How to make a DIY garden chair

In our previous article How to make your own garden table you learned how to make your own garden table and in this article we will show you how to make a garden chair for your new table. This chair is light, nice looking and trendy and it goes perfect with your garden table. So, let’s start with this DIY garden chair tutorial.

Dimensions of garden chair:

1. height = 76,5 cm (30,1 inches)

2. length = 53 cm (20,9 inches)

3. width = 41 cm (16,1 inches)

First take the jig saw and cut all the parts for you garden chair:

a)  two 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) planks 45,5 cm (17,9 inches) long – those are the back legs of the chair and you will need to cut both sides at 15 degrees angle and both legs must be parallel;

b)  two 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) planks 34 cm (13,4 inches) long – those are the upper bars and you will need to cut one side at 15 degrees angle because it mounts on the back leg;

c)  two 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) planks 44 cm (17,3 inches) long – those are the front legs;

d) one 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) plank 33 cm (13 inches) long – this is the front bar;

e) eight 2,5×7,5 cm (1×3 inches) plank 41 cm (16,1 inches) long – those are for the seat of the chair;

f) two 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) plank 40 cm (15,7 inches) long – those are the lower bars and you will also need to cut one side at 15 degrees angle;

g) two 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) plank 52 cm (20,5 inches) long – those are for the back of the chair;

h) one 5×5 cm (2×2 inches) plank 23 cm (9,1 inches) long – this is the lower bar for the back of the chair.

After you prepared all the parts of your DIY garden chair, you need to prepare the tools as well. For this project we need: two inch wood screws, three inch wood screws, wood glue, wood filler, sander, wood paint, hammer, drill, tape measure and paint brush.
Before assembly carefully study all the instructions and write down the dimensions for cutting because it is very important to cut the pieces as described or else the pieces won’t fit. Always drill the holes before putting the screws and the hole must be smaller than the screw otherwise the screw won’t hold. We recommend that you sand all the pieces before assembly because sanding the finished product is much harder and the results are not as good.
After we covered all the ground rules we can proceed to step by step instructions. Take notice that all the pieces are marked with the same letter like in the cutting instructions.

Assembly

First assemble the front and back legs to the upper bar with 3 inch wood screws. After you assemble both pairs compare it because they must be identical otherwise the chair won’t have stability.

Now connect the two pairs of legs to the upper bar like in the picture below. The joints must be at 90 degrees angle and be sure to use the clamp because it ensures the stability of the pieces during the drilling and screwing.

When you assembled the bottom part of the chair it is time to put the seat. Use five planks and start with the front plank. Make sure to leave 0,5 cm (0,2 of an inch) space between the planks for visual appearance. Screw down the planks with two inch wood screws on both sides of the chair.

After you assembled the seat it is time to put the lower bars between the front and back legs. The side cut at 15 degrees angle goes on to back leg. The bars must be mounted on the height of 20 cm (7,9 inches) from the ground. For attaching use the three inch wood screws.

Now the base of the chair is finished and now it is time to assemble the back of the chair. First assemble the planks like in the picture below with three inch screws and be sure that the angles are at 90 degrees angle.

You probably noticed that you have two planks for the seat left. Now it is time to attach them to the back frame. Make sure that the upper plank is 3,5 cm (1,4 inches) higher than the base and make sure that the space between the planks is 0,5 cm (0,2 inches). For attaching use the two inch wood screws.

Now the back of the chair is also finished and now it is time to assemble the base and the back. Make sure to attach the back on two places, one is on the lower bar and the other is on the back leg. Use the three inch wood screws for attaching.

The assembling of your new DIY garden chair is now finished and all you have to do now is to paint to the color that you prefer. Make sure that you always put two coats of paint before putting the chair to use. We hope that this article inspired you to make your own garden chair and if it did send us pictures of your new chair and we will publish it on our site.