Wooden Garden Bench
I’m the first to admit that sometimes my DIY projects come out like crap. Actually I’m the second to admit it. My wife has been known to tell me that my work looks like a monkey got a hold of a hammer. Fortunately, the garden bench restore was not one of those times.
If you look at the before picture, you can see that this garden bench was in some pretty sad shape. For about 10 years it sat under a huge pine tree overlooking my kids swing set. My wife and I used to sit there when the kids were really young and needed to be watched. Well 10 years of being outside and underneath a tree that constantly oozed sticky sap onto it, really took it’s toll.
One day while I was wandering around Lowes during my lunch break, I saw some 1″x5″x8′ pressure treated lumber that was perfect for this project. After some quick on the spot planning, I figured out that I could cut each piece in half then rip them length wise to get 4 bench slats per piece. That meant that with three pieces of lumber, I could redo the whole thing. Awesome.
Now if you have an old nasty bench in your yard and you’re thinking about following my lead, you’ll need a few tools for the job. The most important tool is a table saw. I have a Dewalt table saw
and I’m very happy with it. To rip a 8 foot board you’re really going to want to use a table saw. But other than that, it’s really a basic job. Just a sander and drill and you should be fine.
There’s only two cuts in the whole project that required some thought. The top and bottom bench slats are cut on an angle so that your back and your legs don’t rest on a hard angle. Fortunately my table saw allows for a 45 degree cut so it wasn’t a big deal. Once you’re finished with your cut list, it’s just a matter of sanding everything smooth and drilling new holes to mount the slats onto the metal frame.
So for about $15 worth of wood and an afternoon of my time, the bench looks like new. At some point I’ll probably use a solid stain on it so that it matches the other outdoor furniture that’s nearby but this is good enough for now. Definitely a non-monkey project.