Modern Garden Bench (super Easy)

If you're after a little wood project (like I was), then hopefully you'll find some inspiration in my little garden bench build. I'm no expert so wanted to keep things simple and cheap (spent around £70 in total). It can be easily customised to fit your needs, but my goal was to build a bench big enough for 3 people. Hopefully you find this guide useful, any questions or tips please add to the comments below.

Timber (Treated timber for external use)

• 45 x 95 x 1700 mm (x6)
• 45 x 95 x 360 mm (x12)
• 22 x 47 x 460 mm (x10)

Tools

• Sander
• Drill
• Biscuit joiner
• Mitre saw
• Clamps

Other

• Wood stain
  
• Wood glue
  
• Wood filler
  
• Biscuits
  
• Screws

Before cutting anything to size, I took the ends off each piece of timber as they're always a little rough and damaged. I then used my mitre saw to cut all the main beams x6, legs x6 pairs and the smaller joining pieces x10 (5 pairs). Once everything was cut to size, I sanded everything with P80 grit, as it would be difficult when everything is joined together. It didn't need to be perfect as we will be sanding again later on the exposed pieces of wood.

Once all the parts have been cut to size and sanded its time to see how everything fits together. My main aim here is to make sure all the good pieces of wood are facing out and the 'not so good' pieces are hidden in the center of the bench. I also noticed some imperfections in my cuts but most of this can be corrected during assembly.

The next step was to attach a pair of legs to each beam. I decided to use biscuits and wood glue as I did not want any screws to be seen once the bench had been assembled together. I would then clamp each side and let the glue set before moving on. To keep things square I cut another piece of wood to stop the legs bending in or out during clamping, this allowed me to keep everything square (or at least that was the plan).

You should now have 6 beams each with a pair of legs that are ready to be joined together using the smaller piece of wood. Lay down your first beam and mark where the joining pieces will go. I joined these together with 3 wood screws (pre drilling first) on each side making sure i used a counter-sink to keep the screw heads below the surface of the wood - this will allow for a more flush join for the next beam. These screws wont be seen once everything is joined together. Be careful not to hit a screw below when moving onto the next beam by alternating screw positions.

This is were some of the imperfect cuts started to show up with some legs not lining up. To get around this I clamped 2 pieces of wood (as per picture) around the legs to make sure they were aligned before screwing.

Once everything was joined together I filled the 6 screw holes on the final beam (I knew the back of this bench would have to have some screw holes that needed covering). I then sanded again with grit P80 working up to P120 for a smooth finish (i don't think this has to be perfect, the bench is going to get some knocks in its life, but nobody wants splinters). Once sanded, i used some exterior wood stain to darken the wood and give it an extra layer of protection from the elements.

I was really please with how this bench turned out. Its very strong and has a fair bit of weight to it, so its not going anywhere. If I was to make another one, I would probably consider the following:

• You could easily get away with having 5 beams instead of 6, but quite like the wideness it has.
• I would join the legs and beams with a nice 45 degree mitre cut (I didn't trust myself or my 20 year old mitre saw to do this), as this would create a better flow and look to the bench.
• When joining the beams to each other i just screwed them together, in hindsight I would have added some glue to fill any gaps and prevent water from seeping between them giving your bench some extra protection.

I enjoyed this build and even though its far from perfect its spot on for my garden. I hope this guide helps and would love to hear how others would improve it.

Many thanks

Carl