DIY Outdoor Sofa
Hey guys! Is it Wednesday already? This past week has been so busy with week 3 of the One Room Challenge. If you missed week 1 or week 2, start with those first. This week we built some of our new patio furniture! I was SO excited for this part because I was really over our old patio furniture, which has since found a new home via Craig’s List. But rather than buy new furniture, this time we made it!
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For those of you who are new around here, thank you SO much for stopping by! But you should know, my regulars are likely not surprised I wanted to build my own 🙂 I am frugal by nature, but I also really love to create! Most of the time my hubby is begging me to just find something at a store and buy it. Well, I fell super hard for this gorgeous patio furniture at Restoration Hardware. But to buy all the pieces I wanted, it was going to be almost $20k! That’s not a typo folks. And since we did not win the half a billion Mega Millions jackpot a few weeks ago, $20k for patio furniture was WAY out of the question. So I came up with a plan to DIY it! Now I am not going to go through all the details right now because I just don’t have time for a full tutorial, but I will do one after the One Room Challenge is over 🙂 To kick off the project, I had all the wood delivered from a local lumber yard.
Then there was a lot of wood cutting.
The worst part was the sanding. SO much sanding! Seriously, if I never have to sand something again it will be too soon. 
But I really wanted the beveled edges on all the blocks and it honestly made a huge difference! This first picture shows what the blocks looked like stacked before I beveled them. 
And this is after beveling them, which I like SO much more. But man it was a ton of work! 
Then came the staining. I used a medium brown semi-solid deck stain to seal the wood since the furniture will stay outside, even in the winter. 
After I stained all the pieces, we took them to the backyard to be assembled. This we learned the hard way. We currently have one sofa in the garage and one on the patio because we built the first one in the garage and it’s so heavy we can’t move it by ourselves. Oooops! At least our patio furniture won’t blow away anymore 🙂
And this is the finished sofa with cushions and back pillows I found at Target.
And some new throw pillows 🙂 I know, like I need more pillows.
The one good thing about being short is I can lay down fully extended 🙂 And I must say, it’s pretty comfy!
Join me again next week to see how our dining table is coming along! This is the part I am most nervous about, so wish me luck!
Sign up here so you don’t miss any of our progress! Next week should be good!
Don’t forget to stop by the One Room Challenge to check out all the other participants and their amazing spaces!
You can now read the FULL tutorial here 🙂
This post, DIY Outdoor Sofa, appeared first on Garrison Street Design Studio.
This looks amazing! Boy, it sure was a lot of work though- totally worth it, girl! Can’t wait to see what you do next week.
Thank you Monica! It was a lot of work but I am really happy with it! And there is something about doing things yourself that gives me an extra good feeling 🙂 Kinda like your curtains which turned out beautiful!
Wowza, props to you guys for making your furniture!!!
Thank you so much Becky! It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it! Not to mention the real thing was out of the question 😉
That looks awesome! I can’t believe people spend $20k on outdoor furniture…I think I would have a panic attack ha! I’m sure your hubby was glad to diy it once he saw the price tag 🙂
I know right?! You could buy a car for that! Yes, he was not thrilled about building the furniture, but definitely agreed that it was too expensive to buy the real thing. And now he is really proud of it 🙂
What are the dimensions of your outdoor sofa cushions? I’m thinking of making my own.
They are 22×24
Hi I was wanting to make my own pillows and wondered what size are the back pillows? Love this couch. My hubs made one and now it’s up to me to make the cushions and pillows but I saw you answered the question on the cushions already. Are the pillows squared?
Lisa!!!
I am so inspired by this! Definitely coming back to read your tutorial and will take a shot at building our own patio furniture if it ever becomes spring/summer in WI:) Just beautiful!!
Meghan
You are so sweet! Thank you Meghan! You made my day 🙂 And I totally understand the weather issues. It’s supposed to snow here again on Saturday 🙁
Lisa! Get out!! This is soooo Gorgeous!! Seriously I can’t get over it! I need you to come to Indiana and build me one stat!! Great job friend!!
Thank you SO much!!! I am glad you like it! Both of our moms have asked us to build them one too, haha! I am not sure if I will make it IN soon, but will you settle for a tutorial? 😉
Making patio furniture is definitely on the to do list and I am loving yours. Amazing job!
Thank you Tiffany! We were a little nervous about it all but are really happy with how it’s all turning out 🙂
Where is the tutorial for this?
Hi Sonya! Thank you so much for stopping by! I have not posted a step by step tutorial for this yet. We built these sofas as part of our backyard makeover for the One Room Challenge which still has two more weeks to go. Once it is over I will be able to do a thorough tutorial so check back or sign up for my newsletter to receive updates 🙂
Awesome! Thanks! You’re an inspiration! 🙂
Awwww, you are too sweet! Thank you 🙂
Did you ever make that tutorial? I’d like to build this Saturday! Praying my husband is up for the challenge!
