DIY Sofa

In continuation with my Coffee Table I started working on my second project a Sofa cum storage . This is a very handy concept for small apartments.
As I was left with a 18mm (4'X8') plywood board and small piece of 12mm plywood from coffee table. I started searching for a compact and modern design. The objective was to use the spare plywood and most importantly it should be dismantable with storage space .

Upon finalizing the design I realized that the tricky part was to figure out how to get the joints that can be taken apart. After a lot of reading on the internet  the best solution I could figure out was to use barrel nut and bolt( shown in the picture below).
Once I knew what I wanted now it was matter of finding it. So I searched and searched the  local shops no one was sure,my last hope was SJP road Bangalore and after much searching I found it. Full sofa is held by 16 barrel nut and screws.

Barrel nut, Threaded nuts and socket head bolt  

Sofa base is made up of 6 planks of 18mm plywood. For bottom rest I have used 12mm ply piece that was left from coffee table and book shelf is made from 6 pieces of 18mm ply. To cut all these pieces I have used my circular saw.

Skil Circular Saw with 7 1/4 " blade 

The whole sofa was designed as box type with storage at the bottom and top lift. Even the sides were made using solid ply, I kept it like that deliberately because in future if  there is no use of this sofa I can reuse all the ply to make something else.

            
The whole outer body was Laminated with 0.8mm sheet. It took 1.25 full laminate sheets of (8'x4') size.
For Hand rest  I used wood to give it a more authentic look. To create the the channel in hand rest I have used 1/4 inch trim router it was a bit under powered for the task.

Hand rest for sofa made by trim router

Finishing of the handrest was very difficult as this was the first time I was dealing with polish and stain. For colouring handrests I used black wood stain, and applied  melamine sealer and Matt melamine varnish.
Getting even finish with polish was a task in itself . Once the varnish is dry you have to wet sand the surface with 180 grit wet sandpaper to even out the varnish. In the end I have used my Sonax car polish to get a smooth and shiny surface.

Testing different wood stains Right
half teak stain and left half walnut stain 

I also made a small 2 shelf book rack and attached it with the sofa after full lamination, you can see in the picture below.
For sitting we used 40 density foam and for back 35 density foam. Got it done at Shivaji Nagar furniture market. The whole look came out really well.

Storing tools under the sofa

Share with friends :

FacebookGoogle+