13 Comfortable DIY Sofas You Must See

Table of Contents Show

A. Modern Sofas

You gotta love the modern and comfortable DIY sofa sets. Check out these awesome ones for you.

1. Zig-Zag Sofa

Straight lines, no fuzz, no hassle… nothing to distract us from a sofa’s inherent beauty. In essence, every minimalistic design should embrace this ideal. At the most, in order to stand out from its cushioning brothers, it should add only one thing that marks it as unique.

Materials

12 foot long 2×10.
3, 2x4s.
2, sheets of 3/4 thick plywood.
Polycrylic
Interior Paint.
Foam cushions.
Leather (3 whole hides).
Drill
Circular Saw.
Orbital Sander.

Related: 18 Different Types of Lumber

Tips/Instructions

Get high-quality foam. Remember, your behind will spend a great deal of its downtime there.
Don’t like leather? Then, by all means, have fun with that option.
Fetch the step-by-step here: Materials:

2. Mid-Century Modern Sofa

Another minimalistic design. One would even dare to say, that this is the proto-minimalistic sofa: the inspiration that galvanized the others to forgo their Chesterfield ways.

Materials

7 2×6’s
4 12″ legs
Leg Hardware
Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil
Wood Glue
Mahogany Dowel
Cushion
Every tool in your garage.

Tips/Instructions

It’s a fairly simple job with some carpenter twist and tricks.
Read instructions. https://www.modernbuilds.com/diy-mid-century-modern-sofa
Use wood filler to fix any blemishes in the material, then use a belt sander to square everything off.
This tutorial uses a few handy, but tricky, carpenter workarounds. Skills that play with the wood. If you’re not as handy with a saw or all those other doodads, then by all means drill, paste and nail together… after all, it will be covered by a cushion.

3. The Ehh It’s a Sofa

Durable, utilitarian, simple and practical. A wooden frame, some salvaged IKEA cushions, a pillow or two, and suddenly wham-bam you have yourself a sturdy, quite cute, sofa within your living room.

Materials

Wood glue.
Sander
Cushion
2x10s

Tips/Instructions

Play around with paints if you want to liven up your piece.
Sand to s smooth finish.
Don’t complicate matters by tweaking the DIY.
Precut 2×10 at a hardware store.

4. Sofa with Shelves In The Back

>center>

Are you in the market for space to place all your funky collectibles? Are you in the market for a sofa? Then here’s a rock… look two birds! My God, you are a regular sniper… quite the pitching arm.

Materials

Tools: that trio of buddies you simply can’t shake off (sander, drill, circular saw).
Screws
2×4
Cushion
Glue gun.

Tips/Instructions

Stack together the 2×4.
Drill them.
Let’s be honest it’s a fairly simple job. There really isn’t any science to it.
The trick, to having this completed in one afternoon is to pre-cut everything.

5. Pallet Sofa

I’ll say it once. I’ll say it twice. I’ll say it a hundred time. I’ll even, cause that is the sort of fella’ I am, have it embossed onto my gravestone… “PALLETS ARE EVERYWHERE!”

They are sturdy.
They are basically free.
They are replaceable: If one bites the dust, you can simply exchange it for another of its willing cousins.

Materials

Foams
Textiles
Paints
6 Pallets.

Tips/Instructions

You can either make your new sofa cushion or buy a new one.
Stack the pallets together, after you painted them, and fling the sofa on top. Dust your hands off and snap open a beer.

*PS. there are hundreds of stacking together pallet sofa tutorials. They only differ in two things:

1- Some folks nail them to each other.

2- The paint job.

B. Sofa Bed

Admit it, we all love sleeping on our sofa. So, unless you’re Popeye the sailorman, who gets his energy from spinach, you’d need a sofa bed for yourself.

1. Chaise Long Sofa Bed

The nifty thing about a sofa bed is the fact that they tend to repeat themselves throughout your life. Constant reminders of how much you’ve grown. In college, or in your first one bed-room apartment, they are your bed. Once you hit it big, they reappear, like long lost friends, and rapidly become your guest’s bed. So, whether you’re thinking of sprucing up your office and giving it a second purpose or you simply don’t have enough room for a true-bed, this chaise long sofa is here for you… plus, it even has storage underneath.

Materials

Drilling Jig Kit
Tapered Bit/Countersink
Aluminum Bar Clamps
T-Track Table Top
Shop Stand
Wooden Handscrew Clamps

Tips/Instructions

Buy the plans, don’t be a cheapskate: https://www.patreon.com/posts/8355571
Let everything dry.
Break the piggy on a decent cushion/mattress.

