Menu
Woodworking for Mere Mortals
  • Learn
  • Store
  • About
Close Menu
April 10, 2015

Sofa Arm Tray with Easy Box Joints

For the Home, Plans, Projects

If you have a sofa or chair with large stuffed arms, you know how tempting it is to balance a drink on them. Unfortunately, this often leads to unfortunate spills. This week’s project offers a great solution: the sofa arm tray. It’s similar to a TV tray, but handier to use; just slide it over an arm.

Box joints: the easy way!

The main feature of this sofa arm tray is the box joints, or at least what may seem like box joints. I suppose technically they are box joints, just constructed differently. Instead of using some sort of box joint jig on the table saw, these are simple a bunch of wood strips, staggered and glued together to interlock.

I made all of my strips 1″ (25mm) wide, but you could make them any width you like. To make it even simpler, use off-the-rack lumber from the home center and you will only need to crosscut them to length.

For me, this was a good opportunity to use the crosscut sled I made in last week’s show.

I glued and clamped up the pieces for the top, alternating sizes to create the box joints.

I found that it made sense to glue on the individual side pieces one at a time. I think if I were to build another sofa arm tray I would try completely assembling the two sides, then attaching them to the top like a regular box joint.

It was kind of tedious, but worked out in the end.

After a lot of sanding, I rounded over all the sharp edges using a roundover bit on my router. You can use a sander to ease over the edges if you don’t have a router.

I finished mine with Danish Oil. It’s easy to apply and looks great.

Free Plans

  • WWMM Sofa Arm Tray (pdf)
  • Sketchup File
  • WWMM Sofa Arm Tray – METRIC (pdf)
  • Sketchup file – METRIC

 

How to Make a Crosscut Sled Fastrack Hockey Game. Homemade!

Related Posts

maxresdefault (3)

For the Home

Wooden Poinsettia Napkin Holder

How to make a simple picture frame using a tablesaw

For Fun, For the Home

How to make a simple picture frame using a tablesaw

Building a Record Player Stand

For Fun, For the Home, Furniture

Building a Record Player Stand

Categories

  • Basics
  • For Fun
  • For the Home
  • For the Shop
  • Furniture
  • Gift ideas
  • How To
  • Outdoor
  • Plans
  • Projects
Woodworking for Mere Mortals
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
© Woodworking for Mere Mortals 2021
Website Designed By Reverie House Studio

Get my Curated List of The Most Affordable Woodworking Tools

I value your privacy and will protect it. You can learn about how I handle information I collect by viewing my Privacy Policy. And don’t worry, you can unsubscribe anytime.