A spill and a scrap arm-table

I spilled a glass of water on myself the other night; I left it on the arm of my chair and forgot about it until I went to stand up and knocked it into my lap and then the floor. Which wasn't as bad as it might have been, considering it was a plastic cup and I usually have my tablet or laptop with me but this time I did not. But the thought of drenching my surface had me hunting through my scrap bin for something I could turn into a table.

Typical set up: balanced but dangerous

Lots of scrap to use.

Thankfully I still had a good chunk of 1x10 left over from the desk, so with a few quick measurements I had the dimensions for a top and two sides that would span a pair of chair and couch arms. I needed just over 13' to span the arms, and then split the leftover equally for the two sides. I added one last bit of scrap to make one side longer to hopefully keep things steady. Time will tell.

Glued & screwed

Lightly sanded

Stained and poly'd

One thing I didn't think about until I was already staining was that adding that third piece means the long arm has grains going two different ways. It's a neat enough seam that with some sanding you can't feel the difference, but you can definitely see it. And it has cut edges on the outside vs the other pieces having finished edges that match so the stain is darker on the outside bottom edges. It's a little unsightly but you don't really see it once it's on the couch.

Ta da! New phone pic too.

Nothing like a quick scrap project to scratch my project itch. I'm starting to wonder if I should try my hand at some joint-work eventually. For now, nothing wrong with the simplest solution. Pocket screws, a little sanding, stain, poly, and we're done. Will this survive the rigors of a living room that's home to two rambunctious little ones? I honestly don't know. But it can get stashed on the console table when no one is using it. I look forward to putting my coffee and surface on it during my next day off.