I bought one of these on-line for my wife. Her recliner base sits on the bottom platform and holds it steady. The top swings around out of the way until she sits, then will swing in front of her to form a handy desk for a laptop computer, writing, hobby-work, even a dinner table. It;s solid steel except for the top so it is very sturdy. It wouldn't work for me because my recliner swivels, so I made my own as shown below:
That's really nice @Ted Richards! I'm sitting at our diningroom table right now with my laptop while I'm finishing up the gumbo I promised my husband I would make for today...and listening to Christmas cassette tapes. I might have to put one of those things on my Santa Wish List though.
I like the hand made version better than the store bought. The store bought one is bulky, does not look like part of the home decor while the other can be tucked somewhere when not in use.
I had a lap desk that i used for several years, and I just loved it ! Mine was just a simple curved board with a cushion underneath, but it worked perfect in the recliner. I could balance the lap desk partially on my lap and partially on the arm of the chair, and it made a stable surface to put the iPad on. I knew that @Joyce Mcgregor would probably be using her ipad from her recliner, too; so I gave mine to her, and I will just replace it when I can. Mine looked like this one, except I didn’t have the little light.