Growing up in the suburbs meant that I spent as much of my summer outside as I could.
As a kid we would play hide-and-seek in the backyard. If the night was warm enough we would sometimes set up a tent and sleep outside. If the temperature dropped too low, luckily we had a fire pit and my dad could start a fire. We would all huddle around the pit and even make s'mores sometimes. But when I saw this awesome DIY project, I realized that those nights around the fire could've been even more perfect.
I found this really cool project on A Beautiful Mess, where Joshua Rhodes builds a beautiful bench for a fire pit. What a great idea!
Joshua's bench is an amazing addition for any backyard fire pit. I'm jealous that I didn't have one when I was growing up. Now Joshua can sit around with his friends and cozy up to the fire on a chilly summer evening. Time to break out those s'more supplies.
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Joshua originally planned on making a bench to encapsulate the entire fire pit with a split hexagonal shape. He quickly realized that a full 360 degree bench would look too big for the space, so he settled on a bench for one side.
Joshua wrote, "The build took about two days, which included the trip to Home Depot for supplies, which came to about $125. I've seen similar benches in the $2K range, so it was a pretty good deal."
He started with the frame pieces that would eventually form the framework of the bench seat.
While screwing the legs on, Joshua needed to put extra pieces of wood underneath. Since he was working on grass, he needed something to make things a little more even.
Flipping the bench over, Joshua applied the seat panels and screwed them into place.
He could have stopped there. The bench was all ready ready to sit on, but Joshua had other plans.
He wanted to make his fire pit seating even better, so he began to assemble a back to the bench.
Wanting the bench to be perfect, Joshua was careful to make sure that everything was level before using his circular saw to cut the back panels to the right length.
Joshua admits he had to wing things somewhat: "The first thing I did was figure out what the heck I was doing." But his hard work paid off!
Joshua's friends Laura and Todd pitched in a bit throughout the process, but they took charge for the final step of painting the bench.
Joshua suggested, "It always helps to have help on a project like this so you can bounce ideas off each other, and a helping hand is invaluable."
And that helping hand paid off, because the paint complimented Joshua's amazing bench perfectly. When Todd sat on it he said, "Now this is a bench." Joshua replied, "What more could I ask for?"
Please SHARE if you also think that backyard DIY projects like this are a great idea.
