Sofa Arm Rest Mod on my 189 FBS

[Ed Venture]

I know this one is pretty silly, bu I just like sitting in chairs that have arm rests - for me, its just more comfortable. Its just a dumb personal preference thing.

Anyway - I whipped up some arm rests out of 1"x8"x1' hardwood boards (I suppose you could use anything, but I figured the hardwood would be stronger. I cut a 3/8"W x 1"D groove down the end so that it would slide into in the 1/8" angle iron on either end of the sofa. The angle iron pieces weren't really square, so it took a few passes with the table saw to get the right amount cut out to make it work

To provide stability and strength, I then used 4 steel off-set pieces to lock the arms rest to the steel jack knife hinge. Oddly enough the off-set pieces came from the cam lock kits I bought from Home Depot (or Lowes - I can't remember). Each lock came with 3 different lock pieces (long, short, and off-set). Since I reused many of the interior lock pieces from the original locks, I had these left over.

I sprayed the wood pieces with the same color Rustolem I used for my TV mod and sprayed the off-set pieces and screws black so they would blend in. I covered the top arm pieces with some fabric - though I may go back and put some padding in and re-do that part - I don't know yet.

The arm rests slide in snugly and they feel nice and firm - no wobble. You can really lean on them without worrying about them breaking. When you need to unfold the sofa into a bed, the slide out nice and easy and can be stowed away.

Here are some shots:














Ed

[metaltff]

Hell yeah looks nice

[nana2cuties]

This is a great looking sofa mod, I may have hubby do the same to ours. In addition I love the matching sofa cover/bed quilt. What size quilt is on the sofa and is it just tucked in? You do some good work Ed... Thanks for all the pictures too.
Nana2cuties

[Ed Venture]

Thanks!

We got the two quilts on clearance from Walmart. One was a queen and one was a king. I believe the one on the sofa was a queen. My wife cut some v-shaped notches and sewed them up. The notches allow the quilt to be tucked in between the seat and the back and not get in the way of the hinges on the side. We had considered sewing a top pocket to keep in place but it wasn't really necessary since there was plenty of fabric to drape over the top. So basically it's a pseudo slip cover and seems to work pretty well.

Ed