I built this tray to accompany an ottoman that I recently built. It's made entirely of scraps from older projects (except for the handles).

Step 1: Prepare the Hardwood Floor

For the base of the tray I used three pieces of hardwood flooring all cut to the same length. I then the tongue off of one of the pieces so that the edges all around would be smooth. I then cut a piece of 1/4" hardboard to the same size as the three hardwood floor pieces and glued the flooring to the hardboard using gorilla glue.

Step 2: Cut and Stain Sides

Once the bottom of the tray was completely dry, I cut pieces of 1x3 boards to fit the sides. I sanded the boards fist with 100 grit and then 220 grit sandpaper and then stained the boards the same color as the wooden base of the ottoman was stained.

Step 3: Attach Sides to Bottom

Once the stain dried, I attached the sides to the bottom using wood glue and a brad nailer and 1.5" nails.

Step 4: Add Hardware and Enjoy

The last step is to attach the hardware to the shorter sides. I picked a relatively inexpensive, yet good-looking pair of handles and attached them with the provided the screws. Now the tray is complete and ready to provide a stable and athletically pleasing platform for my parent's new coffee table ottoman.