I played around a bit with various configurations for a phone stand and this rather simple arrangement of a propped-up back support seemed like a decent combination of simplicity, robustness and ease-of-manufacture. I chose to use cherry since it would match the kitchen cabinets and because Sue is also partial to cherry.

This is the cookbook holder with an old iPhone on it. It works in a rough-and-ready way but what are you going to do when there is a cookbook to hold open?

I started by cutting a small cherry plank down into thinner pieces. This rather rough-looking specimen on the planer sled had some issues going through the bandsaw in a straight line but it was still thick enough for the backrest at 0.09" so the rough parts were planed off.

Once my flat pieces were brought to the proper thickness, I made a couple triangular hinge points that would be glued to the backrest. Here the bottom of one of those pieces is being smoothed by hand on the sanding block.

The hinge points already have small (0.04"-diameter) holes drilled to accept the hinge pins and small counterbores so the pin head sits flush with the wood surface.

This shot shows the hinge points being glued to the backrest. The masking tape protects the backrest from any glue squeeze-out.

The backrest assembly includes a support at the bottom on which the phone sits. Here the curved inside of the support is being routed.

Unfortunately, my first attempt at a support piece suffered from a terminal case of oopsie-daisy where it was cut incorrectly due to inattention on my part.

So I made another one, here not yet detached from the small plank it was made from. In this photo I'm sanding the face before separating it from the plank.

Once the support was complete, it was glued to the backrest.

Next up was the base. It got four wide slots routed into it using the router table and a 1/8"-diameter bit. After this it will have the corners notched and hinge pin holes drilled.

The prop piece was pretty simple to make as well and here they are all done and the first coat of varnish has already been applied.

Some stiff wire was used in the hinge-pin holes to support the pieces for finishing and here they are hanging near my newly-installed workroom ventilation fan to exhaust the varnish fumes as the pieces dry.

The pieces got my standard three coats of Fast-Dry Poly varnish. This is the second coat going on using a cloth-covered foam brush.

And then just the assembly was left to do, which consisted of inserting four hinge pins.

The hinge pins were just 1/2" common nails (or "cigar box" nails according to the package).

Done.