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$30 DIY SOFA/CONSOLE TABLE TUTORIAL

June 23, 2015
DIY Projects

I made it home safe from Seattle and it’s right back to work! I mentioned earlier that I was staying
with my cousin and helping her update her living room there. It was a pretty hectic week
with both of us having to work and make a few last minute shopping trips in Seattle tra!ic, but
we were able to accomplish a good amount and set aside time for some fun outings as well (more
photos to come Friday!)

The project I am most proud of (and excited to share with you guys) is this sofa table I built:

Hi, I’m Jenna and I’ve been

designing and DIY’ing my way
I say proud because I figured out a way to build it using only a drill & screws (and a basic saw to through homes since 2008. Join me
cut a few small pieces of wood!) That means 95% of you can do this too. By yourself. In one day, as I learn, share my experience,
for $30 or less. and hopefully encourage/inspire
you along the way!

Materials
2x2x8′ furring strips (qty 8)
2x12x10‘ (qty 1)
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Screws (2.5-3″ long)
Wood glue
Wood stain or paint

Tools
Drill
Saw (miter, chop saw or miter box)
Kreg Jig (or simple brackets)
Sand paper (or electric sander)

My cousin had a long sofa (just over 9 feet wide) and was using an end table that was blocking
part of the walkway, so I thought the perfect solution would be a long narrow table behind the
sofa for more convenient storage.

I was having trouble finding a simple plan I liked online, and knew this table definitely had to be
customized so I decided to come up with my own. We were also working with a budget so I
wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible.

I drew a quick sketch to illustrate my idea (excuse the roughness of it):

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I was envisioning a very simple, modern style table constructed using 2×2’s and a 2×12″ for the
top portion. The drawing isn’t super accurate as there should be 2×2’s horizontally at the top for LATEST VIDEO
reinforcement (below the 2×12) but you get the idea. I knew 2x2x8′ furring strips were under $2
each and the 2x12x10‘ was only around $12, making this project about as cheap as you can get
for such a large table.

This can be done a lot simpler and for even less if you plan on making a shorter table by
eliminating the middle piece. I put it in there for stability, but if the table was shorter than ~6 feet
or so, I’d leave it out.

Here’s what we brought back from the hardware store—a 2x12x10′ and eight 2x2x8′s. Simple
stu!.

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My cousin had very limited, basic tools in her garage which proved to be a challenge but
fortunately we were able to borrow a neighbor’s saw to make the smaller cuts, and we had the
the 2×12 cut to 9′ for us.

You’ll end up with three di!erent sizes—the long horizontal pieces, the vertical legs, and the
shorter pieces to connect the legs (these will be di!erent depending on the size of your table).

First it’s time to assemble the rectangles! I grabbed four pieces and arranged them:

You’ll need to drill pilot holes so the wood doesn’t split—that’s a very important step especially
with this type of wood that splinters easily and since the pieces are so narrow. I was able to find 3
drill bits in the garage and luckily one of them ended up working. You want it to be just a bit
smaller than the width your screw.

I bought 2.5″ screws for this project which worked fine but 3″ may have been even better. First I
aligned my two pieces into place and drilled my pilot hole through both. I made sure to do this
towards one end of the board instead of the center, since I would have to insert another screw in
the same area for the horizontal pieces and there needed to be enough room for both screws to
pass through without hitting each other.

Then I applied the glue onto the end of a short piece…

A%er setting it back into position, the first screw went in:

I did this on each end (3 more times) until my rectangle was built:

And then built the remaining two pieces. Step 1 complete!

This is where it gets a little trickier when you’re working by yourself. You have to start balancing
___
things and holding them into position while attaching them together with glue and screws. I had
no clamps or flat surface to work on, and the drill I was using didn’t have a lot of power, and the
drill bits didn’t fit the screw heads perfectly so there was some frustration involved. If I can do it
under these conditions, you definitely can too!

The next step is to attach the long horizontal pieces. I propped up my rectangle and got the
pieces into place, then repeated the attachment process with my pilot hole, wood glue and
screw. It seemed to work fine…

But when I li%ed it up to flip it over and add the other two horizontal pieces, I found they were
wobbly so I had to reinforce it with a second screw. One screw works fine for the smaller lengths
of wood but just doesn’t cut it for the longer pieces. And I made sure to counter sink them so that
a) they’d grab a little more of the wood and b) I could fill the holes so there weren’t any visible
screws.

Two screws did the trick, and I then attached the second rectangle to the opposite end.

I flipped that piece over and attached the last two horizontal pieces the same way. If you were
building a smaller table, this would be your last step before adding the top and it would be pretty
much the easiest project ever.

But I had the dilemma of attaching a whole other section without a Kreg Jig or anything of the
sort, so I ended up buying 2″ brackets: