Here are some photos of the two different outdoor benches I made from scrap materials I had lying around. The smaller bench is great for my son but because I used a thinner piece of wood I had to make supports in the middle as well. Whereas the larger bench shown in the first two pics use thicker pieces of wood so the supports on the both ends is enough.
Other posts I've seen with a similar idea use 4x4 wood across cinder blocks, I didn't want to buy expensive lumber and that many cinder blocks. However, to see what other people did to make similar DIY outdoor benches You can click on the link below:
http://pin.it/OyrciEF
I didn't want to spend the money on expensive 4x4 lumber so I used some scrap wood I had lying around and some concrete blocks, cinder blocks, and bricks to construct my benches. They may not look as ascetically pleasing as the ones shown in the link above. However I only spent a few dollars at Lowes ($1.50 for each of the 4 cinder blocks & $2 on one 2x3 piece of wood that I cut in half.) You can get good deals on lumber from Lowes and Home Depot by purchasing their scrap pieces of wood or pieces in off sizes. The rest of the materials I had lying around my home or from leftover, unused materials at construction sites that they gave me for free (make sure you ask for permission, I'm not condoning any "midnight material supplies")
What I like about these benches:
They are sturdy, work for adults and kids, I didn't have to buy a lot of materials and spent less then $10 on everything, and since I live in a rental I don't have to feel bad about the time or money I spent making them if/when I choose to move.
List of Materials:
Smaller Bench~
-6 concrete blocks
-1 cinder block (for the middle support)
-1 piece of wood to lye across ( you can use cedar boards, a wood shelf, or even thick ply wood) the piece of wood I used measured 1ft x 3ft.
I didn't do this but if you want your bench to be more secure, you can use 2 extra concrete blocks (so 8 total) or bricks to put on top of your board on each side. I didn't feel I needed to do this for mine.
Larger Bench~
-6 cinder blocks
-1 2x4 cut in half
-1 2x3 cut in half
-4 standard size bricks
The bricks I used to put under each 2x4 piece on each side. This made all the pieces of wood line up to be the same height across and secured them in place so they wouldn't wobble or move around.
You don't have to use bricks you could use stones, pieces of wood or whatever you have lying around, but it needs to make a tight fit, I used a hammer to knock my bricks in filling in the gap between the 2x4 and the cinder block as far as it would go.
And that's all you need to make a inexpensive but versatile outdoor bench that will provide a nice seating area anywhere in your yard or on your deck/patio.
Hope you enjoyed my post! Please follow me on my blog or on Pinterest for more posts on DIY projects and to see what creative idea I come up with next!
