Do-it-yourself sofa from boards. Do-it-yourself folding sofa. Installation of slats and supports

The sofa is the heart of the home. It serves as an element of interior decor, helps to relax after a hard day's work. A sofa is not just a piece of furniture. It will certainly become the hallmark of the house and the center of attention of your guests.

In this article, you will learn how to make a sofa with your own hands no worse, and maybe even better than those sold in furniture stores. You will see what elements the sofa consists of and what materials are most often used in the manufacturing process.

Do not forget that homemade furniture saves the lion's share of the family budget. If you decide, for example, to make a sofa yourself, its cost will be two, or even five times lower than the market price!

However, it depends on the selected materials and the specific design taken. A fold-out sofa will cost more, but if this is your first product, opt for the project described in this article - it is perfect for those who set out to learn how to make upholstered furniture.

Make a sofa with your own hands - and you will be convinced by your own example that there is nothing complicated about it!

So let's get started.

To work you need the following materials and tools:

1. Tools:
- jigsaw. If you do not have a jigsaw, it doesn’t matter: use a hacksaw for wood, especially since it will come in handy for you in the process of sawing bars;
- pneumatic furniture stapler. If you intend to make only one product, use a mechanical stapler - it will cost less;
- screwdriver;
- grinder or plane for grinding sharp corners of the frame;
- staple remover or sharp screwdriver;
- a sharp knife for cutting foam rubber;
- scissors;
- a sewing machine for sewing elements of the sofa upholstery;
- roulette.

2. Materials:
- bars with a cross section of 40-50 mm;
- plywood or any other available, durable and as lightweight sheet material as possible;
- furniture foam rubber, 50 mm thick. Foam rubber, like many other materials, you can purchase in a specialized online store "everything for furniture";
- synthetic winterizer or batting for additional softness of the frame and the product as a whole;
- furniture fabric;
- joiner's glue;
- strong thread for stitching upholstery details;
- self-tapping screws or furniture screws (when using the latter, you will need an electric drill);
- marker or pencil.

Let's get to work.

1. Frame
The base of our sofa is a frame. It can be of any shape and size, but this article describes the simplest project that a person inexperienced in the production of upholstered furniture can craft.

The basis of the frame is made up of wooden bars and slats with a cross section of 40-50 mm or any other size that ensures the strength of the finished product.

Additional rigidity to the frame is given sheet materialswith which it is sheathed - plywood, OSB, chipboard, fiberboard, etc. The inside of the frame is hollow, which makes it relatively lightweight.

At home, the sofa frame is assembled using a screwdriver and self-tapping screws. The holes for the screws can be pre-drilled with a drill, and the screws themselves can be lubricated with wood glue when drilling.

Also, glue is often used at the junction of wooden parts before they are connected with self-tapping screws. In this case, they are pressed against each other for some time with clamps.

In addition, when assembling the frame, it is convenient to use all kinds of angular and curved metal fasteners.

The length of our sofa is 3 meters. It is quite roomy and consists of two equal parts - 1.5 m each. In the photo below you can see one of them - the left side of the sofa.

2. Frame and mattress
The frame of the future mattress - the base of our sofa - is made of board. For greater comfort, the cover is made of furniture belts.

It is not difficult to make it: first, the belts are fixed with a stapler horizontally, then you should bind and fix the belts perpendicularly - vertically.

The photo shows what we should get in the end. These are two parts of the mattress.

3. Backrest
The photo below shows the frame of the back of our sofa, sheathed with plywood. Please note that the frame itself is made of wooden blocks, and metal connectors are used to fasten the parts.

The back is hollow and lightweight, comfortable to work with. The shape in this case is as simple as possible - rectangular in profile. Without much effort, you can make it sloping by increasing the width at the base and reducing the width of the frame at the top.

4. Side parts
By analogy with the backrest, we also make the side parts of the frame. It should be noted that the protruding bars that are visible in the photo in the future will serve as the basis for the foam rubber. But more on that later.

5. Pasting with foam mats
After assembling the frame, we proceed to mounting the foam rubber.

Pieces of foam rubber of the required size and shape are pasted over the top and front of the back, as well as the inner surfaces of the side elements. We put the foam rubber on the mattress over the binding.

The adhesive can be applied with a wide brush or used as an aerosol. Immediately after applying a layer of glue, press the foam rubber to the surface and leave it for a while (usually no more than half an hour) until it sets.

6. Sintepon (batting)
In order to hide irregularities, smooth out sharp transitions and add volume, the back, side parts and, if desired, the mattress is wrapped with padding polyester or batting.

Before proceeding to this stage, it is necessary to grind all sharp corners of the frame so that the upholstery does not fray and lasts as long as possible. This operation is carried out using a grinder, planer or just coarse sandpaper.

7. Fabric upholstery.
Covers are usually sewn according to ready-made patterns and patterns. If there are none, you can make them yourself by applying and trying on fabric to each of the elements of the sofa, be it a backrest or a pillow. Some of them can be zipped for easy cleaning and washing.

The covers can be cut strictly according to the shape, or they can be gathered and tacked with a stapler in those places where the design allows.

In extreme cases, the sewing of covers can be entrusted to specialists from the atelier. Their design is very simple and inexpensive.

A sofa is an absolutely essential piece of furniture. In small apartments, a sofa can replace a bed, wardrobe, even a living room, in a headset with a coffee table. And at the same time, a sofa is a very complex product, one of the most difficult in furniture production, therefore, the prices for sofas are considerable, and amateur furniture makers take them with caution and take inexpensive sofas for samples, relatively little functional and not particularly strong and durable. This publication is designed to help them better understand the designs of sofas and understand how to make one that will be passed on to their grandchildren, unless they have to drag it. And designed for rooms with the widest range of conditions of use: from a garden gazebo to a kitchen and a children's room.

