Hideaway Sofa Ledge – Hidden Phone Dock and Shelf Behind Loose Sofa Back Cushions, No Screws

Hideaway Sofa Ledge is a hidden ledge and phone dock behind the loose back cushions of a sofa. Two printed clamp stations sit on the top of your sofa's own back frame and carry a bought wooden board as a ledge for one seat. Each station holds the frame top between a band on its front face and a long heel down its back face, so a cushion leaning on it is resisted inside the sofa itself - nothing is screwed, glued or pushed against the wall. One or two Ø20 mm aluminium tubes run through the station masts; the back cushion rests on them, which keeps it away from the docks. Printed pods hook over the board and slide along it: a phone dock (a reclined channel, with a remote trough in the DEFAULT and DEEP sets) and an earbuds bowl. The charging cable comes from a charger in the wall socket and parks in a keyhole.

Validation status (please read): fit, stand-off and strength are checked on the CAD with labelled load estimates; slicing checked. It has not been physically printed, assembled or tested on a sofa. Images are renders of the CAD model (DEFAULT set) with generic sofa and device proxies, plus two drawings - none is a photograph.

Features

• Uses a strip that is otherwise empty: with the cushions in place every printed part and docked device stays at least 10 mm below the cushion top line (checked on the CAD) - hidden at seated eye height.

• The docks are open above with nothing printed over them, and the cushion resting on the tubes stays at least 20 mm from a docked phone - checked on the CAD with the cushion pushed back, a thin phone leaning forward, and the board and pod at their forward stops.

• No screws, no glue, no wall: the stations hold the frame top by their shape and lift off by hand. Renters welcome.

• Grab-and-drop docking: the phone lies in a reclined channel with a funnel, the earbuds case sits in a bowl, and the pods slide along the board. The plug parks in a keyhole when the phone is out.

• Made for your sofa: three ready-to-print sets with fit cards, or a generator that sizes every part from your measurements and refuses sofas it cannot fit.

Will it fit my sofa?

Only sofas with loose back cushions that stand 100-185 mm above an upholstered back frame with a flat front and back face below its top edge - not fixed-back, reclining or motion sofas, not foam-only frames. One seat module is 550-700 mm long. Each ready-to-print set fits the sofa on its fit card (frame-top depth squeezed firm between two books; cushion height with nobody sitting):

Every set also needs a squash (relaxed minus firm frame depth) of up to 2 mm, about 46 / 42 / 46 mm behind the frame (with less wall gap the sofa stands out by the difference, at most 25 mm) and a 3.6-4.4 mm charging cable. The heel shim code is chosen by your exact frame depth. Phones: STD up to 84 x 170 x 14 mm in its case, RUG up to 91 x 176 x 17 mm, docked lying on the long edge. Earbuds case up to 62 x 47 x 22 mm. Any other sofa: run the generator.

Which files?

• Ready-to-print PrusaSlicer projects per set (hideaway_ledge_*, _shallow_*, _deep_*): 00 gauge (print first), 01-04 the four station halves, 05 small parts, 06 pods, 07 spare heel shims (optional), and a _complete multi-plate project.

• model.py - the generator (Python 3.10+ with CadQuery 2). It takes your frame and cushion measurements, module length, board, phone class, cable diameter and rail type, prints the cut list, tooth code, shim, cushion window and whether the remote trough fits, and exports the parts (STL/STEP) only when every check passes. Example: python model.py --T_f 150 --squash 2 --R_ff 20 --R_fr 20 --D_b 300 --H_c 130 --G 60 --L_m 575 --t_b 18 --d_b 120 --phone STD --cable_d 4 --check, then the same with --export <folder>.

Print settings

• PETG; stations in a dark colour (they sit in the shadow behind the cushions), pods in any colour.

• 0.4 mm nozzle, a 220 x 220 mm bed, no supports, as oriented in the projects. Station halves at 0.3 mm layers with 4 perimeters (the strength checks assume them - do not print them with fewer walls); pods 0.3 mm with a 3 mm brim; other parts 0.2 mm; at least 15 % infill.

• One seat module (gauge not included): DEFAULT about 494 g / 27 h 55 min, SHALLOW about 380 g / 21 h 54 min, DEEP about 694 g / 38 h 30 min; gauge about 50 g / 3 h 27 min - PrusaSlicer estimates on a generic profile.

You also need

A flat board (12-20 mm thick, 100-150 mm deep - pine shelf board, plywood) and one or two Ø20 x 1.5 mm aluminium tubes, cut to the printed lengths; a USB charger in the wall socket and its cable. Tools: tape measure, two hardback books, a saw (or a store cut), a file.

Assembly

1. Print the gauge. With nobody sitting and the cushions in place, measure the cushion height above the top of the back frame.

2. Cushions off, sofa pulled from the wall: frame-top depth between two books (firm, then relaxed - the difference is the squash); both edge drops on the gauge scale; how far the back face stays flat; the wall gap; your board in the gauge slots; your phone in a gauge window (STD or RUG); your cable in the comb.

3. If every number is inside a set's fit card, print that set and the heel shims it names; otherwise run the generator.

4. Cut the board and tubes; file the tube ends.

5. Each station: press the heel shim's pins into the rear half's heel band; slide the rear half into the front half sideways until the alignment groove meets the end of the front chord; drop the lock pin in.

6. Board thinner than 20 mm: a board shim on each end. Slide a station onto each board end, the tubes through the rings, caps on.

7. Lower the module onto the frame top until the chords sit on it - it should slide down snugly without rocking (change heel shim if not).

8. Drop the pods onto the board, press the charger cable sideways into a keyhole, put the cushions back and push the sofa back.

Use: reach over the cushion and drop the phone into the channel lying on its long edge (never on its short edge - it would reach above the cushions). Lift the module off by hand to clean or move the sofa.

Limitations

• Not physically printed, assembled or tested on a sofa.

• Hidden at seated eye height, not from every angle: from standing, the top tube and a docked phone's top can show over the cushion crest, and a station top or tube cap can show where two cushions (or a cushion and the armrest) meet.

• The sofa may have to stand up to 25 mm further from the wall; the back cushion's lower edge stands 12-19 mm further forward.

• It holds by its shape: pulled forward at the top it tips off - don't pull on the tubes or a parked cable, and lift the cushion straight up rather than dragging it over the tubes.

• For phones, remotes, earbuds and similar light items - not drinks or heavy things. Nothing electrical behind the cushions: no power strips, chargers or wireless pads on the ledge; the charger stays in the wall socket.

• The SHALLOW set has no remote trough. A board and tube must be cut to length.

Pictures

Renders of the CAD model (DEFAULT set) and two drawings, not photographs: the ledge with a cushion lifted off (cover), the sofa with the cushions back, a section of the clamp, the phone dock and cable, the kit, the measuring guide, a half as printed and the module on its own.