This page is not a building plan, or even a tutorial. Think of it as more like an “update.” Remember these chairs?
And do you remember these tables?
Technically only two of our chairs are scrap wood builds, as we actually purchased the lumber to build the other two. The tables are scrap wood builds as well.
I always knew once these chairs and tables were finished, I wanted to paint them a bright color. Since we have a gray house with black shutters, I envisioned a bright red or a navy blue. But before I painted them, I filled in the holes with wood filler, sanded the chairs with 40 grit sandpaper and an orbital sander, and I put two coats of primer.
I learned something while painting these chairs: if you’re painting something that is raw wood and has never been painted or stained, you will need to use a good primer first. I applied two coats of primer to my chairs and tables prior to painting them. You also only need about 45 minutes drying time between both coats.
I let the two coats of primer dry for about 24 hours, and then I applied the red. I just love this color. It’s Benjamin Moore outdoor paint and it’s called “million dollar red.”
I ended up applying two coats to each piece of furniture, and allowing 24 hours drying time between the coats.
Our cute little firepit area is far from finished, but I can’t help but love the way these tables and chairs turned out. The coolest thing is about the whole area is that we built the furniture ourselves. I can’t wait to show you the finished patio. Stay tuned!
My husband and I are in the midst of cleaning out our garage. While most of the “clean up needs” are simply a matter of putting things away, my scrap wood pile is a pretty big issue.
Yikes. That’s a lot of scrap wood.
Maybe I should change my blog name to “Lumber freaking everywhere.” Seriously, my scrap wood pile has gotten a little out of hand. With the cost of lumber these days, you can’t throw it out or waste it. I decided instead I’d build something from the scrap wood instead. My dad and I did a lot of woodworking projects together, I always enjoyed it, and I really miss it. And since we are quarantined, it isn’t like I have tons of things to do.
I wanted some wooden adirondack chairs for our new firepit patio, but I didn’t want to pay for them. Also, a lot of wooden adirondack chairs are overpriced, not real wood, and not very sturdy. If you aren’t familiar with Ana White, you should be. She is a blogger in Alaska who does tons of woodwork projects. She also publishes very thorough plans with diagrams and pictures, step by step instructions, a shopping list and even a cut list so you will know how long to cut your boards. They’re also 100% free!! I flipped through her plan catalogue and found an adirondack chair plan I thought I could build.
See how easy she makes this? Her plans are phenomenal.
I happened to have enough scrap wood to build two chairs. I only needed to buy the screws. I quickly cut out all the pieces I’d need for two chairs.
Here are all the pieces for one chair.
Begin by taking your front and back legs and attaching your stringer piece to them. I chose to attach the top of the stringer piece at 11 inches. This will be one side of your chair- two legs and a seat support.
2. Flip over your chair and attach your 2×2. This is your arm rest support. You will want this on the opposite side of your stringer piece.
3.Then, you will mirror this on the other side .
And now you have both sides of your chair base completed.
4. Join your two sides of your chair base together with a 2×4 stretcher piece.
It’s starting to look more like a chair!
5. Now you attach five chair slats to your seat support at 1/2 an inch apart.
6. Get yourself a really cute shop cat to follow you around and meow at you while you work. Actually, that step is optional.
Tommie Gray keeps an eye on things.
7. Build the back of your chair. Connect your back slats using two 2×4 bracers. I did mine at 1/4 inch apart.
8. Flip it over and secure the 1x4s to the 2×4 bracers using 2 inch wood screws.
9. Attach your back brace to your chair frame, and secure the chair back to the brace.
10. And finally, attach your arm rests to the chair.
Annie Sue likes the new chair. She thinks it’s hers.
And then you have a comfy adirondack chair, made from real, solid wood. Shop cat approved!
I ended up building two of these chairs from scrap wood, and purchasing lumber to build two more. I’ve now built four of these chairs altogether and one side table. I still need to fill in the holes with wood filler, sand them, paint them, and put them out by our fire pit.
I can’t wait to show you the finished product, and next week I will show you how I built the side table.
As most of you have probably figured out, we are in the midst of a little backyard revamp. We have been working on revamping our flower beds, tilling our garden spot, and changing out banisters and rails on our porch.
Our garden is ready to go!! Flower bed clean out
A few weeks ago, we got a very nice propane fire pit. We had this small, not very useful paver patio.
It was so narrow you could barely put a chair on it without tipping off the back. We didn’t really use the space well either. We decided a long time ago we wanted to expand the paver patio to the fence and extend it a little more in the front. Since our state has implemented stay home orders, we aren’t going anywhere on the weekends. This gives us plenty of time and opportunities to get our projects done. Plus, Lowe’s has been having some killer sales.
Did you know you can order and pay online and park in a pick-up only space and they’ll load it up for you? Just like Instacart. And no going inside the store and getting sick.
We measured and discovered we would need 2 more rows on the back and one row on the front. This came out to 24 pavers. We ordered and paid online and Lowe’s loaded them up for us. We got home, leveled off our patio area (it isn’t perfect but close) and installed the pavers.
Phase one complete
We are not yet finished. We are in the process of building some chairs for this space, which we will show you soon. We are also going to add some tables or garden stools and some colorful plants. I’d love to have a different sign and some string lights as well. I cannot wait to show you the finished product! Tune in often to check out our backyard progress.
Our patio “still to-do list:”
*build four wooden chairs
*add some cute tables or garden stools
*add some decorative elements, like string lights and cushions and a new sign
I don’t know about you all, but I’m willing to bet you find our current self quarantine situation challenging too. We are struggling to adjust to working from home, homeschooling, and not being able to leave the house. In some ways, I am embracing it. I am an introverted homebody so I actually don’t mind the extra time at home. I’m also loving being able to have more time with my girls.
I’m also finding time to dive into some of my DIY projects. We’ve been working on our backyard lately. We had some flower beds that had been badly neglected.
Welcome to the jungle, we got weeds and rocks…
Well, now that’s just embarrassing. Random pole getting swallowed by a tree, more weeds than flowers and a broken birdbath? I don’t think it could be much worse.
We started by removing the random pole. It’s rained so much lately that I just rocked the pole back and forth and then pulled it up out of the ground.
Then, we removed the broken birdbath and took that thing to the dump. We trimmed the trees and pulled all the weeds. That took awhile. Lastly, we put down some fresh pine straw.
This is not your typical Lumber in my Minivan post. Most of our posts involve building things but this post? This one involves tearing things up.
We let some parts of our yard get overgrown and out of control.
Like this side yard flower bed we couldn’t see and never thought about. Seriously.
It looked like our house was abandoned from this shot. We lacked the equipment to make this look nice again, so we hired it out and now our home looks inhabited again.
Isn’t that 10,000 times better? I can’t wait to show you what we are going to put there instead.
We did some clean up of a different kind today, too.
This deck had seen better days. It was old, unused and many of the boards were beginning to crumble and rot.
We made the executive decision to remove it. And while I never thought I’d enjoy being destructive it was actually a lot of fun.
The floor boards were super easy to remove, as they were screwed in. I just got out our power drill and went to town.
The next part was none to easy, but it went much faster once we bought the crowbar and sledgehammer.
Bam! Two hours later, we had completely busted up and hauled off all of it. We still have to go back and clean the area up, but it looks better already. I can’t wait to show you what we put here- it’s going to be amazing.
I now know why Chip Gaines loves demo day- it’s a blast!!
Plus, you all know I love getting new tools and I got a new sledge hammer and a new crowbar out of the experience.
Have a wonderful day! Catch us Wednesday for a Pinterest roundup.