Yes! It is linked at the end of this post 😉
It really looks great! I have some scrap 8x8s and am looking to do the same thing but as a sectional this weekend. Do you mind telling me how long your arm pieces are?
Thank you so much!!! The arm pieces are 32 inches long. I do recommend having cushions prior to building though to ensure a good fit if you plan to use cushions. Our cushions are 24 inches deep. Hope that helps 🙂
Did you ever make that tutorial? I’d like to build this Saturday! Praying my husband is up for the challenge!
Hi! Looks beautiful! Can u share what stain u used??
Hi Jennifer! We used PPG Timeless Semi Solid deck stain in Chestnut Brown. I talked a little about the satin in this last weeks post on the matching dining table we built and there is a picture of the can as well. The only place I have seen this stain is at Home Depot but it came highly recommended. Hope that helps 🙂
Hi , may I have the wood dimensions and how you attached the posts together for the arms ? I LOVE LOVE LOVE this couch . thank you in advance
Hi Amber! Thank you so much!!! The arms are 6x6s cut to 32 inches long. I do recommend having cushions prior to building though to ensure a good fit if you plan to use cushions. Our cushions are 24 inches deep. We attached the posts by screwing them together from the under side of each piece through holes made with a spade bit halfway through each layer, excluding the very top piece. I know that probably doesn’t make much sense without a picture, but I will be writing a full tutorial later this month once The One Room Challenge is complete. Please check back or sign up for my email notifications so you don’t miss it 🙂
Anxiously awaiting the tutorial 🙂 I want to tackle this project this weekend!
Hi there! Live this look! Am I missing something though-is there a back to the sofa? When will you post the whole tutorial?
Thank you so much Brittney! Yes, there is a back. I plan to post the full tutorial this week 😉
Technical questions (my husband loves this): how did you ‘glue’ the big end pieces of wood together to make the arms? We’re afraid they’d fall over. Thank you! This is awesome!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you stopped by 🙂 This is totally a legit question. They are actually not glued. They are screwed together from the underneath. The short version is each piece is attached to the piece on top of it with 4 screws halfway through each piece. We used a spade bit to drill halfway through and then drove the screw the rest of the way through to the next piece. I know this is hard to understand without a picture, but I am working on a full tutorial and will be posting it later this week 🙂
It seems really low to the ground….. for the kids and I it would be fine but what about a tall person?
The top of the seat cushion sits at about 13 inches. Most chairs sit at about 17. Our old outdoor sofa sat at about 14 inches so we didn’t find this to be too low. But since it is a custom build you could make the seat higher if you wanted or buy thicker cushions. My husband is 5’10” though and has no issues with the seat height. Hope that helps 😉
Do you have a link to your full tutorial?
It’s at the bottom of this post 😉
Would this work with 4x4s instead of 6x6s?
I do not recommend using 4x4s. They are not substantial enough to construct the sofa in the manner I have outlined in my tutorial.
Can I ask how the outdoor furniture is holding up?
We will probably be re-staining it all this year because we were hit with a bad hail storm last year. We do cover ours in the winter though and live in a dry climate with little rain.
Just love all the work you guys have done, it looks amazing , you have inspired me!! Do you know around how much you spent on materials per sofa?
We bought all of the lumber for both sofas and the matching dining table at the same time, but I think it was about $230 per sofa in lumber. Still substantially less than the original RH inspiration 🙂
I may have missed it somewhere but what type of wood did you use?
We used Douglas Fir.
Are your cushions 24”x24”?
Hi Kate! No, our cushions are 24×22.
Love it. Added a 6 x 6 on each side so we could raise it just a bit. Plus added 2 feet. Thanks for the plans. Totally worth the time. Thanks
You are welcome! I’m so glad you like it 🙂
Lisa,
I built one loveseat using your instructions and it turned out great. We are now going to build 2 more units – another loveseat and a longer version at 8′ long.
I revisited this site to refresh my memory on the steps and noticed that a majority of the instructions are missing. What happened?
Nevermind – I found the link!
Simply brilliant and inspiring
Thank you so much!
Hi! How did you attach the 6x6s (or are those 4x4s) to each other when you stacked them on top of each other?
This sofa is amazing! Any tips you could give would be greatly appreciated. (Or if you could point me in the direction of your tutorial, that would be even better!)
THANKS! You are so inspiring!
Aww, you made my day! Thank you so much 🙂 I wrote a full tutorial on the assembly here 😉