My youngest daughter wanted to build something useful for her teenage sister.  She spent hours on Pinterest and after some back and forth we decided to build an arm rest table.  It so happens that my oldest has an Ikea couch in her bedroom (technically a “KIVIK Loveseat“).

This project is fairly simple, standard lumber with a bit of wood glue and dowels, but the end result is still a practical present.

A 15″ laptop fits!

After a very long deliberation in the middle of Home Depot, we picked maple for this project.  Oak was too classic and walnut too expensive.  The top is made of 3 pieces of 1″ by 6″.  The depth is 2.5″, all the vertical pieces are made of 1″ by 3″.  At the end, the table is a perfect square (pure luck, based on the width of the arm rest) and so is the recessed box.

Butt joints with dowels and glue

I once heard a welder say that grinders were only there to fix the work of bad welders.  I think belt sanders are there only for bad woodworkers.  I’m glad I had a belt sander to smooth away all the misaligned boards on the table top.  Furniture’s wax is also pretty good to fill gaps (Bioshield Hardwax #32).

The table can be turned around, the recess sits on the cushions

The arm rests are quite large on that couch so the table is pretty stable, even with short vertical pieces.  The table can be used on both arm rests and can be turned around if needed.

Underneath, nothing really exciting