Craftiness: DIY Wooden Couch Sleeve

DIY Wooden Couch Sleeve

On a quick trip to Lowe’s for some last-minute wood stain (coughcoughPinterestChallengecough), I also picked up a slim pine board that seemed juuuuuust the right length for sawing into thirds for another scrap wood project I’ve been meaning to try: a DIY wooden couch sleeve.

For this project, you will need:

wood of your choice (it’s a great scrap wood project!)
stain & poly (this is one of my favorite stains!)

All you need to do is measure the width of your chair and cut the sides and top on a miter saw or table saw. Be sure to add about a quarter of an inch (for an easy fit over the chair or couch’s arm rest) plus the width of the sides to cut the top to the correct length. Glue and clamp the sides to secure the bottom two pieces to the top, and let dry. Then stain and poly to your liking. You can use a few pin nails if you want to help the glue set, but I chose not to. I didn’t even miter the edges, and it still looks pretty great.

This project takes all of ten minutes to set up and however long it takes to dry (check the back of the can of your stain and poly for that info). I made two of them for the living room, and my dad has been asking me to make some for him ever since! Theoretically, it can work well for even rounded couch sleeves as long as the sides are long enough to steady the sleeve on top of the arm rest, but square arms work best.

The fact that I picked up a perfectly good board for no other purpose than this means that it’s decidedly not a scrap wood project. But it’s still a pinspired project since I found (and pinned) the idea several months ago. Just not technically a part of last week’s party.

I found even more motivation to go ahead and complete this project thanks to Merrypad, who linked up her version for the Pinterest Challenge link party. So not only was I pinning the original, I was now pinning her version which was also based on the one I first admired.