It is not as difficult as it might seem, and making a sofa with your own hands in the luxury category (not to mention simple for a summer residence, nursery, temporary use, until you get some money for furniture) is quite possible in the garage, shed and even on the balcony. The furniture makers of the old days worked like that. High-tech "bells and whistles" allow to reduce weight and dimensions, expand the range of operating conditions, obtain new product qualities and create fundamentally different designs, but the basis of exclusive quality remains unchanged at all times: conscientiousness, accuracy, good knowledge of the properties of materials and a complete understanding of the essence of each production operation. And the furniture design is very conservative. Operations requiring production conditions, in its manufacture, can almost always be replaced by even more laborious and requiring more skill with ingenuity than that of a well-trained biorobot with a conveyor, but produced hand tool.

Corners that sofas

One of the most popular today is corner sofa... The reason is high functionality, which is especially evident in small-sized housing. For example, sleeping-living room sofa corner, pos. And in the figure, folded does not have any sleeping appearance and the most terry moralist-orthodox will have nothing to find fault with. But at the same time, its right (in the picture) section is already a single bed, and when unfolded it turns into a double bed. These are also called bachelor sofas: I'm tired, not up to it - I'll fall asleep on a single room. And the next (or forever the only) passion has come - there is enough room for two to settle down, as it should be in such circumstances. Structurally, there is nothing complicated: a single bed and a folding or roll-out sofa, uniformly decorated and put together, like those described below.

The second most popular is the classic couch, pos. B. Sitting in the corner, not only bad sign, but also inconvenient, so in last years the corner seat is increasingly being replaced with a casket-bar, as in pos. In, or, for the kitchen, a chest-table. A diagram of the device of such a kitchen corner is shown in Fig. below. You can have lunch on it alone, if in a small kitchen the table is occupied for rolling, cutting, etc. A casket and trunks (the so-called sofa boxes) will serve as bins for vegetables, storage of homemade preparations, etc.

This kitchen sofa is made on the so-called. simplified beam scheme (see below). Its peculiarity is that the seats are narrower than those of the sofas on which they sleep, 400-450 mm versus 550-700 mm. The length of the side sections - in place in the room; other sizes are typical, see below. Sidewall material - 40 mm solid hardwood board or 36 mm chipboard. The bottom of the sofa - 12-16 mm chipboard on a frame (see also below) or OSB of the same thickness without a frame; the rest is a board of 30 mm, beams of 50x50 mm and 50x30 mm (shelf supports). Assembly - on self-tapping screws, dowels and a half-wood cut-in, all with PVA gluing or "Moment". Materials at current prices require no more than 3000 rubles.

Device and dimensions

The sofa consists of a supporting (supporting) structure, most often including a box, a bed - a sofa, in the presence of a lifting box, a backrest and armrests. In transformable products (sofa bed), a transformation mechanism is added to them and, possibly, additional pillows stored in a drawer. Typical sofa sizes:

• Length - 1200-1900 mm.
• Sofa width - 550-700 mm.
• The height of the armrests is from 100 (ottoman) to 400 mm.
• Backrest height, without add. pillows - 200-700 mm.
• Backrest tilt - 5-20 degrees.
• The height of the seating surface of the sofa above the floor is 400-450 mm.

The last parameter, in turn, consists of:

• Legs - 50-70 mm.
• Carrying frame - 50-100 mm.
• Box - 150-250 mm.
• Sofa base (with frame) - 55-75 mm.

This leaves up to 120 mm for the soft padding with casing. If its thickness exceeds 70 mm, the sofa is considered soft, 40-70 mm - semi-rigid, up to 40 mm - hard.

About cutting and sewing

The most difficult and responsible part of the sofa manufacturing is its padding, upholstery and covering. These are different manufacturing operations; each of them separately and all of them together determine the consumer qualities of the product and its durability more than the carpentry. True, in Runet, masters are vigorously promoting themselves, promising to pull the sofa in an hour or even 20 minutes, but, firstly, they work mainly with non-woven materials (fleece, etc.), which are short-lived in themselves. Secondly, they are fitted according to a simplified system with turning the corners from the inside out, which is unhygienic and guarantees a quick abrasion of the skin. And most importantly, according to this method of work, there is no reliable information about: a) the durability of the product before the need for constriction; b) whether any of the primary clients contacted this specialist again.

To properly sew covers for sofa modules, you need a serious preparatory work... Its essential subtleties will be described below; beginners are advised to fit the sofa in the old amateur way with a saddle fitting. Pros do not work for them, tk. it takes a long time, but who will pay for it? But at the time of the heyday of stagnation (or stagnation of flourishing?), When it was necessary to register for the furniture hauling in a year, and even give a bribe, it was successfully used by "full teapots". Sadly, the sofa is covered in stages like this:

1. The wooden base is covered with technical fabric - canvas, matting, burlap (you can use propylene);
2. Install a soft padding, most often foam mats;
3. Tighten soft, in order of preference, spandbond, padding polyester, batting;
4. On a cut of decorative fabric, the wings are swept under the cords, if decorative scars / tightening are provided, see below;
5. A decorative cut, not cut, is thrown over the product with the wrong side out, pulled, as described below, and the corners are swept away with a harsh thread (now reinforced with propylene) with a scar outward;
6. A day later, they check whether it is wrinkling where, whether it sags, whether the drawing, especially geometric one, has led, and, if necessary, correct the angles;
7. If everything is OK, mark the seam lines, cut and sew;
8. Tighten the cords into the wings for tightening, if necessary;
9. Throw in a cover, make the final tightening, starting from the corners;
10. After another day, check the drawing, correct the tension threads ;;
11. Everything is OK - fix the lapels;
12. Forms decorative straps.

The procedure, as we can see, is rather complicated and lengthy. This is explained by the fact that the properties of tissues, incl. upholstery, differ markedly and within the piece. Previously, upholsterers were guided by intuition and experience, now the technical parameters of a specific sample are directly entered into professional programs computer cutting. Homemade patterns from wallpaper newspapers do not provide this and do not take into account the initial tightening of the fabric. However, it is useful to make them - for determining tissue consumption. A rough estimate according to the method: the length of a cut with a width of 150 cm is equal to 2 widths of the sofa + 2 of its lengths, it gives a large departure. Determination of the cut length by templates (allowance - from 15 cm) gives a length saving of up to 1 m (!); how much it is in money - see the store.

