A Narrow Sofa Table

I have a friend who recently moved into a new apartment. A sectional couch in the small living room left limited space to place a lamp. The solution was to build a narrow sofa table with a modern look to fit the space perfectly.

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The day my friend’s sofa was delivered, I could see there might be a problem.

There isn’t a great place to put a lamp or a drink. There was only about six and a half inches between the sofa and his bedroom door. The side table you see off to the left would fit on the right, but placed on the left, it blocked access to the bedroom. There aren’t a lot of options online and having built a custom sofa table before, building one out of scraps would work perfectly.

Supplies

That comes in at $40.55 for a custom fit table if you didn’t have any of those supplies on hand.

Build

I worked out the dimensions to be 6″ wide, 37.5″ long, and 27.5″ high. That would make the table about an inch shorter than the sofa arm (leaving room for the baseboard), the same height as the back, and just under the width of the space between the sofa and the door.

The modern look would be in the form of an S shape. I had a bit of plywood leftover from the closet makeover. Once I worked out the dimensions of the piece, I used my Ryobi Table Saw to rip some leftover 3/4″ plywood to 6″ widths.

Then the Ryobi Sliding Miter Saw came in handy to cut support pieces at 12.625″. 2 of them would be plywood and 2 would be 2×2 posts.

Then I took the exposed edges of the plywood and covered them with veneer edging tape. If you’ve never used it, it’s life changing. It comes in all kinds of species and has hot melt adhesive on the back. Cut the banding to size, leaving about 1/4″ on each end, then use a household iron on a medium setting to iron the wood strip right on to the edge of the board. Composed of thin strips of actual wood, the edging can be stained, sanded, or painted just like it’s part of your original board.

I find it easiest to line it up about in the center instead of trying to make it perfect on one side.

Once you iron it down, give it a few minutes to cool, and then you will have “tags” hanging off both sides.

Flip it over and use a razor knife to score it as close to your board as possible.

Then flip it back over and push down on the overhang. It will snap along your score line…

…and leave you with a fairly clean edge.

Use sandpaper to smooth it out (150-220).

Next you will have some overhang on the sides. Using 100 or so, sand along the edge (by hand) pressing down from the top so as not to pull up on the tape. If you accidentally pull it off, don’t fret! Grab the iron and repress it. The adhesive will melt again and hold it back down.

As you are sanding, you may see a bit of goob along the edges, this is the adhesive. When the goop is gone, and you have a smooth edge, go back over the edge one last time with 150-220 grit sandpaper for a final smoothing.

Then I used a sponge and applied a water-based stain/sealer to all the pieces in a black/brown color. This is one coat:

and this is the second:

Assembly

Assembly was quick. the plywood went on one end and the support post went on the other. I placed it about 5 inches from the side, and in the center of the boards (2.25″ inches from either side). I glued and then screwed the supports in from the bottom with trim screws, then used my Ryobi brad nailer and 1.25″ brad nails from the top. Then I added the top piece in the same way, just on opposite ends (post on the right, board on the left).

The last steps have no pictures because I started to get pressed for time (my apologies). I filled in the nail dents with wood filler and when that dried, sanded it smooth. One quick coat of stain on the filled spots, then one final top coat to blend everything together.

Delivery

When I took it over, it fit just like it was supposed to be there all along.

My friend is so happy with his new table. The color and design worked perfectly with what he already had.

The entire project only took a few hours and his living room feels complete.

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