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.
Love the proportions, those are some mighty clean joints as well.
If you’re thinking of keeping the cishions outiade, you can make your own waterproof covers by mixing clear silicone sealant with isopropyl alcohol and painting that onto your choice of fabric.
You mean a bench?
Looks great!
I would be happy to get a clear rundown of the terminology.
To me, “bench” is the term if there are no cushions, but having placed them on, it seems inappropriate. This article though seems to say benches can have cushions, storage, etc. And (while we’re at it) Martha Stewart says “sofa” means a formal centerpiece of a room, versus its casual associate the “couch”. Anyway this feels dangerously close to going full cube rule.
Haha! Thanks for the cuberule. That was a great read!
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.
I think the way to do these on a table saw would be to use a tapering jig with the blade set at 90 degrees to get the rough shape. That would allow you to flip one to get a mirrored version. Then tilt your blade and run them through again using a bevel jig that saddles over the fence
Sounds very reasonable. (-:
And, seems like I need to make some more jigs! That’s usually the answer.
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!
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.
Love it!
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.
Wow, that looks so good. And the joints came out great.
Looks amazing!
I’ve saved this post as it’s giving me some ideas :))
Awesome!
This is really good looking, better than the photo on the plans site!