Note: for the same reason, if a sofa is being stretched, it is undesirable to use it as a pattern old skin... Under a microscope or a magnifying glass, it is clear that the structure of her fabric has changed significantly in comparison with the same, from the same loom, jacquard or tapestry.

Clauses also require additional explanation. 1-3. If you stuff the trim hastily, wood-glue-synthetic winterizer-foam rubber-decor, then after a while you will find that the trim is greasy, to the touch, especially in summer, sticky, and the dearest parts of the body are uncomfortable on it. Let it be "some" 3 years, but what is this lifetime for furniture? Therefore, soft mats need padding on both the bottom and top of the porous gaskets to wick away vapor / sweat / dirt. In furniture with spring blocks, by the way, too, see fig.

What to do?

The basis of the sofa is a supporting frame, pos. 1, with a box attached to it, pos. 2. This assembly is joined by the backrest, then the armrests; most often already trimmed. The frame and drawer, if the design of the object does not provide for any wood in plain sight, are also sheathed separately before assembly. In this case, the flaps of the fabric at the joints do not reduce the strength of the connection because vertical loads do not tear the upholstery, and horizontal loads hold extra. fasteners, see below.

Note: the famous tank designer Christie once said that the idea of \u200b\u200bsilent blocks in the tracks came to him when he was renovating his sofa. No wonder the rich man fiddled with furniture himself; Christie was a Class II engineer. Ι the clan shifts the pieces of paper at the table, and the ΙΙ-th can do whatever he thinks up with his hands.

A sofa and its lifting mechanism are installed on the drawer (in the simplest case, piano / card loops and a limiter cord). Perhaps the sofa will be hard with a mattress lying loosely on it. In any case, the sofa is also fitted separately in advance.

A special case is office sofas, etc., used in unfavorable conditions with the possibility of careless use. Their supporting system is made in the form of a volumetric beam structure, pos. 3. But it is not recommended for amateurs to use the compounds shown there by confirmations obliquely. In the presence of special equipment and tooling, "oblique screws" are economical and technologically advanced and therefore are widely used in the industrial production of furniture of classes up to medium. But, firstly, such a connection is not as strong and durable as traditional furniture. Secondly, it is problematic, if not impossible, to drill a very hollow oblique holes with a hand tool to a given depth, exactly at the right angle and in 2 mating parts at once. And the self-tapping screws that have parted to the sides or along the corner (which is not noticeable from the outside) will significantly reduce the strength and service life of the entire product.

A drawing of a simple sofa of a beam scheme is shown in Fig. It is most suitable for a gazebo. Due to the influence of bad weather, the pillows are brought / carried away as they are used, and the parts are individually impregnated with an oil water-repellent agent for wood (you can use it) or twice with a water-polymer emulsion before assembly. Finish - acrylic lacquer in 2 layers.

At the dacha, where rain still does not pour through the roof, it will be easier to make a homemade sofa of a simplified beam system, its device is on the left on the trail. fig. Its basis is strong side-armrests and a pair of cross-beams. Completes the box-bridge power circuit; in this case, necessarily with 2 bulkheads (partitions). Materials:

• Armrests - plywood 20-24 mm with overlays from the board at the top (so that they are wider) or, if the cottage is heated (does not damp) laminated chipboard 30-36 mm.
• Box - oak / beech board 30 mm; bottom - plywood from 6 mm.
• Leg beams - any commercial timber.
• The back is the same, the shield, (300-400) x40 mm.

Assembly - on wood screws with gluing. Pay attention to how the box is assembled, this method will still be useful to us. The second feature is that the box is attached with self-tapping screws not only to the beams from the timber, but also to the sides from the inside with a zigzag (snake) with a pitch of 120-150 mm with an indent from the edge of the board by 30 mm. The back is also attached to it.

If the workloads are of a lesser magnitude, but with a greater proportion of dynamic sign-changing, a simplified scheme with 2 longitudinal beams works better. They need to be raised by about half the height of the sidewalls, otherwise the working deflection, in this case already noticeable, will tend to fill up the sides on top of each other and the sofa will soon loosen. According to this scheme, a children's sofa with drawers is assembled, shown on the right in Fig; the assembly diagram of the boxes there on the bottom right. All lengths are made of oak / beech 30 mm; the sides and bottom of the sofa are plywood 18-24 and 10-16 mm, respectively. Assembly - with glue.

Note: it is not worth using chipboard - for children's furniture, only phenol class E0 is permissible, but this material is rather fragile and in such a loaded product as a sofa, it will not last long.

How to raise a sofa

With the simplest mechanism described above, lifting the sofa back will not work: the backrest interferes. It remains to lift forward. But then, taking into account the height of the support, the upper edge of it, raised, will be 70-100 cm above the floor. If the hostess is not two meters tall, how can she put / get something? Would you like to waddle whole in a box and squeak, jerking your slippers in the air?

Meanwhile, a very simple and reliable, and most importantly, not requiring high precision, the lifting mechanism of the sofa can be made by yourself at home, on the principle of a lever-spring system such as an oblique rhombus with 2 dead points. How it is arranged, and at the same time the sofa ottoman with it, is shown in Fig.

Note: the author knows a curious case with a slanting rhombus. Drinking, but an artisan man, making this ottoman, fenced off the cubicles behind the levers (they say, there is also some kind of mechanics) and arranged in them hiding places for bottles with the necessary swill. I even brought the tubes under the trim behind the back. And for the dearest half, more than 10 years, until he went into a deaf stuck and split himself, it was unclear why this is a blessed day, a nutty day, and does not run to the store for a bubble.

About sofa beds

The sofa bed is, as they say, a classic of the genre. But in the amateur and professional world, innovative works appear here all the time. The fact is that the folding mechanism of a classic sofa-book is a rather capricious thing. Either it wedges / jams, or it is difficult to assemble / disassemble the sofa for ladies' handles, or it turns out to be too expensive and not reliable enough. And the amateur who wants to repeat the selected sample discovers that in a rough-looking piece of iron there are curved surfaces, made with sufficiently high accuracy, and there are no detailed specifications for them. Therefore, amateurs most often make roll-out / pull-out sofa beds.