2. Sofa Bed That Converts to Storage Space

Originally designed for a Tiny House, this sofa bed’s two-purpose soul makes it an ideal addition to any room in need of some space. The perfect piece for the collector, would-be hoarder or the memento collector.

Materials

Your Mad Max carpenter skills.
Every tool at your disposal.
Tweak the measurements and easily transform this from a two seater into a three seater.
Kreg Jig.
Iron- Edge Band.
3 – 1×8.
2 – 1×8.
4 – 2×4.
2 – 1/4.
1 – 1×12.
1 – 3/4.

Tips/Instructions

Download the free plans: https://www.ana-white.com/printpdf/2016/04/free_plans/queen-size-lift-storage-bed.
Precut everything.

C. The Cheap-Seats

1. The No-Sew, under 100 smackers, sofa

Simple, to the point and, best of all, a welcome respite to that nasty weight on your shoulders called: fiscal responsibility. This sofa is cheap to make and quite nice to stare at.

Materials

Foam
Bungee chords.
8 foot 2x10s.
8 foot 2x4s.
2,5” Deck screws.
Drill
Circular saw.
Sander

Tips/Instructions

Built it in-situ.
Try getting something fancier than bungee chords.
Forgo the foam and splurge on a cushion.

D. Outdoor Wonders

1. The less than 5 hours, Basic Outdoor Sofa

If you have a garden, a porch, or simply a yard, then at one point in your life you’ve driven by a house and pined over that celestial sofa the owner has next to the BBQ grill; a costly enterprise if ever there was one… well, it’s time to stop your day-dreaming and crack out the tools. Too much-unfulfilled longing produces cancer… That’s why I’ve never been married.

Materials

Tools: the usual suspects.
4x8s
2x8s
Outdoor sofa cushion.
Wood stain.
L brackets.

Tips/Instructions

In essence, this piece should only rob you of an afternoon. No more than 5 hours. But, for that to happen the stars and planets have to realign and, above-all, a radioactive carpenter should have bitten you at the very least once in your lifetime. So, think a whole weekend.
Remember, this is an outdoor piece, so treat it with all the chemicals in your disposal for those nasty bouts of climate change.
Try to buy a waterproof cushion.

2. Outdoor, minimal tools, Cedar Wood Piece

A nice piece to sit over with some mimosas, a pitcher of margaritas and the sun dipping below the horizon. The cool thing about it is that the cedar wood gives it a nice rustic appeal.

Materials

3/8″ PLUG CUTTER
DADO BLADE
RUBBER FEET
Exterior Screws.
Mitersaw
Drill
Circular saw.
2×4 wood.
1×4 wood.
Clamps
Outdoor spar urethane.

Tips/Instructions

Get the step-by-step instructions: https://fixthisbuildthat.com/diy-modern-outdoor-sofa-plans/
Buy a comfortable and specially WATERPROOF cushion.

3. The Outdoor Sectional

When you think outdoor fixture your mind taps into a vestigial presence… college parties. Parents out of town, yard simply there for the taking, a boombox willing and able. Hence, on account of these insidious flashbacks, you chastise yourself… How dare you allow the image of only ONE sofa to slip its claws into you?! Are you THAT anti-social. Think big! Think sectionals! Think Margarita machine!

Materials

Sander
Miter Saw.
(11) 2X4
(13) 2X4
(2) 2X4
Outdoor cushions.

Tips/Instructions

Follow the step-by-step: https://www.ryobitools.com/nation/projects/outdoor-couch
Do as many as you want. Corner them together and order a cool grill, a freezing cooler, and the all mighty drink-dispenser. Invite everybody over and have a blowout.

E. The CHESTERFIELD

1. The ORIGINAL

In essence, this is the mother of DIY. This is the equivalent of getting a science lecture by way of Einstein. Watch the majesty primary craftsmen from Bolton, England produce that timeless piece known as The Chesterfield. If you can keep up, if you have the will, the tenacity and the courage to spearhead this project than you, by all means, should quit your day job and start making chesterfields… you’ll be racking in the dough by the shovel loads.

Materials

Go to Home Depot and buy everything. Even the freaking garden section. Trust me you’ll need it.
Once more: everything? What’s above everything? If there’s something above everything than by all means get that!

Tips/Instructions

A sturdy hand. The sort of hand that doesn’t flinch while playing Russian Roulette.
An artist’s heart.
Pixie dust.

2. The Doable Copy

Got scared with the original Chesterfield? But, aside from the DIY nightmare it produced you simply can’t get the thought of owning a Chesterfield out of your mind? Luckily, for us with visions of leather English couches frolicking through our heads, there’s a series of video on how to construct this majestic marvel like a mere mortal.