Garden Storage Bench

A Garden Bench is great for relaxing outdoors, but for small gardens or patios it becomes necessary to use your space wisely and so Peter and Annalien build a Garden Bench with storage. Watch how they give you a step by step guide on how to build your own storage bench.  

What you will need:

Tools Material list
Circular saw plus skil guide 20mm meranti or saligna
PST 18 JigSaw storage box bottom 1000 mm x 500mm – 1 piece
PSR 18 Cordless drill storage box front and back 1000 x 350mm – 2 pieces
PSM 18 Cordless Sander Storage box sides 460 mm x 350mm – 2 pieces (grain in long direction)
Router plus parralel guide seat back slat 1000mm x 50mm – 1 piece
  seat slat 1040mm x 470 mm – 1 piece
  front legs 80mm x 500mm – 2 pieces
  front legs 60mm x 500mm – 2 pieces
  Back legs 1000mm x80mm – 2 pieces
  Back legs 1000mm x60mm – 2 pieces
  Back rest  1040mm x 150mm – 2 pieces
  Piano hinge 1000mm – 1 piece
  hook and eye +/- 75 – 100mm
  Waterbased varnish with a stain in. NB not grip seal it colours too much, we need to see the grain. We can also stain and then cover with clear varnish.
  wood glue
  wood filler to match stain
  4 x 40mm screws
  piece of wood for tooth brush holder – drift wood can work

Steps to build the bench

  1. Box Section 
    1. Once all your pieces of wood are cut to size according to the material list, mark off where the sides join onto the bottom of the box section.
    2. Drill all the pilot holes after marking off where they go.
    3. Join all the sides to the bottom, then join all the sides together using screws.
    4. With the box built, you can now router a decorative groove all around the box using a parallel guide attached to your router.
    5. Attach the back slat to the top of the seat that the hinges will be attached to.
    6. Grooves can be made to the seat if you require them using the router.
  2. Legs
    1. Mark out where legs join together and mark for pilot holes (only one side of the leg needs pilot holes)
    2. Drill the holes on one side of each leg.
    3. Mark out and cut shape on bottom of the legs and back legs using a jigsaw.
    4. Join legs together with screws
    5. Join the legs to the seat box with screws
  3. Back slats
    1. Cut out the shape for top slat using jigsaw if you want a shape to it
    2. Attach the slats to back legs using a piece of wood as a spacer in between the slats
    3. Sand the complete project before staining or varnishing, allow to dry well then repeat the process
  4. Hinge
    1. Attach the hinge to the box lid and then attach it to the slat on the box section by first lining them up. 

Get the project building plan