Scavenger Chic

It Takes a Village to Build a Bench

• By Joan
• September 4, 2019
• 6 Comments

Several months ago I got a request from my sister asking if I wouldn’t mind making her a bench for out under her trees. I kinda, sorta forgot all about her request until she kinda, sorta brought it back up again when I was visiting last week.

No problem, I got this.  All I needed was to gather some wood.  Sometimes a scavenger mentality really works well and this is where my village comes in.

I built another bench back in July  and had scavenged a 4×4 for the legs from  #2 son’s  backyard for that project.

I had a little bit of that post left, enough for 2 more legs.

So I still needed 2 more legs.  This random looking post was stuck in my own backyard though it was originally in my mom’s backyard until she passed.  It used to have a couple bird feeders attached to it but my little squirrel friends wouldn’t leave it alone. Now 5 or 6 bird feeders later (maybe more), I’ve given up on this post so it was fair game for my remaining 2 legs. 

With all my 4×4’s I can now cut 4 legs, 15″ each.

The wood for the 2×4 frame was scavenged from #1 son’s house when he tore out all his walls and rehabbed his house.  You can see some of that house flip here.

Cut the two longer side 2x4s first, mitering the ends.   These are 43″.  Feel free to make your bench longer or shorter depending on your needs or how much wood you have.  Don’t cut the shorter end pieces just yet.

And now for the top pieces of the new bench.  You may remember these fence boards I salvaged from my brother’s backyard.  Most went to my grandson’s ceiling , a couple to the whale weathervane, but I still had a few left.

Cut your top bench pieces from inner mitered corner to inner mitered corner.  These are 40″ each.

When you know how wide your bench will be you can finish cutting your end 2×4’s, again mitering the corners.  These are 20″ each.  Yours may vary depending on how wide your top pieces are.

Nothing is attached quite yet, just showing you how things are put together.

One more part of the village … this thing used to be a coat rack but was  found in my sister’s backyard on her burn pile.  The 2×2 post was perfect for the bench, I’ll save the feet for something else.

Cut a 2×2 spindle, post or other scrap wood to fit between the legs to serve as ledges for the top boards to sit on.

Use screws to attach all your pieces together.  The ledges are not only screwed to the top boards but to the side 2×4’s as well.

Sand all your corners and rough edges.

I’m showing you the corner  to show you all the deck screws holding the legs in place.

Before I lugged it over to my sister’s house, I wanted to show you  how the bench could be used as a coffee table.

I finally found my way to my sister’s backyard and there was her old bench barely teetering on 3 legs and the top in even worst shape.  She claimed it was from overactive squirrels.

Hope the squirrels are happy with their new bench and it might even hold a human or two. The bench can still be stained or painted but I’ll leave that up to my sister.

Stay inspired.

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