Here, 2 systems are most common, with a retractable half of the free bed, pos. 1 in Fig., And in the form of a bridge, pos. 2. The first is less labor-intensive and material-intensive, but its Achilles' heel is its legs. It is inconvenient to fold them manually, and the gravitational ones (reclining by their own weight) will sometimes stand obliquely and break, the sofa sagging when pulling out will help.

The bridge circuit is more reliable, especially since its movable (on rollers) supports will also be bedside tables. True, you will have to reach for them, unless users are prone to necrophilia and do not like to sleep with their feet forward.

The device of a sliding sofa bed of the bridge circuit is shown in more detail in pos. 3. The upper paired rollers (guides / stops) run in the grooves of the box. Pay attention to children. Q. This is not some kind of additional mat, but just a decorative overlay. The surfaces of the sleeping halves A and B are, of course, flush. Half of the bed A is often made reclining forward on the same canopies as for B, hidden by the overlay C. Then small boxes open D. Lovers of "strawberries with cream" (erotomaniacs / nymphomaniacs, surprisingly monotonous and primitive thinking audience) consider them reliably hidden hiding places and hide intimate accessories in them.

Both of these systems have a common disadvantage: to transform a sofa into a bed, some extra free space behind the back is required. This does not happen with a small bedroom, and garbage accumulates there. Console roll-out sofa beds are devoid of this defect, now for some reason completely undeservedly relegated to the background.

How a console sofa bed is arranged is shown in fig. on right. Its extended width can be increased to 1500-1600 mm due to the proportional broadening of the console and increasing the height of the back, and the length up to 2000 mm (this is already a normal double bed). In this case, the excess width of the assembled seat is compensated for by cushions that, when extended, form a half of the bed. In the original design (designed for a tiny sleeping compartment in the utility block), they are stored in a drawer. Some inclination of the back is obtained due to the piano loop, its hinge. It can be increased by placing a plywood spacer under the lower hinge wing.

The main materials are beams 50x30 and plywood 4-6 mm. On the basis of the armrests - solid waste of construction timber. Console frame is the same construction as for the drawer. Connections - through spikes or met. corners, all the same. The height of the pillows is 150 mm, but they sag under the rider, therefore, for use in normal conditions, it is advisable to increase the height of the console and put the box on its legs.

About Eurobooks

The concept of the euro is not being discussed as soon as possible. Moldovans, for example (there is experience of communicating with the local migrant workers), dig a trench for euros (according to plan, profile and on time), get drunk with euros (splashed, to death, to a green snake, blue devils and pink elephants), euros go to the toilet in a big way (without constipation and diarrhea). And the usual folding sofa bed now on sale often goes for a reason, but like a eurobook. But this still all right, but the eurobook sofa-type click-clack (see fig.), This is already something.

It unfolds and assembles really easily, yes then yes. And the mechanism is expensive but reliable. To obtain a double bed, the armrests and backrest sides also fold back. It is not clear what to call them. It doesn't look like head restraints. Sidekicks, or something. When unfolded, triangular gaps are formed in the heads / legs, which are overlapped by additional folding wings, which further complicates and increases the cost of the product.

The most important thing is that in order to expand the click-clack into a bed, at least 0.7 m of free space is needed along its contour. Where can I get it? Is that in a studio apartment, the inhabitant of which is embarrassed to show that he is also sleeping here. However, such a state of mind is characteristic of the present, and not only the present, Europeans. We can talk about a double standard of openness, but from the point of view of simple common sense, a sofa-book click-clack - well it.

How to do?

But how do you make all these sofas? Where to screw, where and how to drill and saw? Well, let's get started. Just do not forget that what is covered must be covered before the general assembly. After the carpentry, we will discuss how to fit what, after all, the basis is in it, and the manufacture of the sofa begins with it.

Frame and drawer

Professionally handicraft, if I may say so, the supporting frame is assembled on blind spikes with wedging and gluing. They give a completely hidden connection and furniture on such lives for centuries, but to make them, you need manual frezer on wood, skills in working with it or masterly possession of a hammer, chisel and brace.

It will be easier for an amateur to assemble a frame with inset legs, pos. 1 in fig. So it is no less reliable for 30-40 years, and the seam is almost invisible. Section of beams from 50-30 mm; legs - from 70x70 mm. In any case, the "stump" of the leg must be at least 40x40 mm. The beams are fastened in pairs of diagonally located self-tapping screws from 4.2x60 to the glue.

The box is best assembled on triangular bosses from 50x50, pos. 2.With box boards (oak / beech from 30 mm; pine from 40 mm), they are fastened with self-tapping screws (4.2-6.0) x45, 2-3 pcs. into each board, i.e. 4-6 pcs. on the boss; connections are also glued.

Note: the box will be much stronger and more durable if you are not too lazy and, before installing the bosses, assemble the box on dowels, a pair per joint.

The bottom can be simply nailed with small nails in increments of 70-100 mm; it will lie on the frame and therefore will not come off. The choice of material is more important here. OSB is the most durable, but staples do not fit into it well, many bend and tear the sheathing; wallpaper nails too. Particleboard and fiberboard are fragile, exfoliate. Suddenly the bottom will get wet, it may simply fall through, leaving a nailed strip between the frame and the box.

Note: if you need to pull the sofa, the bottom made of chipboard / fiberboard will show itself in all its glory - when tearing out the old staples, the laminated material is ripped open so that you cannot attach the new upholstery.

The best bottom material is plywood with a thickness of 4-8 mm, impregnated with a water-polymer emulsion. But, if the box is needed without bulkheads, a problem arises: sheets of plywood that are the length of the sofa are not available. The pieces must be connected so that the joint is held in weight under the weight of the contents. The same question arises if there are cuttings that are enough for the bottom.

In the industrial production of high-quality furniture, plywood sheets are connected with a shaped strip made of solid wood, at the top at pos. 3. You can make a "gusset" yourself if you have a router. Its length is 2 times the thickness of the board less than the width of the box (equal to its internal width). Fasten the gusset from the inside to the tsars (boards) with steel corners. If there is no router, the gusset is replaced with a prefabricated T-beam made of 50-70 mm strips with a thickness of 15 mm and a 20-mm liner with a thickness not less than that of plywood. It will give rigidity to the beam, and without it, the sheets assembled end-to-end, under the working loads, will begin to mutually delaminate each other. Everything is collected on small nails, fastened in a box like a gusset.

