Slim Arm Side Table

This is a one-board project with a furniture-store silhouette: a 1x10 folded into a slim C-shaped table — top, two sides, and a low shelf — that snugs up against a sofa arm to hold the phone, the mug, and the book the phone replaced. Total lumber: one 1x10 and a stick of 1x4.

The design's quiet cleverness is the 1x4 ribs. Four 3/4" panels joined at their edges would rack into a parallelogram the first time the table gets dragged across a rug — so three 1x4s attach inside, against the top and sides, fastened on every available face. They're invisible in use and they're most of the table's stiffness; the source is emphatic about attaching them on ALL available sides, and that emphasis is the plan's structure talking.

Joinery is a menu by honesty: pocket holes (3/4" setting, 1-1/4" screws) are strongest and mostly hidden; 2" screws or brads with glue work but are weaker and leave holes to fill before finishing. Whatever fastens it, GLUE every joint — in a piece this light the glue is doing the real work.

Sand to 120, fill anything visible, and finish. At about 22" tall and under 10" wide it fits where actual side tables don't — which is the entire pitch.