Outdoor sofa to replace our falling-apart fake-plastic-wicker one, reusing the same cushions.
It’s roughly following Wilker Do’s Outdoor Sofa plans, however I adjusted the size, changed from a two-layer construction to lap joints / mortise-and-tenon joints, and filled in some missing details.
First time hand-cutting mortise and tenons, for the arm rest supports:
First time making half-lap joints, for the side frames; very happy with my new Infinity Tools Dadonator:
After some attempts at CAD, I ended up just cutting out scale paper parts and then measuring angles/lengths to fit them together. It mostly worked, but some lengths didn’t work out in wood.
I used western red cedar for rot resistance, since this will sit unsheltered. I haven’t finished it yet, I’m considering poly, boiled linseed, or Thompson’s water seal (glad for recommendations). First time working with cedar, it’s very soft and scratch prone, smells great, and is noticeably lighter than pine. Also pricey; one thing I didn’t like about this design is it is fairly overbuilt.
You mean a bench?
Looks great!
That looks way more comfortable than the living room couch my wife bought. I don’t even sit on it now because its so deep you can sit up.
Hah, yeah we have one of those couches that swallow you. This is quite firm now, I’m considering taking the center support out from under the seat slats to give it a little spring but I’m not sure which I’d prefer.
Could you shave the support and add a rubber compressible gasket. Gives you some play, but backup if somebody sits down heavy.
My kids sat hard on an IKEA one before and went through it
Oh, interesting. Yeah, we’ve broken cheap slats like that before too.
I have a recommendation for finish: Spar varnish. It’s kind of an outdoor urethane, it’s UV resistant and more flexible than regular everyday furniture poly. I’ve got some Helmsan spar varnish on my planter boxes, and they’re holding up alright.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Excellent job by the way, those angled tenons are really good work!
Love it!
The angles on those arm-rests! 😍
Yeah, those were a real pain, but I’m very pleased with the look. Band saw rough cut, hand planed smooth. I couldn’t figure out how to set up a jig on the table saw.
Awesome!
Looks great! Awesome idea to reuse the cusions too!
Thanks! Hopefully they last a while, I didn’t check if it would be easy to find the same size again.
Looks amazing!
I’ve saved this post as it’s giving me some ideas :))
This is really good looking, better than the photo on the plans site!
Wow, that looks so good. And the joints came out great.
