Community Brag Posts

I built this for my wife for an anniversary present. She had wanted a garden bench for some time but the ones that she wanted were between $500-$700 which is ridiculous for this type of bench. So, I did a search on here for garden benches but there weren't really any plans for them and the few brag plans were not really the type of bench I was looking for. I printed off a few pictures of benches that I liked and got to work. The front and back legs a 2x6 and a 1x6 glued together and then cut to be straight. I wanted something thicker then just a plain old 2x6. If I had to do this again though, I would have just glued 3 1X6's together. The reason being, is that 1x6's usually do not have a rounded edge and a 2X6 does. So needless to say when you glue them together you have a nice little gap on either side. Without a table saw to take this off, its pretty difficult to get a straight cut. But I ended up getting it right after sweating for a few hours in the garage. The bench stands 36 inches high, 48inches wide and about 18 inches deep. The seat height is right at 18in also.

In the unfinished pictures I actually had the depth being 24 inches. After sitting on it though it was just way to deep. So I pulled it apart, made the adjustments and its now much more comfortable to sit in.

If anyone has any questions or wants more details feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks!

I wanted to say thank you for the inspiration.

I took the general idea, made it bar height and my own preferred size and beefed it up by doweling together the top pieces.

Given the size, I made the top removable with threaded inserts as well as the removable support beams below.

For the benches, I wanted something sturdy and a look that was similar to the table.  I added in a nickel support rod for the foot rest for both strength and a nice look.

All in all this project took a lot of time, probably more so with my perfectionist ways and wanting to  make the finish perfectly smooth.  It's like glass, which I just love against the dents and dings of the wood.

Some of the challenges were wood that warped.  After putting together the bench tops, the wood warped quite a bit, nothing that a few clamps couldn't undo but a pain nonetheless.

Using black stain really brought out a nice look and I'm taking that same look to the new trim and door that are going into the dining area as well.

I've not seen a bar height (not counter height) table in a full dining table size before, it's what I wanted and I couldn't be happier with the results.   Was it worth all of the time?   That's hard to say, I really love it, but it took a long time to get it to be exactly what I wanted it to be.

Thanks!

Loved this project!  We had an old headboard so my wife came up with the idea to cut off the top posts and use them as legs.  

I had just built the Tryde Side Table and it was so easy I gave a shot at this project. Took about 4 hours to build and is a really sturdy, good looking entertainment center. The only thing that I did not like that I would change is an overlap of the tabletop in the front. There is an overlap on both ends but not in the front. Other than that, I really like the outcome.