DIY Couch Armrest Tray (A Scrap Wood Project)

I have been wanting to do this scrap wood project for a long time, and I am finally getting to it! We have a large sectional couch in our tv room. One end has a little table by it, but the other side doesn’t. I wanted to make a little armrest tray to set drinks on whenever someone is sitting in that seat!

I found a very simple picture online of one, and decided to try to duplicate it in an easy way. I’m talking, no screws, no nails… just two boards and some wood glue! It basically would be 3 sides of a rectangle, with one side being shorter than the other.

Here is what I did:

I got two pieces of 1×8 scrap wood from our workshop. I measured the width of our couch’s arm (which was 10”) and I measured one piece of wood to the 10” point and drew a line.

I cut the wood at this point.

I cut two more pieces of wood- one about 7” in length and one about 4”. I used wood glue to attach these to the 10” piece, one at a time. I clamped them down so the glue would dry really well.

Once the glue was good and dry, it was time to paint! I chose a sage green color we had on-hand, and got to painting.

I found two L-brackets in our junk tool drawer, and painted them black.

I added two thin pieces of wood trim on the sides to cover up the rough edges.

I wood-glued the brackets onto the tray at the top corners.

I let it all dry and… bam! We have a functional tray!