The box is connected to the frame (recall - after sheathing, if provided) with dowels with a pitch of 200-300 mm, this is enough not to crawl to the side. An option, perhaps in addition to the dowels, is flat metal lining from the inside and self-tapping screws, 1 in the middle for short and 2-3 evenly along the length on the long sides.

Note: if the drawer is without bulkheads, the backrest height should not exceed 350 mm, otherwise the drawer drawer drawer side will not withstand the loads.

Back

The base of the backrest supporting frame (item 1 in the figure) is spar A made of solid board (120-150) x40 mm. Most often, for the sake of simplification of work, it is made composite of sections, but it will be more durable one-piece. This is cut into vertical posts flush and put first on the dowels. Also, it is advisable to assemble the entire frame first on dowels, and then fasten it in the corners with corners or bosses, like a box. The lugs in this case can be simply cuttings of a bar, since the inner volume of the backrest is not used.

Height H1 is equal to the height of the support frame, without legs, together with the height of the drawer; H2 - sofa thickness, but not less than the spar height indicated above. Thickness of bottom plate made of oak, etc. - from 40 mm. It, together with the spar and the rectangular parts of the struts, makes up the lower back belt. This is a very important site, because the normal operating load of people leaning back tends to pull it away from the lower support.

The normal number of racks on a sofa up to 2 m long is 4 pcs. evenly along the length. If the backrest is wider than the sofa, i.e. captures the armrests, then 2 more are added. The penultimate ones, counting from the middle, fall on the corners of the supporting structure, the most extreme ones - on the outer planes of the armrests, see below.

The upper back belt is made of solid timber with a thickness of 50 mm. His "responsibility" is necessary when they stand on the back in order to reach something above or when the sofa is pulled behind the back while moving furniture. Also here the upholstery creeps and wrinkles most willingly, so the upper beam is rounded into one plane with the supporting surface of the backrest and its edges are rounded (shown in the inset). As for the racks, they can be pine.

The backrest is completed by upholstering its supporting surface with plywood, chipboard, fiberboard from 4 mm, as shown in pos. 2. This is necessary to give the entire module the rigidity necessary for a strong connection with the support, but you don't need to sew up the rear yet!

Now compare pos. 2 and 3. On the last one - gross mistakethat simplifies the work and allows you to quickly get paid for it, but seriously degrades the quality and durability of the sofa. How to attach this back to the support? Self-tapping screws into the ends of the boards? How long will such a sofa last until the back comes off?

Support connection

Assembling the backrest with support is just the case when metal fasteners in furniture are needed. Together they are connected with corners from 60x60x4, and to the backrest parts with self-tapping screws from 6 mm, and to the box / frame - through bolts from 6 mm (heads into the box / frame), 3 of those and those per corner. Washers from 40 mm under the heads and nuts are required! There are still spring nuts under the nuts, it will not be possible to tighten them later!

The corners need 2 for each vertical joint in the back (12 with 2 intermediate racks), above and below, 3 horizontal in each section at the top, in the zone of greatest loads (to the spar), evenly along the length, and 1- 2 horizontally at the bottom. Better in 2, in case the sofa will be dragged behind the back. For attachment to the spar, it is better to use unequal corners 60x40 with holes in a narrow shelf arranged in a row.

And only now the back can be sewn up with the same plywood, chipboard, DSV from the rear, covered with technical fabric, glued foam rubber (40-70 mm), and completely covered. Leaving the decor for later, so as not to accidentally damage it during further work, is impossible: it is unacceptable to put the folds of the upholstery into the joint of the backrest and the support, and it will not work to fit it after installing the armrests.

Armrests

The armrests can be solid wood or frame, like the back. They are also fully completed prior to installation. The load on them is less, therefore, they are attached from the inside with self-tapping screws from 6 mm with an envelope or snake to the box, and to the support 4-6 pcs. in a row.

Armrests of complex shape are most often made frame. In fact, technologically, they are not so complicated, pos. And in fig. The decor on the inside extends to the lower edge of the sofa. The backrest should also match the graceful armrests. Then it needs additional. lathing from strips of about 30x40 and inserts from a board from 30 mm, pos. B. The crate is cut into the backrest pillars, and the inserts are fastened with self-tapping screws into the edge.

Sofa

The bottom of the sofa (plywood or chipboard from 8 mm) is assembled on a frame made of 70x50 timber with crossbars at least 1 for each full or incomplete 70 cm of length; distribute them evenly. The frame details are connected by a cut-in half-wood with reinforcement with self-tapping screws and glue. The bottom plate is attached to the frame with small screws or nails with a notch. The bars of the frame should be at the bottom, i.e. outside (see fig.), and not inside, as is sometimes advised. True, in this case, 50 mm of foam rubber disappears, but there is a significant advantage when covering it: staples / nails do not scratch the top of the box, and thanks to the extra bend, the sofa sheathing (the most loaded) lays down more evenly and holds stronger.

Upholstery

Upholstery of different sofas and even different modules of the same sofa is made different waysbut they all have a common sore spot - the corners. Form them with a fold, as in fig. on the right, the method is widespread, but therefore not at all of a better quality. According to GOST USSR, the upholstery corners are generally a production defect. Only sewn corners are reliable and durable.

Cutting and sewing the corners of furniture fabrics is done in more than 2 ways: without a tongue and with a tongue, see fig. below. The first is preferable for very dense and durable fabrics (jacquard, tapestry); the second for those more prone to abrasion - velor, courtesan, chinchilla - and leather. But keep in mind that the numbers in fig. approximate, fitting with a sketch is required!

Covers are sewn, as usual, from the inside out and put on inverted. When putting on the finished cover, the wings (folds) of the scars are straightened with a special tool like a small shoe spoon. It is called a bobbin, although it does not look like a bobbin. The tongue is not sewn into the seam; it is folded back during sewing and left free.

