Handmade Wood Bench with Box Frame and Chevron Top

Read the sequence from the top before cutting, painting, or moving pieces.

Build a Handmade wood bench with a chevron top and straightforward box frame base. The chevron bench top detail is striking for a dining bench or entryway bench! 

Add more chevron (aka broken herringbone) style to your home with a chevron wood barn door, an straightforward chevron garden trellis, a chevron wood ceiling, or a pieced wood modern chevron headboard.  

Get the printable Handmade bench plans here

Handmade Chevron Wood Bench with straightforward Box Leg Base

Hi, it’s Amy from Hertoolbelt back with another build plan.

This wood chevron bench, with a pieced stained wood top, will look great at your dining table, at the end of your bed, in your entryway, or anywhere else you need a bit of extra seating.

I love the look of the rustic chevron top, and this Handmade bench is a great addition to a farmhouse style or a more modern style with the sleek legs.

I used pine for the top chevron, which can easily be switched for any wood type that you like (reclaimed lumber would look solid).

You can easily customize the look of this bench with various stain colors and paint colors.

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This chevron bench is inspired by a clearly cute bench from West Elm that’s no longer available.

Their version had metal legs/frame, but my version sports all wood legs to make the building process direct and less expensive.

The legs for this bench were changed a little to make a sturdier rectangle end with a more modern box frame style.

Prefer to buy instead of Handmade? 45 Mudroom Benches We Love

How to Build a Handmade Wood Bench with Chevron Top

The printable woodworking plan contains all the details to build your own Handmade wood bench like this for an estimated lumber cost of under $50!

The chevron top looks intricate but is really a direct pieced wood top for beginning woodworkers. You can build it from 1×3 or 1×4 lumber, or whatever you have on hand.

The 2×2 bench base is really straightforward to build, and you could use just a couple of boards for the top if you prefer a faster bench seat.

Tools Needed

You’ll need a compound miter saw, brad nailer, and drill/driver to build this plus a table saw or circular saw with edge guide if you choose to rip any boards to width to help straighten out the edges of the low-cost pine furring boards (like I did).

Read more about choosing straight boards and ripping your own boards.

You’ll also need a Kreg Jig pocket hole jig to assemble bench base frame and a countersink drill bit for attaching the chevron top to the base. A rafter square is optional but always helpful!

Bench Dimensions

The 4-foot bench is built to standard 18” bench height. Finished dimensions: 48” W x 15” D x 18” H.

Get this and more printable furniture plans here 

Finishing the Chevron Wood Bench

After you’ve followed the woodworking plans to build the bench base and chevron top, you’ll dry fit the bench top to the bench, then stain before attaching the top.

After filling in cracks and blemishes and sanding both pieces smooth, I finished the bench with a golden oak top and white painted base.

1. I primed the base with paint primer then painted it with white latex paint.
2. I stained the chevron top with Minwax golden oak and followed that with Minwax aged oak to add a little definition in the cracks and define the chevron pattern. The aged oak made the top slightly darker that I hoped, so I let the stain dry overnight and lightly sanded the dark from the surface of the pine and reapplied a light coat of golden oak.
3. I let the stain dry and applied a coat of Minwax semi-gloss polyurethane to protect the surface.

For a different style, you could paint the base to look like metal and stain the top in a more aged farmhouse finish like this.

You can also use our go-to color washing technique to stain the wood any color you like (or adjust the stain color like Cassity did on the barn door baby gate).

For fewer stinky fumes, you can even make your own Handmade stains!

open this to add this Handmade wood bench plan to your cart.

For more build plans look at Hertoolbelt:

Grand Island Console Table // Scroll Console Table // Crate Coffee Table

More Handmade benches to build:

• straightforward Handmade farmhouse bench with angled legs
• modern Handmade woven bench
• mid-century inspired Handmade triangle leg bench
• straightforward Handmade 2×6 bench with waterfall edge

Published 08 Oct 2016 // Updated 07 Mar 2021