DIY Outdoor Bench Plans

It's been a crazy hectic week around here. We had the carpet cleaners come a few days ago, so I have been doing nothing but cleaning and laundry the few days prior. I am finally....finally!! done with all the laundry. I kid you not when I say this, I have yet to see the bottom of my closet for at least 3 years now because of all the clothes. They are clothes that my husband decides to wear and then never washes....and apparently he could care less because they have been sitting there for three years. I know I know....I should have done the laundry by then. But first, they didn't smell so I didn't care. And second, I was sick of doing the laundry and having them all be his clothes..and here I am cleaning them, folding them, and putting them away. So, finishing the laundry wasn't exactly on my to do list :) lol.

Then the best part once I was all done cleaning? I had to move almost every piece of furniture off the carpet and onto the tile......and then it sat like that for a little more than a day. Talk about chaos....and crazy anxiety :) I hate clutter, it makes my blood boil. So having furniture piled up drove me nuts lol. Then yesterday we had some friends over for a bbq...so back to cleaning and organizing again all day :) Sorry for my blabbering...it's just been a fun four or five days without much rest but it brings the reason why I made this fabulous wood bench...or benches :)

The main thing on my to do list for this party was some outdoor benches for my outdoor table. I made my farmhouse table last fall with hopes of building some benches for it. Well, I didn't realize it would take me almost a year to do so lol. But I finally did :) These are some pretty easy plans that I grabbed and then tweaked from Ana White. The only thing about these plans that takes some time is all the cuts for the slats in the middle of the bench. Talk about major saw dust. I would advise against cutting these when it's 100 degrees outside...just trust me, saw dust and sweat do not mix :)...but on the plus side, you can get a good tan lol.
Okay, so the supplies you need (this is for one wooden bench):
2 – 1×3 @ 49 1/4″ (Seat Supports)
2 – 1×3 @ 13″ (End Aprons)
2 – 1×3 @ 50 3/4″ (Side Aprons)
14 – 1×4 @ 11″ (Seat Slats)
2 – 1×4 @ 52 1/4″ (Seat Sides)
8– 1×4 @ 17 1/4″ (Legs)

Saw (if you need to cut your wood still)
Wood glue
Screws/Screw driver
Countersink drill bit or drill bit to pre-drill holes
Square
Tape measure
Wood filler
Sander
Stain/pain
Polyurethane to seal (or polycrylic for paint)


Step 1: Layout your seat supports, end aprons and side aprons on a level surface. Place the seat supports 2 inches in on each side of the end aprons. Make sure they are square, adjust accordingly if not. Wood glue into place.

Step 2: Place the side aprons flush on the sides of the end aprons. Check your square. Wood glue into place.

Note: I found that it was much easier to wood glue the pieces into place first, wait to dry, and then secure with a screw rather than wood gluing and securing with a screw right after.

Step 3: Now for your slats. Start with the end slats first. For each end, place the end slat 1 inch from the top and bottom edge of the side apron (the side apron is 13 inches, and the slat is 11, so just doing this on one side will automatically give you that inch on the other.) Have the slat hang over the side apron by about 3/4".

Step 4: Line up each seat side (long 1x4) so that they are flush with the first seat slats you just finished. Wood glue and secure with a screw.

Step 5: Start placing your slats into place. I placed a line of wood glue along with bottom supports and then started placing the slats. You'll want about a quarter inch in between each slat...maybe even a little more. Start from one side and do a few, then go to the other side and do a few until you reach the middle. If you have a large gap in the middle, adjust your spacing accordingly. Work fast because the wood glue doesn't stay wet for long :)

Step 6: Get two leg pieces and place one on top of the other, butting up the ends and making sure they are flush all around. Wood glue these into place and secure with a screw. Do this with the other pieces. You should end up with 4 legs

Step 7: Wood glue and secure each leg into place on the corner of the seat supports.

Note: Pre-drilling holes will help from splitting the wood. Also using a countersink drill bit when pre-drilling will allow the top of the screw (once drilled in) to be covered nicely with some wood filler.

Step 8: Go through and fill in all the holes from the screws.

Step 9: Sand. Make sure all the splinters are out, soften up the edges a bit too :)

Step 10: Stain or paint! And then seal with Polyurethane or Polycrylic. I used a dark walnut stain for mine to match the bottom of the farmhouse table.

Step 11: Make sure your husband doesn't trim the grass right after you put the sealer on :( Unless you like having grass parts in your bench. Ugh lol

I'm sooo glad I finally got these done! We haven't had seating in our backyard for a long long time now, unless you count the uber wonderful camping chairs lol.

The best part about this? I worked my butt off to get them done...and no one ended up sitting out during our bbq/party. Figures. They all stayed inside. Oh well :)

Here it is with some soft cushies for the tooshies :) I'm going to make some outdoor pillows for these soon. I love the look of this. It's so inviting.

All the wood for this cost about $35 for two of these. If I payed more attention to the cuts and mathematically figured out the best way to cut them for the least use of wood, I bet I could have gotten them done for about $25. I have a ton of long pieces of wood left. So lets go in the middle and say each bench cost about $15. Not bad, eh?

Now that summer is halfway over, maybe we'll actually use our patio now and the farmhouse table :) Now to string up some lights, get the fire going, and grab the s'more makings.