This is followed by a tightening. If the corners are with tongues, then they level the trim with them, and the tongues are fixed. Then they pull the cover with a harsh thread from the underside up and down, 2-3 ties per 1 m of length and, pulling the threads, achieve an even, but not tight, tension; it is controlled by the drawing. A cover with corners without tongues is leveled immediately with threads. When the upholstery is stretched as it should, the edges are secured with an indent from the edge of the fabric of at least 5 cm.If the type of product allows, fasten with a fold.

Features for different modules

The supporting frame of the sofa and the drawer are upholstered as shown in fig. Drawer - from 3 sides, the back remains open. This is necessary to ensure the strength of the connection between the backrest and the support, see above.

A pair of small tragus with a height of approx. 1 m, see fig. on the left, narrower than the sofa, so as not to crush the fabric. In extreme cases, the blank of the sofa is placed on a pair of stools. It just won't work to fit the backrest. it is already attached to the support. Here, first, the fabric is fastened along the line of conjugation with the box, from under the bottom it is pulled on the tragus, like a sofa, and from the bottom, small nails will have to be temporarily driven into the support from the sides. Well, the armrests can be turned as you like, there are no problems here.

Cushions

Separate cushions for the sofa are sewn in the same way as the blocks of a frameless chair:

1. The foam mat is sheathed with technical fabric;
2. The decorative cover is sewn inside out, the final (back lower) seam is left unstitched;
3. 2 zippers are sewn into the final seam, fastening towards each other;
4. Insert the foam block into the decor, fasten the zippers.

Tightening straps

Sewing multiple pillows is boring and dust collects at the joints between them. And a flat sofa is not in harmony with every design. Therefore, sometimes the pillows on it are imitated with tightenings, see fig. There are also 2 options for lighter and denser fabrics. In the first case, loops are sewn onto the edges of the cover under the straps, and the straps are made when the cover is already fixed. According to the 2nd option, the front wings (sleeve-tunnels) are sewn on the workpiece under the cords and an even stretch is achieved by alternately pulling the cords, then the tension threads of the cover.

Beautiful scars

Another common way to decorate a sofa is with decorative scars, see fig. Under them, you also need to sew wings, but it is better to fill them with a flexible multi-core electrical wire in PVC insulation with an outer diameter of 2-4 mm. Wire frames are formed on a template of nails driven into any (vertical is possible) wooden surface suitable size, even into the wall of a barn or a doghouse.

The ends are stripped from the insulation by 25-35 mm, twisted with a British twist (British twisted, see the figure on the left), the joint is soldered and, so that the strand of wire that has inadvertently crawled out does not dig into a sensitive place, wrapped with electrical tape. In the pillow, the joint, of course, should be at the back.

About one-piece covers

A one-piece sofa cover is already the aerobatics of upholstery. However, what if a shabby but sturdy sofa of mahogany or Karelian birch is found in grandmother's attic? Furniture restorers know their worth, but they love their work and respect smart connoisseurs. If you talk to them competently, then they will take a moderate fee and put their soul into the work.

In such a case, as the "1001 Nights" says, know that the basis for tightening a one-piece cover is the line of conjugation of the sofa with the armrests and backrest. They are fixed with cords as shown in fig. The cords are brought out along the bisectors of flat corners (outer) and trisectrices of triple (inner) along the grooves in wooden frame and, for triple corners, through holes in it. The cords are pulled moderately, their ends are fixed and then the cover is straightened and pulled.

Drawstrings for cords can be, depending on the design, front or purl. The last case is the most difficult, the seam of the curtain should be double and very even. To make it flawlessly, you need a professional 2-needle sewing machine.

Note: generally a machine - the main problem when upholstering a sofa. Before work, look at your specifications and check if she is sewing jacquard fabrics with reinforced thread no thinner than # 20. If not, you will have to rent or order upholstery at home. Or sew by hand.

Is it easier?

As you can see, making a sofa and covering it is not a field to go over. Is it possible here somehow faster and simpler, to the dacha, in new apartment? To throw up any pillows and fill up?

You can, the solution is called - a sofa made of pallets. From building pallets - pallets - in general, a lot of things are made, including furniture, because pallets are inexpensive seasoned wood of excellent quality.

The main thing here is taste and ingenuity. The simplest, most primitive garden sofa stack made of pallets can be made much more convenient using the principle of an adirondack-type garden chair, on the left in Fig. It is a little more difficult of them to build a pull-out sofa bed in a rustic style in the center. And by kissed (with a tool, not a glass) stronger, you can get a sofa, about which you cannot immediately say that it is from a discarded container, on the right. For example, see what kind of sofa was made, it seems, by a completely inexperienced, but completely intelligent and not armless guy:

Video: do-it-yourself pallet sofa

It happens ... with sofas ...

Since we are talking about containers, then finally - a sofa joke. No comments required, that in fig. speaks for itself. And it is standing somewhere, sitting on it, lying ...

Modern designers come up with more and more unusual sofa designs, and manufacturers are no less actively implementing them. The market is filled with models of all shapes, colors and sizes. But the trouble is - among all the variety, it is not so easy to find a simple and comfortable sofa that satisfies your own sense of beauty.

Why not take a different approach and try to make your dream sofa with your own hands? After all, this is not nearly as difficult as it seems at first glance.

How do you know which sofa you need?

If you decide to make a sofa with your own hands, then the store does not suit you with something. When designing a new interior design, do not forget about other important points.

How and where will you use it? Do you need a sofa that can comfortably accommodate a large company, a sofa for sleeping, or both? For example, as much as you like the idea of \u200b\u200bupholstering it with leather, this is not the best choice for a sleeping place. Some upholstery will quickly deteriorate if you have pets.

What size sofa do you need? Measure carefully to be sure that these parameters are optimal. Check if it will get in the way and if it will fit into the allotted place.

Where exactly are you going to put it? The size and design requirements are imposed on the sofa on the balcony, kitchen and hall.

Finally, decide on the mechanisms. If you intend to use a new thing instead of a double bed, you should make a folding sofa. Despite the existence of more advanced mechanisms, the "book" does not lose its popularity. The principle of its operation is simple: we raise the seat, the back reclines - the sofa is decomposed.

