Making wooden garden furniture as a hobby

As we hear that there may be a shortage of garden furniture this summer having a hobby building wooden garden furniture may be a good plan. The beauty of designing and building your own pieces is that they will be unique and can be constructed to suit your needs.

Probably the most common piece that people new to this hobby will build will be a wooden bench. The simplest design to start with is probably a back less version of the bench with a slatted base. This enables any rainwater to run off the seat instead of pooling and soaking into the wood. If this type of bench is sited against a wall there is no need to have a back on it if you want to keep it simple.

Many people use pallet wood to build garden furniture out of and this can be a cheap alternative to buying wood from a timber yard, but pallet wood is usually rough sawn so will need to be sanded down and painted with preservative to prolong the life of any furniture made from this material. If you want a more professional appearance to your completed garden furniture then hard wood that has been responsibly sourced is probably a better choice.