Floating Sofa Table DIY
Sofa tables are pretty popular right now. They are skinny and long and fit so nicely behind a sofa and can help further decorate a large space. You can use them to better divide a space where the sofa is in the middle of the floor but they also work well behind a sofa up against a wall. We needed something between the wall and sofa.
As we started working out what we were going to do I had an epiphany realizing a simple wall shelf would give the appearance of a sofa table by placing it lower on the wall. It would also be cheaper to DIY since there is less wood needed for a simple shelf versus a sofa table with legs.
You'll need to two floating wall shelf brackets for each shelf. There are different types but we liked and used the "T" shaped ones that attach with 2 screws to the wall.
NOTE: The easiest way is to simply lay the board shelf ON long rods. We chose to get extra stability by drilling holes to insert the rods into the shelf. If you do it this way you'll need to drill the length of your rods which is a little tricky.
Here you can see the floating shelf bracket being dropped into the hole you've drilled.
Because we have outlets behind our sofa we chose to cut openings for furniture recessed power strips. The unit plugs into the wall outlet at the floor but gives us easy access to 2 power outlets and 2 USB outlets.
Stain the board then screw the power strip in place.
The best way to be sure your floating wall shelf will be level is use a laser level and mark the wall.
Drill your holes for the wall brackets.
It's pretty simple to screw the brackets to the wall. We have plaster walls so used anchors too.
Slide the board onto the brackets and voila- you have a floating sofa table. Plug in the built in power strip to the wall outlet and slide the sofa up against the board.
Because we have (boiler) baseboard heating units this keeps the sofa away enough that it allows the heat to warm the room. We can feel the heat both at our feet and coming up at the window space beside the shelf. The cat loves to lay on the back of the sofa because of the heat, lol.
I love having the built in power strip so accessible! But obviously not everyone needs this so it's optional.
The look from above. It's great for phone charging! I've also put a Scentsy unit there. What would you put on your sofa table?
The floating sofa table isn't seen from the front unless I put something tall on it.
For the cost of a board and floating wall brackets this is a cheap project that gives us some functionality!
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Awesome! I have been wanting a skinny table for my sofa against the wall. This is perfect. I have the same outlet issue and did not want the hassle of trying to vacuum around a table. My hubby will be thrilled I have another project for him. LOL! Thank you for posting this great idea.
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I did this only I didn't attach it to the wall, just put two boards on the ends and pushed the sofa against the "table" and the wall. I made it a little lower/shorter so it's really not visible behind the sofa. It's movable this way. I made sure it isn't visible from the ends of the sofa either. Just neatly tucked away behind! So handy! I can decorate if I want or it can just be my secret! Perfect for charging my phone and a place for the remote. I have a very small living room and didn't want to lose much floor space, I used 2-1X4's, 8ft. long and cut one in half for the legs.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
I like the way they put the outlet on the table do you just take it from the wall and put it up there and then cover the hole in the wall or how do you do that
I love this Idea ! A space saver, has an outlet for easy charging of my phone and a place to keep my Google Home. Did you get the recessed plug at a hard ware store?
How wide was your board?