The steps below follow the order of the work for this furniture project.
It’s spring and soon will be summer! Get your yard ready with our top picks for Handmade outdoor projects, woodworking plans, and tutorials. Includes arbors, benches, and outdoor furniture for the patio.
In our very own backyards, we’ve built some memorable outdoor woodworking projects we’re very proud of. Garden arbors, patio furniture, and pergolas — all our go-to Handmade outdoor wood projects! See all of the printable plans and tutorials here.
Best Outdoor Project Plans and Tutorials
These outdoor project plans and walkthrough are crowd favorites — and for good reason!
Summer dreams and southern living — this fire pit swingset pergola is memorable. It includes a buffet/bar area — which can also convert to a removable movie screen!
And you can build your own Adirondack chairs or benches to make the space comfortable, too.
For a simpler way to add ambiance to the backyard — add posts and lighting around the fire pit!
Redo an old swing set and play area by turning it into a Handmade American Ninja Warrior course!
Planning an outdoor wedding or other backyard event? look at these Handmade Outdoor Wedding options, including plans to build an A-frame Standing Chalkboard Easel!
go-to Outdoor Handmade Wood Project Plans
At the Canyon House, this gothic arch vegetable arbor was one of our go-to projects (of any of our projects). It made a great entrance to our new custom raised garden box area that we built after we installed our concrete patio ourselves (phew!)
Our girls were just tiny back then (see above photo), and we loved our indoor barn door baby gate, so we also built an outdoor baby gate to keep them safe from climbing on the deck stairs.
We also added these straightforward and affordable exterior Handmade wood shutters and saved a bundle — only $40 per pair!
Then, at our Birch House, we built and stained a deck — and then removed that stain (thumbs down!) and refinished the deck (which still looks great a year later!).
Since we were spending so much more time on the deck, we bought this patio table — and so many of you loved it, Amy created a building plan to build your own X-base outdoor coffee table.
Justin built this portable wooden wedding arch for his sister’s wedding — and we happily installed it on our deck after the ceremony!
For some added seating, we built an outdoor sectional sofa from plywood. It’s designed to fit standard size patio cushions, and the cushions slide under the bench for added weather protection.
The next summer, we changed things up a bit. We moved the sectional and the wedding arbor, and added our modern deck pergola. The direct construction makes it straightforward to adjust to your deck size, and it’s well fitted for adding straightforward string lighting and making the space feel more finished.
In our other backyard at the Jordan House (remember we have 2 houses right now?) — We revamped our concrete patio with paint, then updated our outdoor dining area and added this fun dimensional wood wall art — see the fully finished patio space here:
We have big plans for this space this summer… we’ll see how they turn out! Starting with building our own monogram planter — you can build one, too, with the plans in the shop (and more letters coming soon! request yours to bump it up our list
This summer, we built some raised garden beds to use as planter boxes! You can order the woodworking plans here and they’ll come right to your inbox.
We’ve also added an memorable Hidden Mickey Shaped Flower Bed Planter at Justin’s mom’s house — where are my fellow Disney lovers?!
It’s not so “hidden” but it comes together pretty quickly and will be really strong for many years with our tips in the video walkthrough.
Handmade Outdoor Furniture: Patio Table Woodworking Plans
For summer entertaining, this patio table with built-in drink coolers and matching benches is perfection! Plus, see how creative readers have fitted the table to fit serving dishes and made other modifications, too.
Build this round or octagon outdoor coffee table for the patio — the criss-cross lattice legs would be right at home in your living room, too!
Build a planter into the center of a waterfall edge outdoor coffee table — or swap it out for a drink cooler.
Need an extra buffet table or work table? Build an 8-ft portable folding table!
Handmade Outdoor Benches: Tutorials and Woodworking Plans
A double chair Adirondack bench is a great seat for your porch or backyard. Ours features cupholders, too!
Redwood is naturally rot resistant, which makes it a great alternative to treated wood for outdoor wood projects. We combined redwood with a concrete base to make this outdoor bench.
Deck benches add a lot to a wood deck. These built-in deck benches are designed for a small deck and take up minimal amount of deck space, thanks to their clever space-saving design!
This outdoor garden bench takes only 2 boards to build — so you can build one for every corner of the yard. straightforward to make, with a well fitted farmhouse detail on the legs.
Build a reclining outdoor lounge chair with storage — it can double as a backless bench when you’re not sunbathing!
Handmade Outdoor Pallet Wood Projects
Pallets are low-cost and sturdy material for outdoor projects — see our post here for tips to choose and break down a pallet for the wood.
Have you ever thought you could build an entire deck from pallets!
Inspired by the patio table with drink coolers, we built a reclaimed wood outdoor coffee table with a drink trough (or planter) from pallets!
With a few leftover pallets, you can also build a pallet bench!
Use rustic pallet wood to build large outdoor planters like these. (See this post for 25 more options for great Handmade outdoor planters.)
More outdoor projects:
- How to Paint a Concrete Patio
- 15 straightforward Ways to Increase Patio Ambiance
- 50 Outdoor Wood Projects Using 2x4s
- Patio Decor options
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