DIY: Behind the Couch Table

As I began adding the finishing touches to the upstairs loft aka teen hangout space, I realized we needed a place for Avery and her friends to eat that was not our brand new LoveSac Sactional! And so the need for a behind the couch table took root.

Before

Here is where I am looking to add a table:

Based on the space, I had 3 main goals:

1. Budget Friendly: I already spent most of our budget for the loft so economical is important. (I have a post on how I budget DIY projects here)

2. Large: long enough to host 4 stools - about 80" at minimum and the couch is 9.5' (115") long across the back.

3. Skinny: narrow enough to not block the back bedrooms walkway - about 20" maximum

4. Short: The back of LoveSac Sactionals sit low, I did not want a piece of furniture that looked too big behind the couch.

There are a bunch of behind the couch tables with stools on the market now, some are very cool (linked a few here) so I thought I would just buy something. But because we needed long, skinny and short there were not any budget friendly options at stores or online that I could find. I did not want to spend $600 - $1000+ on something that was too tall and not long enough. So we decided to build our own!

Total Cost

Total Cost = $101. About $18 for 2 quarts of wood stain and the stools were $83 for all 4. The rest I already owned. I love a cheap project!

Materials:

• Wood = $0, I used all scrap wood left over from the larger room build! I ended up using 4 @ 8ft. 1"x 6" traditional pine boards.

• Wood Conditioner + Stain + Poly = $9 x 2 = $18, used Varathane Worn Navy Fast Dry Interior Stain from Home Depot but also tested Varathane Vintage Aqua too.

• Stools = $83, used black matte 18" counter height stools from Amazon

Step by Step

This was a super easy project. The build and first coat of stain only took about 90 minutes to complete. Even a beginner could complete this project as long as you have a miter saw.

Step 1: Table Top This was the easiest part. I simply sanded down 2 8ft boards with a trio of sand paper starting with coarse and moving to fine grit to make sure they were very smooth.

Step 2: Supports It seems a bit counter intuitive to do the supports between the legs next but this is what I used to keep the table top together. I decided I did not want the legs to go all the way to the edge of the table so I measured my desired width and subtracted 1.5" (the thickness of the 2 legs) and cut 3 supports (1 for the top and bottom of each set of legs). From here I sanded down the boards with a trio of sand paper.

1. After the boards are prepped I screwed 3 of them into the bottom of my table top making sure the table top is perfectly straight and in line. I placed 2 supports exactly XX" from each end and then measured the half way point between them for the center leg.

Step 3: Legs To make the legs I measured the height distance I wanted and cut 6 boards to that height. Then I sanded down the boards with a trio of sand paper.

1. Next I screwed the legs horizontally into the top supports ensuring the table was level as I added each leg.

2. Once the table was standing I decided it needed a bit more support (the table was long!) so I cut, sanded and screwed in additional supports between the legs at the bottom.

Here are all my measurements, she is large!

Step 4: Staining I originally planned to use Varathane Vintage Aqua stain as I thought it would go well with our SW SeaSalt walls. But when I sampled the stain I decided it was too bright so instead I went with the Worn Navy to contrast.

1. Before staining I prepped with wood conditioner (my preference is Varathane Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner) following the directions on the can. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

2. Then I added my first coat of stain, I use a cloth to apply stain. I dip the cloth into the stain, wipe on my boards and then wipe off access stain. After the stain has dried, I sanded and added a second coat.

1. Finally, I added 3 coats of polyacrylic (my preference is Miniwax Polyacrylic) following the directions on the can.

2. TIPS: Make sure to sand between each coat of stain and poly and use a high quality brush when you add poly to reduce streaking!

Reveal

I love that the table adds additional color to the space and that the stools tucked under are not distracting. It also perfectly seats 4 people and fills the space exactly as the room needed but is not bulky.

What do you think?

Real Talk: In the end this is one of those projects that I am unsure on. I like it, it serves it's purpose really well, but I am not sure I love it and if I don't LOVE it then I don't want it taking up space. So I am going to live with it for a while and see if it grows on me. If not, I will try something else, in the end this project cost me $18 for some stain to test and a few hours of time so if I decide to scrap it, I will not feel bad about it.

Find Joy. XoXo,

Ashley