Build a Farmhouse Style Bench

Part of the fun of having a wood shop is making great gifts for those you love. We decided to make these sweet farmhouse-style benches for our dads for Fathers' Day.

While these benches are perfectly functional for sitting, they can also double as a coffee table.

To build this bench, you'll need:

2" x 4" dimensional lumber

2" x 10" wood glue

2 1/2" screws

wood glue

paint

gel stain

The tools used in this project include:

a miter saw

a table saw

an orbital sander

a drill and driver set

a measuring tape

We started by cutting a four-foot section from a 2x10. Since eight-foot lumber is normally just a little bit bigger than 8 feet, we had to cut a little off of the edge of the second half.

Then we split the lumber into two equal 4-inch boards by ripping it down on the table saw. We first cut 9/16" off each side, which also squared up the edges to give it a nicer appearance. That left the board at 8 inches and 1/8, which gave us 1/8" allowance for the blade kerf, leaving us with two equal 4-inch pieces.

Next, we measured and cut our boards for the legs of the bench.

(4) 13.5" boards

(5) 12" boards

Once the leg boards were cut to length, we squared off the edges on the table saw to give them a nice clean look. As a personal preference, we cut a bevel in the boards for the legs wherever the end grain showed.

We then sanded all the pieces of our bench with some 120 grit sandpaper to make sure everything was nice and smooth and to remove some blemishes like stamps from the lumberyard.

Construction of the bench began with assembly of the legs. Then we attached them to the boards for the bench seat. We spaced the boards about 3/8" apart using some scrap wood.

Once the bench was assembled, we painted the cross-brace and both of the legs with two coats of white paint. For the bench seat, we applied a gel formula that has both the varnish and polyurethane in it which saved us a little bit of time. We chose a really traditional look, but if you wanted to just mix it up and get creative, feel free to do that.

We actually built two of these benches simultaneously - one for each of our dads for Father's Day. We think they turned out great and really hope they enjoy them.

Have you been inspired to build a bench?

Leave your projects in the Comments below!