Once we had finished having a new garage installed and rebuilding the patio, my wife requested that I build some patio seating per her sketches. I had just finished carefully removing a tree house I had built for our daughter who was now in High School, and was looking for a project that would let me recycle the cedar wood from it. Cedar ages beautifully and smells great, so I build the two 5' x 2' patio benches as shown in the attached photos. My brother in law from New Zealand was in for a summer visit, so we had a ball constructing the benches together. The most satisfying thing about this project was that it closely resembled my wife's original sketches! This isn't always the case. They were pretty simple to assemble, but I found the most challenging aspect was how to assemble them and allow for the expansion and contraction brought on by our quite cold winters here in the northern midwest. I used deck screws and glue made for these situations, and both have held up well for several winters now. My wife is quite pleased with the design, and our friends and neighbors have found them quite comfortable. I have quite a bit of the treehouse wood remaining, and continue to recycle it in some of my newer projects. The patina of the wood is gorgeous and the natural smell while working with the wood infectious!
Once we had finished having a new garage installed and rebuilding the patio, my wife requested that I build some patio seating per her sketches. I had just finished carefully removing a tree house I had built for our daughter who was now in High School, and was looking for a project that would let me recycle the cedar wood from it. Cedar ages beautifully and smells great, so I build the two 5' x 2' patio benches as shown in the attached photos. My brother in law from New Zealand was in for a summer visit, so we had a ball constructing the benches together. The most satisfying thing about this project was that it closely resembled my wife's original sketches! This isn't always the case. They were pretty simple to assemble, but I found the most challenging aspect was how to assemble them and allow for the expansion and contraction brought on by our quite cold winters here in the northern midwest. I used deck screws and glue made for these situations, and both have held up well for several winters now. My wife is quite pleased with the design, and our friends and neighbors have found them quite comfortable. I have quite a bit of the treehouse wood remaining, and continue to recycle it in some of my newer projects. The patina of the wood is gorgeous and the natural smell while working with the wood infectious!
