Build a Mid-Century Modern Table
How to Make Bed Tray Table
I like the clean, flowing lines of mid-century modern furniture. When it came time to build a wood tray table to use in bed or on the couch, I knew I wanted it to have a MCM feel. Here’s how I made it…
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Boomerang Legs
The table legs visually flow along the table top and then slope down to the feet. To help make the project, I created a set of plans and templates for myself. I used spray adhesive to attach the templates to my workpieces, and then cut them out with the bandsaw. The pieces connect together with mortises and loose tenons.
Bed Tray Table Project
Table Top
The tray table has a spacious top, giving plenty of room for a laptop, notebook, or comic books. I glued together a few pieces of walnut with beautiful riftsawn grain that flows smoothly from end to end.
Wood Movement is Real
The legs are attached to the table top with loose tenons and dowels. The top will expand and contract as the humidity changes through the year. There are few things worse than having a project break because wood movement wasn’t taken into consideration. To account for movement, I used loose tenons, drawbored with dowels. I cut notches out of the tenons. The tenons were glued into the legs, but not the top, with the exception of the center tenon. The top will expand from the center, out towards each side. I drilled holes in the underside of the table and hammered in dowels through the notches in the tenons. This allows the dowels to slide side-to-side in the tenons.
Wood Table Finish
The table needed a durable finish to hold up against spilled coffee and other accidents. I sanded the whole table and applied multiple coats of a thin wipe-on poly. I’m really happy with the final results!
