How to Make a Wooden Garden Seat
Garden seats can be as uncomplicated as a smoothed tree stump, tall boulder or an easily made garden seat. A garden seat can dress up any garden and could include planters at each end. The fragrant flowers or herbs in the planters will add to the ambience while you sit and enjoy the surroundings.
Things You Will Need
- One 4-foot pressure-treated post
- One 1-foot-square pressure-treated board
- Two 18 inch tall by 12 inch wide square wooden planter boxes
- Three 1-inch by 3-inch by 3 feet long pressure-treated boards.
- Twenty 2-inch wooden screws
- Eight 1 ½-inch wooden screws
- Power screwdriver
- Sander or sandpaper
- Pencil
- Cut the post in half and then cut each piece to be 1 inch shorter than the wooden planters. These posts will be your central supports.
- Cut the 1-foot square board into two pieces of the same width as the planter boxes. These boards will be your cross support. The planter boxes will be the side supports for the bench.
- Attach the flat center of the cross board to the top of the center support post using four 2-inch wood screws. The screws should form a cross over the post and below the support board. When complete, you will have a T-shape with the post as the base and the board as the top. Make sure that the top of the wood screws are level with the flat of the board to prevent gaps later in the project.
- Place the 3 foot long board’s side-by-side and make a mark 16 inches from both ends. You will have a 4-inch wide guide area in the center of each seat board, where the support board will be centered. Turn over the T and line it up within the guide marks. Make certain that the two outside seat slats are flush with the front and back edges of your support board.
- Fasten each of the outer seat boards into place using four 1 ½-inch wood screws. Screw from the support board down into the underside of the seat boards. The heads of the screws should be flush with the underside of the support board. Do not drill the screws in too deep, or the screw point could come out through the surface of the bench.
- Turn the bench over and rest the ends of the seat boards on the outer edges of the two planters. Screw the ends of the boards into the edges of the wood planters using a pair of 2-inch screws per end, for a total of eight screws.
- Center the last board between the two outer seat boards. Screw the board into place using the 2-inch wood screws. Use two screws on each end, and four screws in the center. Do not screw directly over the cross-oriented screws you used to attach the support board. As an alternative, form an X instead with one screw above each corner of the post. Make sure that all screws are flush with or lower than the surface of the seat boards to prevent clothes from snagging on them.
- Sand the upper corners of the wooden bench so they are slightly rounded. This will make the bench more comfortable.
- Paint or decorate the garden seat if desired.