawn in step 2

Then remove the burrs along the cut edges from the cut-out section using a 120-grain sanding sheet, rounding off and smoothing out any sharp edges.

Step45

Inserting the charging station

A flat charging station being inserted into a hole with a plastic ring.
A plastic ring being inserted into a sawn hole.
A flat charging station being inserted into a hole with a plastic ring.
A plastic ring being inserted into a sawn hole.

You need: charging station

When buying the charging station, make sure that it comes with a plastic ring; this will make it easier to insert into the hole. First, insert the ring into the sanded hole (image 1). Then place the charging station inside (image 2).

Step55

Connecting the charging station

A phone charging on top of a white wooden table.

If your phone is resting on the correct part of the bedside table, it should now charge without a cable.

You need: Charging station, Phone

The final step is to connect the charging station to the power. Place the bedside table where you would like it, and connect the charging station cable to the power socket. It’s best to hide the cable a bit so it doesn’t get in the way.

Now, when you place your phone on the correct part of the table, it will charge as if by magic.

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