Bench from Scraps

The previous owners of our home left a bunch of junk on one side of our house.  I've actually been using quite a bit.  But this bench actually started as the supports for a lattice box that surrounded our patio.

We took it all down when we moved in, except for the posts to hold our shade sails.

So we threw all these weathered 2x3's on the RV pad and they sat in the rain and snow for the last year.

But they were pretty straight, so I decided they'd work well to make a simple bench for our new rock patio.

I did sand them down and stained the wood so it wasn't the ugly gray.  I used Minwax's ebony stain because I already had it, and I had quite a bit I need to use.  The stain is pretty much black.

Using reclaimed weathered wood is good in some ways.  It saves wood from being trashed or burned, and you end up with interesting character from its past life. 

I couldn't get these nails out of the 2x4 junk pieces, so they add some character to the legs. 

But in other ways, it is a huge pain building with weathered wood, because most of it is warped and twisted.  It was a challenge to get the planks spaced evenly, and you can see they're not all flush with the base. Oh well.

As far as building, I built the base mainly with my Kreg Jig.  It's 2x4 legs with 2x3 apron, planks and supports.

Then I sanded and stained the base, then each plank separately.  I coated each piece with 2 coats of outdoor polyurethane. Once all the planks were dry, I screwed them to the bench base from underneath with the Kreg pocket holes.

Using everything I already had, this bench didn't cost me anything!

Bring on the marshmallow roasting!