Country style bench

A few months ago I picked up a fairly standard country style kitchen table. The table top needed sanding and refinishing. Now I’ve finally got around to making a bench to go with it. This is the first piece of furniture that I have made.

Its mortise and tenon throughout with old 2×3s that were left overs from when I built our chicken coop. I managed to find a design that I thought I could build with the 2×3s without having to plane them (I have limited tools).They actually looked not bad unfinished but I decided I wanted to paint it white to match the table legs. The top is some common board from home depot. I got two lengths that had knots on the ends, cut them to size to remove the knots and then edge glued them. Its attached with dowels that I countersunk and flush cut.

The hardest part was using the router to cut the tenons. I don’t have a table saw so I had to use some guesswork to get the depth right. Next time I won’t fit the joints so tightly – I had a piece crack after the dry fit, nothing major but still annoying.

The finish is 3 lots of BLO and 3 coats of poly.

Its sturdy, reasonably light for moving around and a good match to the table. Materials cost about $10.