Darren made this garden bench for not much cash, and pretty amazing it is too! Made in preserved softwood, this is a really simple but robust design
Welcome to this months fabulous woodworking project. Today I am going to show you how to construct a simple garden bench. It’s simple in as much as it’s a very basic design but sometimes the best projects are not overly complicated.
You don’t need a lot of fancy tools for this project. A simple hand- saw will suffice but a mitre saw or circular saw will certainly make life easier and the job quicker. It all depends on what you have to hand. Also you’ll need a drill, some drill bits and some screws.
For this bench you only need four 8 foot lengths of 2” x 4” and three 8 foot lengths of 1” x 3”. I managed to build this bench for around £20 which is radically lower than something you might buy in a garden centre, plus you get the added bonus of having built it yourself which is in infinitely more satisfying than just spending over the odds for a store bought bench.
We’ll start by cutting all the parts needed. Below is a list of the wood and a brief description of each parts function.
2”x 4”x 13”- 4 - Side rails and arm rests
2”x 4”x 24”- 2 - Front legs
2”x 4”x 34”- 2 - Back legs
2”x 4”x 45”- 2 - Front and back rails
2”x 4”x 19”- 3 - Seat supports (The length of these will depend on the space between the front and back rails and can be cut once the main frame has been built.)
1”x 3”x 45”- 6 - Seat slats 1”x 3”x 45”- 6 - Back slats
To make this bench you could use a variety of ways for joining all the timber together. I am going to use a method called pocket holes which are holes drilled in at a 15° angle. This method is good for cabinet making and for applications where you don’t want visible screws but for something like this visible screw heads aren’t going to be that much of a problem.