DIY outdoor corner benches

These two corner benches make for a cracking weekend project and you don’t need loads of kit to do a good job. You could easily nail it with the gear in the must-have woodworking tools post I wrote and there’s nothing complicated about it – just lots of cutting and screwing! So if you’re thinking about getting into woodwork or have recently started, this is the one for you. Materials and equipment are at the very bottom.

---

Planning

This is going to be a short section because these benches are almost entirely copied from a very popular YouTube video. I made a table for a local lady who then asked if I could make a set of corner benches so rather than come up with something from scratch, I followed the tried and tested method in the video. The only addition I made was to add a middle support to the back as the lady wanted to make sure the cushions she’s adding didn’t fall away.

Cutting, cutting, and more cutting

After modelling the benches in SketchUp (brilliant free design software) and confirming the dimensions, I ordered no fewer than 27 2.4 metre lengths of pressure treated 2x4s. The benches are made entirely from 2x4s which makes them both very robust and heavy.

Because there’s so much cutting to do, it’s really difficult to work out exactly how many lengths of timber you need. I’ve come across an app called ‘CutList Optimizer’ where you plug in your cut lengths and quantities and it tells you exactly how many lengths you need and how to cut them to minimise waste. So good for keeping costs down and not having to get more wood/having loads left over.

So, with the benches modelled and cut list sorted, out came the mitre saw. You could quite easily make all the cuts with a circular saw butted up against a speed square, but I prefer using a mitre saw when I’ve got a load of repetitive cross cuts to make.

As I had the wood delivered, there were some lengths that were uglier than others. I set these aside to be used for areas that would be less visible like the inside of the frame and the noggins.

It was a bit of a ‘mare keeping track of all the sections so whapping some labels on them is a good idea.

Planed 2x4s are already pretty smooth and have a rounded edge, but a quick tinkle with a sander is still a good idea.

The final stage before assembly was to slap some wood preserver on all the cut ends to prolong the wood’s life.

Frame assembly

You could make these benches with pocket hole screws for a particularly tidy finish but I opted for your bog standard 65mm decking screws. To make these as discreet as possible, I used a combination square to keep the screw positioning consistent.

Rather than using a standard bit to drill the pilot hole and then countersink bit, I used this combo bit which was a massive time saver.

With the pilot holes drilled, I started assembling the side sections. I clamped the 2x4s to my workbench, used a square to check their positioning, and then drove in the decking screws with my impact driver.

Here’s a photo of an almost-finished side section. It’ll make sense shortly, but essentially the bottom cross piece is screwed into the frame of the seat section.

A top piece finishes off the side section. The cut edge needs to be sanded or routed with a round over bit.

Soon enough you’ll have 3 identical side sections. You only need 3 as one of the two benches is left open so it can be butt up against the other bench to make it look like one piece.

Sides done, seat frames next. These are simple rectangles with noggins to add sturdiness and to provide a point to drive the seating into.

The side sections can now be screwed into the seat frame. A couple of clamps and quick check with a square make sure that everything is positioned as it should be.

By this point it’s already a pretty heavy beast and this is way less than half its finished weight!

The final stage before screwing down the seat is to add the back section in. The very top length of 2×4 can’t be screwed in the same way as the rest of the build so I added some pocket holes to the underneath side and then propped it in place before screwing. You don’t need to to do pocket holes – you could just ‘toenail’ screws in by adding a diagonal pilot hole which would do the same job.

I then added a middle support and another just below the top length to help prevent it from sagging.

The other bench is almost identical to the first, the only difference being the one open end.

Seating

I used 6 lengths of 2×4 for the seating of each bench. Again, to keep the screws aligned I measured their position and marked them across each of the seat lengths using a square.

After doing a dry fit, we whapped everything on a trailer and made our way to the customer’s house where I’d add the seat lengths.

The very final stage was to position the 2x4s using packers to ensure consistent gaps and then screw them down into the frame.

---

We pushed the benches together and that was that.

The lady also bought a matching table with a built-in ice trough which looked great alongside the benches. She was buying these ahead of her daughter’s hen do and will be adding some cushions to the benches.

These benches really are an awesome first wood project. They look great and there’s nothing particularly tricky about putting them together.

At the time I bought the wood it was £9 per 2.4 metre length of treated 2×4 and so the wood came to £243 and there was probably a fiver worth of screws. Unfortunately, wood prices have gone up massively in the last few months and in the 2 weeks since I bought this timber it’s gone up to £11.75 per length!

If you fancy a slightly more challenging seating project, our decking seating might be worth a read.

Materials

• Pressure treated 2x4s
• 65mm decking screws
• Wood preserver

Equipment

• Mitre saw or circular saw
• Combination square
• Combi drill with countersink 3mm drill bit
• Impact driver
• Clamps
• Packers
• Orbital sander with discs or sandpaper if doing by hand
• Router with round over bit or just use sandpaper
• Pocket hole kit or just toenail screws in