When deciding on the design and material of the upholstery, it will be useful to take into account the general interior of the room. When assembling a sofa yourself, you are free to choose absolutely any fabric, but how will a green flock in a blue flower look in a minimalistic room in black and white?

They will help you decide on the choice of the nuances of photos of do-it-yourself sofas. They will also give an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat a homemade sofa might look like.

Before starting work, you should get a general idea about the designs of sofas and their features. Let's consider the main ones.

If you need a sofa for sleeping, choose the straight model. It is the most common form on the market in many variations.

The corner sofa will fill the corner and become a spectacular addition to the interior. Such a sofa is suitable, for example, in the kitchen.

A modular sofa is a good solution for a studio apartment. It is a collection of modules that can be combined in any order or used separately.

Choice of materials

The body material is usually wood. It does not require special skills to work with it, it is durable and environmentally friendly. You can use linden, walnut, birch, but pine is not the best choice, as it needs factory processing.

Plywood is a durable and reliable material, cheap and environmentally friendly. Perfect for creating any furniture with your own hands.

Furniture manufacturers love MDF and chipboard. Keep in mind that they are cheap but short-lived.

Do not limit your imagination: the most unusual objects can be the material: pallets (pallets) left over from construction, or cardboard boxes.

Upholstery fabric must be purchased with a margin that takes into account the thickness of the parts. A few points to pay attention to:

• velor, being soft and pleasant to the touch, gets dirty quickly and is not suitable for pet owners;
• chenille is an excellent choice for a nursery due to its practicality;
• flock with fine pile is pleasant to the touch, but gets dirty quickly and will be erased after a few years;
• jacquard is practical, but not very pleasant to the touch;
• the mat is a rough and durable fabric. Not suitable for cat owners;
• the skin looks solid, but expensive.

The choice of color and pattern is solely a matter of your tastes, but try to choose a color that is in harmony with the interior.

As a filler for a homemade sofa, foam rubber (with a density of 35 kg / m3 and more) is usually used. This is a cheap but short-lived material - it will have to be changed in a few years. The seat needs at least two layers, and one layer may be enough for the backrest.

To securely fix the filler and upholstery, to prevent them from wrinkling and slipping, you need to cover the base with an additional layer of non-woven fabric. The soft layer can be attached with Velcro.

Tools

• Ruler, tape measure, square, pencil and others for building a drawing.
• Jigsaw, hacksaw for cutting out parts.
• Furniture stapler for attaching upholstery fabric.
• Foam glue.
• Drill or screwdriver.
• Nails, nuts, metal corners, additional fittings.

Working process

On the Internet, you can find many instructions on how to make a sofa with your own hands. Let's supplement them with a few tips. It all starts with building a drawing of the sofa. Do not neglect this, since the drawing carries important information about the size, number of parts and their exact location. You need to be clear about what you want to get.

The frame consists of a base, backrest, armrests and legs. Mechanisms and boxes are additionally installed. The base is a timber frame reinforced with lamellas. They need at least 32 pieces. Legs are recommended to be made up to 10 cm high. Be sure to use solid wood species. Strength can be added with metal corners.

The frame parts are assembled in the following order: backrest, front panel, seat, armrests. Then the base is mounted on the frame. Drawers are assembled, a sliding part, mechanisms, wheels are installed. All surfaces are carefully sanded, treated with wood stain, furniture wax or colored glaze.

Parts are cut out of foam rubber and attached to the frame. The upholstery fabric is attached using a furniture stapler.

Pallet sofa - unusual and original solution, while extremely simple and worth a penny.

Pallets are sanded, primed and painted. Two beams are attached to the resulting base with the help of corners. From above, they have an oblique saw cut, on which a piece of plywood or MDF, previously processed in the same way, rests at a slight angle. This piece becomes the back.

Legs are attached to the body. All connections are reinforced with metal corners. Then a layer of filler is laid and the upholstery is done with a stapler. This way you can easily make a corner sofa.

A cardboard sofa will need a lot of boxes and glue, but this non-standard solution will appeal to creative people.

Cut out of the boxes required amount details that look like a sofa in profile. You also need to cut out small rectangles, several times larger than the number of profile parts.

Using glue, for example, PVA, the profile parts are glued, alternating with rectangles. They need to be glued to places of greatest stress: seat and back. The resulting sandwich must be pressed down with a press and left until the glue is completely dry. The resulting structure is pasted over with another layer of paper, a layer of foam rubber is attached and upholstered.

Thus, a modular sofa can be assembled from several cardboard chairs.

Agree, each of you at least once thought about how to make a folding one. After all, perhaps, there is not a single apartment or house in which there is no soft sofa. When you come home, especially after work, you really want to either sit or lie on your cozy sofa. Only fashion changes every time, and with it the design of furniture. And you can create an original folding sofa with your own hands.

A comfortable and original folding sofa can be made with your own hands, having free time and the necessary materials.

Manufacturing and purchasing of materials

It will take your free time, but it will also bring benefits. Firstly, you will save your money on this sofa, since now the cost of store copies is quite high. Secondly, you will select high-quality consumables and be confident in them. Thirdly, you can change at any time appearance sofa by changing the trim. Fourthly, you will save the area of \u200b\u200byour apartment, since the product will be assembled during the day, and in the evening it will be able to turn into sleeping area... And, most importantly, you will feel proud of your work and brag about it to your family and friends.

Before you start making a folding sofa with your own hands, you must decide on the size and type of product. There are three main types of them: a sofa-book, a roll-out sofa, a folding sofa. And also do not forget to draw a drawing of it. You will need it not only during the work process, but also in order to correctly calculate the consumption of the required material. Having decided on all this, you can proceed to the next step.

To, namely, a folding sofa, you need to purchase the following materials:

• boards (5 cm thick and 15 cm high);
• corners;
• bars;
• springs;
• upholstery fabric;
• thick foam rubber;
• transparent varnish;
• hinges for doors;
• furniture boards;
• jigsaw.

Having bought everything, you can start working on the sofa itself. The instructions will help you with this.

Back to the table of contents

Making a folding sofa

The back of the sofa is made of furniture board.

