Great Gift Idea - DIY Folding Lap Desk / Breakfast Tray

As soon as I saw this image from Jen Woodhouse, I knew I wanted one.

Better still, I knew it would make a GREAT gift idea – I mean, who doesn’t love the idea of staying warm and cozy in bed and eating a hot breakfast, or reading the paper, or working on the computer with a steaming cup of tea/coffee?

NO ONE!

And this DIY folding lap desk / breakfast tray is really easy to build – in fact, Jen’s plans show it made from a single board of 1 x 8!

Cha-ching! Great gift idea, easy AND inexpensive! Love you Jen!

I changed up my version a bit to use up scrap wood, so I won’t go step-by-step through the process. Jen’s plans are easy to understand and will walk you through it in no time.

I will give you a tip though – DON’T over-tighten the the connecting bolts – the one on top of my DIY folding lap desk used to be 1 3/4″ long – but thanks to my built-by-yoga-biceps, I managed to tighten one until it actually broke in half! (enter womanly grunting here).

My Dad complains that everything I build is grey – he says I need some colour on the blog – agreed, but I KNOW Hubby will never build one of these for me, so this one’s mine … and my bedroom is grey.

I was laughing away to myself after this photo; I had made up this little breakfast especially to stage my DIY folding lap desk / breakfast tray for photos. As I shot a few images, I kept thinking to myself “I really wish someone would do this for me sometime”…

it didn’t occur to me until about 20 photos in that someone just had…

Me!

I giggled away to myself at my stupidity, then crawled into bed to eat my 3pm breakfast in bed. lol

The sides have notched cut-outs for easy gripping, and the legs fold up under the tray so you can slide the entire thing under your bed.

Bring it out to get some work done. Take it to the sofa for a lap desk in front of the TV.

Whatever the need – this really is a great gift idea.

Think Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, for a sick friend, for someone in a nursing home, for traveling with kids… it’s relatively light and very compact.