CLEVELAND — This week's project is the easiest one I've done yet. We’re making a drink holder that fits right over the arm of your couch. It's essentially a three-sided box with a hole cut in it -- a super simple design. But grab your tape measurer – because it’s all about measurements here.
At home, my sofa arm is six inches wide, so my top is gonna be seven and a half inches, but on the inside will be my three-quarter-inch plywood - just adjust for your own specific sizing.
Speaking of measuring tape and plywood - here’s what else you’ll need to tackle this design:
- Your saw
- Sander
- Jigsaw
- Clamps
- Wood glue
Using your entire one-foot piece of wood, mark each piece in advance and draw your lines. In my case, I know I need one seven-and-a-half-inch piece, so I marked my board at the top. and then marked need two eight-inch wide pieces.
Once your pieces are laid out, you will see how the three sides fit together. Put your side pieces away for now, as your next step will be to cut and drill your circle in the top board, which will ultimately hold your drink.
Your drink hole should be centered in the middle of the top piece – and how big you make it is up to you - it's basically the preference of the drink size that you have. So if you have a special glass or a beer can, you might want to use that as your template for the middle.
To find the center of your board, first measure the length. In this case, it's 14 inches, so I put a dot halfway at seven. Then, you measure the width, and the width is seven and a half. So halfway in my case, is three and three quarters.
Make sure you drill a few holes to make enough space to give my jigsaw blade enough room to cut my circle. Once that's done, it's just a matter of cutting around the edge. Before cutting your circle, don't skip clamping your piece of wood so you don't have to worry about holding it in place.
Once your circle is cut, sand your edges to smooth everything out – and then, to keep everything off of your actual couch, you’re also going to add some additional pieces to serve as support bars, so your drink doesn't sit all the way down flat on my sofa arm.
Next, it's time to break out the wood glue - and glue together your three large pieces. Place in the clamp and tighten to let it set - just make sure to wipe any excess wood glue to make sanding easier later on. Let it dry, and then it’s time for final touches - you can sand, paint or decorate however you like and enjoy!