Let's start with the back of the sofa. It is made from furniture board. On it a little earlier, mark the upper curly line. To do this, take a template. Next, you must drill a diamond-shaped slot and the upper line of the back according to the drawing. You will need a jigsaw for this. To get a diamond-shaped opening, you need to cut out the holes for the jigsaw in advance. Then drill the slots near the obtuse corners of the diamond. Do not turn the jigsaw saw in sharp corners.

After completing this work, remove the sawdust from the edges. After cutting out the remaining parts of the furniture board, all elements need to be sanded. Do not forget to carefully reinforce them by pressing them against the workbench board. With a profile router, you must round off the front of the sofa parts. If you wish, varnish the finished elements.

Then attach the main block of wood to the wall. You decide the size and height according to your preferences. The height you define will be the same height as the sides of the seats. Attach the beam in the middle horizontally, fix it along the edges with screws. Place a slat made of wood on it, on top of which fix the seats on the hinges, thanks to which the sofa will unfold. Next, this rail should be attached at the bottom to the bar with self-tapping screws. Holes for them are made initially.

The sofa unfolds and folds thanks to special hinges.

After that, you must mark the locations of the hinges for the side seats, they will fold inward. Holes for the dowels are drilled according to the mark, the loops are fixed with screws. When the hinges are installed, the sides are attached to them. Now install the back of the sofa using the double-sided self-adhesive tape. You can add foam rubber in a cover to the back. It looks both beautiful and comfortable. The homemade sofa is ready. The only drawback is that there is no additional linen box.

Back to the table of contents

The principle of making a sofa-book

It is possible in another way. But first, get everything you need:

• boards;
• bars;
• lamellae;
• bolts;
• transformation mechanism;
• non-woven fabric;
• foam rubber, synthetic winterizer;
• sofa covers (you can sew it yourself);
• wooden fittings (for armrests);
• sandpaper.

Most of the fold-out sofas come with a linen drawer.

Start by collecting the laundry drawer. Make a box with dimensions of 190x80 cm. To make the structure stronger, attach two transverse slats in the middle. Make the bottom of the box from a sheet of fiberboard. The seat and backrest will consist of two identical boxes made of bars (40x60). Nail slats onto them to hold the mattress.

Armrests are made of chipboard (24 mm). They need to make frames. Drill holes at the bottom for the bolts. In the linen drawer, also make 2 holes on both sides. Attach the transformation mechanism on both sides so that there is a free space of 10 mm between the backrest and seat frames. Make sure that the seat does not extend past the armrests when the product is folded.

All roughness on the frames can be sanded. Attach non-woven and thick foam to the lamellas. You do not cover the transformation mechanism with them. You can cover the foam rubber on top with a padding polyester so that it does not wear out. Put on the stitched covers on the seat and back.

On the armrests, glue the foam rubber, twisted in the shape of a roller, and on top you will need to attach it more to thicken and soften the armrests. Cover the armrests with the same fabric from which you sewed the covers for the sofa itself. Attach the hardware on the front side. Do not forget to check if the transformation mechanism works by unfolding and folding the sofa book. Well, the sofa with your own hands is ready. Here the principle of the sofa is simple and reliable. But there is also a minus: such a sofa cannot be placed close to the wall, since during decomposition it will constantly rub against the wall.

The sofa often becomes the centerpiece of a terrace, living room or dining room. And it is not at all necessary to lay out a tidy sum for this piece of furniture - you can make a stylish and comfortable sofa yourself, even without having any special skills. This review contains sofa ideas that will tell you how to turn things that sometimes seem like outright rubbish into a cozy sofa.

1. Spring bed

An old metal bed can be easily turned into an original boho sofa. All that is required to make this vision come true: new mattresses tied with bright fabric and paint to renew the details of the bed.

2. Baby cot

A crib that can no longer be used for its intended purpose can be turned into a small but cozy sofa. Just get rid of the front sidewall, stretch the mattress with a bright fabric, and add some cushions.

3. Bath

Old cast iron bathtubs can be used to create original sofas that are suitable for home and garden furnishings. Of course, such work is very laborious, you will need a tool and certain skills, but in the end you will receive a unique piece of furniture.

4. Pallets

A charming low-rise sofa with two drawers at the bottom, which requires three wooden pallets and soft furniture covers.

5. Wooden beam

A simple and at the same time elegant sofa made of rough wooden bars and laconic light-colored pillows, made to order, will perfectly fit into the interior of a modern living room or into the landscape of a suburban area.

6. Furniture panels

Stylish and laconic sofa that you can make with your own hands from furniture boards and large cushions will become a real highlight of the living room, regardless of the style of its decoration.

7. Boards

People who are not alien to needlework can make a sofa out of ordinary wooden boards and furniture cushions. This piece of furniture is perfect for arranging a summer patio or living room in a private house.

Video bonus:

8. Boat

Creative small sofa made from a shabby bow wooden boat, will become a spectacular detail of the interior and will bring romantic marine notes into the room.

9. Pallets

A low corner sofa with shelves for books, which you can make with your own hands from wooden pallets and large furniture cushions, will perfectly fit into the interior of an apartment decorated in a Scandinavian, rustic or loft style.

10. Plywood and wood

An original, comfortable and ergonomic chair with shelves for books around the perimeter, which can be made of plywood and wooden boards.

11. OSB boards

A simple sofa that you can make yourself from OSB boards and a thin mattress will perfectly fit into the interior of the hallway.

12. Wooden boxes

Charming and very original armchairs, which can be made from wooden boards and soft furniture linings, will become a creative detail of an introvert's interior.

13. Cinder blocks

A bright unusual sofa with a place for shoes at the bottom, which is easy to make with your own hands. To do this, you need cinder blocks, which should be folded on top of each other so that you get a frame, a bright mattress upholstered in a pleasant fabric and several sofa pillows.

14. Suitcase

Video bonus:

17. Natural wood

Stunning sofa from natural wood with a shelf-back that can serve as a workplace or a dining table, it will become a stylish and functional detail of a small living room.

Especially for those who are seriously concerned about their own balcony, we have collected.