I built this bench from some left over green treated 2x4’s. The wood was not exactly straight but it ended up alright. I cut my pieces on the miter saw, but you definitely could have used a circular saw or a table saw, even a hand saw if you are good at getting a straight cut with that.
I cut 4 -2x4 at 42 inches for the top of the bench( I only ended up using three of these). Then I cut 4 more 2x4 at 18 inches for the legs. These you want to cut as even as you can. Then lastly I cut 4 more pieces of 2x4 at 7 inches and these are for braces in-between the legs. You might be able to get away with just two or none if the bench is for decoration rather that putting anything heavy on it or sitting on it. When I got all my pieces cut I started assembling it.
Starting with the legs I took two leg pieces (2x4x18) and two braces (2x4x7) and made a block capital A letter. I lined them up using a square and clamped them together then I drilled pilot holes and screwed them together. I used too big of screws (3inch) .Next time I build one of these I will use smaller ones.
I repeated the same steps until I had two legs.
Lastly I stood the legs up and put the four pieces of wood on for the top so I could see where I wanted to screw them down. I ended up only using three pieces, because I thought that looked good.
I used a small square and drew the lines on top so that I knew where the boards were underneath and would not miss them when I drilled the pilot holes and screwed them in. I also could have put some triangle braces between the bottom of the bench for more support, but I can always add these in later if I feel that it needs it.
So here is the finished product. I only used 2 -2x4x8 to do this project. And no the corners don’t line up perfect but the bench doesn’t rock when you sit on it. I painted mine because green treated wood doesn’t stain very well at all. I had a stencil to add to it, and put two coats of polyurethane on it. It can be used as a bench or decoration for your porch and probably about 100 other things. Just think of all the ways you can decorate it. And if you get tired of the color you could sand it down and repaint it.
