DIY Outdoor Seating from Reclaimed Deck Boards

Outdoor Loveseat

Creating outdoor furniture with reclaimed wood is not only a green alternative to buying new mass produced plastic patio furniture but it will be original and look amazing!

This project started out when we were tearing down our old deck and wondered how we were going to dispose of all the old wood that we had piled up in our backyard.

Prior to moving to this home in the suburbs we lived in the country where it was a little easier to dispose of old wood on the property either by letting it pile up in the back 40 then allowing it to rot into compost or we would use it as firewood for our bonfires on the weekends.

Those were no longer options for us in our small backyard where the yards are so small.

Once we completely demolished our old deck we built a new deck in a different part of the backyard. 

The new deck looked empty so we thought about buying some new furniture. 

We went out shopping to the nearby big box stores ready to burn a small hole in our wallets only to be disappointed with the style and quality of furniture available.

We found the furniture the big box stores had available were priced way too high for the quality they were offering. 

We would sit in them only to feel the seat under us creek and sway as though they were ready to fall apart in the store.

That's when we had the idea of using the old deck lumber to build our patio furniture.

We found the perfect cushions in one of the stores so we bought them on the spot and drove home to start designing our reclaimed wood patio furniture.

Now that we had the cushions we were able to figure out the dimensions for our patio loveseat.

Designing

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We started by designing it in Sketchup so that we can view an awesome 3D model before building and to have an idea what amount of boards we will need to build the loveseat.

Plan in hand we brought in the reclaimed deck boards we needed into the garage. We started with building the four legs as this required most of the cutting, drilling and gluing.

Building The Components

The legs now complete, we started cutting all of the seating and backing boards. It was easy cutting as most of the boards were 24" long with the cross members being 50".

See full material list and dimensions at the bottom of this blog.

The trickiest part was figuring out the angle for the seat and backing. Using the garage floor we figured out an angle we felt would be comfortable knowing the size and type of cushions we bought.

Assembling The Outdoor Loveseat

With all of the boards cut and legs assembled we started assembling the loveseat.

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The assembly of the whole loveseat was rather easy, it basically took the same amount of time to assemble the whole loveseat as it took us to build the legs.

It was finally all assembled.

Finishing and Sealing.

We started by sanding the whole loveseat with 60 grit, then 80 and finished with 120 grit. This being an outdoor piece we didn't feel it needed any further sanding than the 120.

The sealant we used was Spar Urethane and the technique we learned from a Youtube video by Izzy Swan.

The first coat we used equal parts thinner, in this case mineral spirits and the Spar Urethane.

This helps to get the Spar Urethane to soak deep into the wood instead of just lying on the surface.

The second coat we increased the concentration of the Spar Urethane to about 80%, then the third and fourth coat full strength.

This method of sealing the furniture makes for a really durable finish.

We used a satin Urethane as we didn't want it to end up looking like a glass finish with all those coats of finish.

The loveseat is now complete and cushions are added.

Time to sit back and enjoy the back yard with our new loveseat made from the reclaimed wood from our old deck.

What's Next...

Now it was time to build a coffee table that you may have noticed in the image with the completed set.

We created a coffee table with a little twist.

 Check out this coffee table built with reclaimed wood here to get the full detailed plan and steps we took to build.