Free Martha: Simple Outdoor Bench
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Concrete Jungle: Plant yourself on this simple backyard bench.
Posted by ReadyMade
Project by Adrian Van Allen; photo by Brian Slaughter
Got a slab of Aegean marble lying around your country house? Read no further. Martha will tell you to hoist that Italian stone onto a pair of moss pots or stately urns as a perch for your roses. For months, my backyard confronted me with little more than scrap lumber and a few concrete blocks from our last demo project, plus a compost pile that is slowly becoming sentient. That changed one misty morning, when a few precast piers called to me in the voice of Frank Lloyd Wright channeled through Ace Hardware. “We want to be a bench,” they said. I granted them their wish. Not an hour later, I sat in my overgrown yard, wishing the patron saint of this column well.
Skill Level
Easy
Active Time
One day
Cost
$$
- 4 precast concrete piers
- 4 20"-long 4" x 4"s with 45° angle-cut ends
- 4 3' to 5' long 2" x 4"s
- Handful of nails
Materials
- Hammer
- Drill
Tools
Have your wood cut at the hardware store or do it yourself. The 4" x 4" trapezoid pieces should be 20" on the long side.
Lay two piers on level turf, 2' to 4' apart, depending on how long your 2" x 4"s are.
Remove the two wooden pegs from the tops of the other two piers. Now stack the pegless piers, wrong side up, atop the ones on the ground. They should fit together snuggly like Lego blocks. Place the 4" x 4"s on top of the piers, one at each edge.
Now lay the 2" x 4"s on top of the 4" x 4"s at a right angle. There should be about 6" of 2" x 4" hanging over each end.
Predrill the 2" x 4"s to ensure you don’t split the wood, then nail them to the 4" x 4"s.
Grab a copy of Martha Stewart Living and soak up all the good things under the sun.
