Make a sofa snack table for your living room.
Snack tables are a great way to share snacks while watching TV. They are fun to build because they are uncomplicated and there are many ways you can design them.
I had several goals in mind when designing mine. First, I wanted to make it out of cherry to complement the other furniture pieces I’ve made for the living room. (Coffee table, end table, lamp, and credenza). I had leftover cherry plywood from these projects to use for the support pieces. I wanted the top to be softer, with rounded edges, so I used solid cherry for it. The base is also solid lumber: mostly so I wouldn’t have to apply so much edge banding.
Secondly, I wanted it lightweight. This will likely get handled and moved around a lot, so I didn’t want it to feel bulky. At the same time, I needed it to be sturdy and stable.
Final goal: to make it stylish. The curves legs are really just support pieces. The key was to provide support to the top with only two legs while keeping the whole piece from being to-heavy or tipsy. After drawing up initial plans with square supports, I simply cut out a semi-circle in them. Design features often stem from structural requirements.
Once again, I encourage you to learn a little SketchUp. I don’t know if I would have stumbled on this design without the flexible nature of this software. It allows you to quickly and easily experiment with different designs and looks.
Plans:
These plans include a full-sized cutting template for the curved legs. Obviously, you will want to measure you couch and modify my dimensions if needed.