Outdoor Furniture
An important part of any entertaining space is its furniture and an outdoor living space is no different. We view our back porch as an extension of our home so we wanted furniture that mimics a living room space such as a couch and loveseat. There are many options to choose from when looking at outdoor furniture and each have their pros and cons, but not matter what you choose in outdoor furniture the manufacturers and retailers are demanding a premium price and I like to tell a story with my furniture.
After construction was complete on our porch. I had a pile of 5/4” decking boards left over (I must of miscalculated). It had been enough time since they had been delivered that I doubted that Lowe’s would take them back and who returns wood anyways. Additionally I have difficulty in hauling 16 foot lumber (I currently only have access to an 8 foot trailer). It was at this point that I blended my two problems together, an abundance of lumber lacking a purpose and a need for furniture requiring material.
We first purchased exterior cushions at the At Home store that went with the color scheme and look we were wanting on our Porch. Since the cushions were the only thing I wasn’t going to make and had no control over their size, I designed the couch and loveseat around the nominal dimensions of the cushions. Taking into consideration the decking boards I was going to be using for construction, it left me with fastening issues. Treated lumber does not glue well and we wanted to stain these with a semi-transparent stain instead of paint so the grain could show through on the wood. I chose to do a mortise and tenon style construction where I cut the decking boards down to 3 inches wide and laminate 3 boards together using Titebond III wood glue. Doing this I was left with 3” square timbers where I was able to cut to size and cut my tenons where needed. Some craftsman try to hide joints and depending on the vision of the final product sometimes joints need to be camouflaged in a way that the eye passes immediately over any joints. Other times, joints can be made as a feature of the piece and accentuated in a way that creates depth, story, and visual appeal in a product. I love the way mortise and tenon construction looks from old barns and log homes, to modern furniture when used properly.
We finished off our couches with Cabot Gold pre-tinted Moonlight Mahogany wood stain which gave them a different, but nice accentuating look to the dark stain we used on the deck of the porch. With the mortise and tenon construction, no hardware to speak of was required for assembly. The final touch was finally placing the couch cushions we purchased making these the perfect blend of indoor comfort and plushness with exterior ruggedness for lasting durability.
Staining the wood
