Shelf Behind Couch

Due to our strange living room size and shape, to add any seating without losing "kid space" we had to get a corner couch. This corner couch made it nearly impossible to put in end tables. We needed a place to put the remote and cups! Well, anything, besides the floor.

A quick Pinterest search has shown me a very simple "why didn't I think of that" answer.

A shelf.

A simple shelf attached to the wall in line with the back of the couch.

**Face Palm** Of course. Basically, create a sofa table, then there's no need for end tables! At least, not on the side that we can actually put the couch against a wall.

When I bought the wood to make the photo ledges, I bought an extra 6 foot long pieces that's 6 inches wide. I didn't want it to stick out too much, just enough to hold a mug and charge a phone.

I didn't feel like doing the whole painting by hand thing again, so while I was spray painting the sunglasses frame, I spray painted the wood, too. Just the side that shows. I didn't need to do all over. No one would see it, why waste the time and paint?

(The Ikea ones I bought that don't fit. Image from here.)

I also bought the wrong size L brackets. Opps. Definitely keep the width of your wood in mind when picking them out! Luckily, my dad just happened to have a whole much and many different sizes at his disposal. He claims they were on sale and "you never know when you might need one". Ok dad, if you say so.

A simple find the studs, screw brackets to wood, and shelf to wall, and it was done. Really, it was that easy. You could get a bit more fancy and use corbels or fabric wrap the shelf part. Paint a design. Anything, it's yours to play with. Mine's just nice and simple. And because the studs are set in from the edges of the shelf, it kind of looks like it's floating. I find that cool. Maybe I'm weird.

A simple fix to an awkward problem. You definately can customize it as much or as little as you want, but now you know not to let lack of floor space keep you from having a place to set things down!