A Footed Tray Is Good for More Than Just Breakfast in Bed

It allows you to live the American Dream—to eat and work wherever, whenever you want.
A footed tray with toast and a cup of coffee on a bed with a pillow and a newspaper.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Styling by Joseph De Leo

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Like many people in their late 20s, I’ve been rejected by all manner of men without bed frames (okay, one had theIkea Neiden, but that doesn’t count, right?) so I gave up on the prospect ofbreakfastin bed a long time ago. I don’t evenwantit. It’s a mess. I like atable. I don’t need to eat where I (try to) relax; let me have breakfast like a regular red-blooded American, shoving it down my gullet on the way to work or in front of a screen containing an article about how technology has ruined my life.

While I try to save bed—that sacred pillow-shrouded space—for sleep, remembering every embarrassing thing I’ve said in my life, and scrolling on TikTok, I do enjoy havingcoffeein bed. And then promptly spilling it all over my sheets and beginning my day in a state of despair.

That despair all ended when I bought myself a fancy breakfast tray. Now I have a flat surface upon which to set my coffee. It keeps my cup well within reach as I sit in bed scrolling on my phone in the morning, and it’s also great for weekends. I feel like I’m at a fancy hotel when I do the crossword and drink coffee in bed, all on the flat surface of my beautiful tray.

If you choose a tray that has feet and/or adjustable height, you’ll find that it has many uses beyond the bed. It can elevate your laptop if you’re working at a not-quite-ideally-situated desk orkitchen table. I don’t recommend working from the couch, but I do it frequently, and this tray allows me to keep my laptop at a workable height, without placing it precariously on top of a pile of pillows. You can also use a breakfast tray for eatingdinner on the couchwithout balancing a plate on your lap or a faraway coffee table. You can even use a breakfast tray to eat or work from the floor of your living room, if you’re short on seating or just enjoy a change of scenery once in a while. Basically, a footed tray allows you to eat and work wherever you want, which is really the principle America was founded upon.

如果你仍然相信爱,通过扩展的信徒akfast in bed, good for you. By all means, present a beautiful scrambled egg spread as a Grand Gesture this Valentine’s Day. But I’d urge you to go further. First, get a bed frame. Second: Give your loved one an upgraded breakfast tray, along with the breakfast upon it. Long after you’ve Oxy-cleaned the egg andhot sauceout of your white sheets, the tray will be there, providing a stylish space to work and eat all year long.

Open Spaces Shelf Risers, Set of 2

Acrylic Bed Tray

Laurie Bed Tray

Collapsible Folding Laptop Desk

Breakfast Tray with Notched Handle