Hey guys!

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  I got LOTS done and can’t wait to share all the progress I have been making in my garage!  Today I am back to share my $20 benches I made to matchmy new outdoor dining table!  Yup… You read that right… 20 bucks baby!  Woohoo!

Here is how they turned out!

How cute are those?!  I teamed up withMiss Ana Whiteto design these guys and I couldn’t be more happy with them.  I will share some tips and tricks with you here, and you can get thefull set of plans over on Ana’s site!

I would totally suggest using aKreg Jigto build these.  I used mine on the entire build, and I don’t think I would have built them if I didn’t have one.

I used a 1 1/2″ setting for the drill bit for the entire thing.

Since these benches will be outdoors, I used Kreg’s Blue-Kote screws.  These are weather resistant screws that won’t rust.  They are amazing screws and I actually use them on lots of different projects that don’t require theKreg Jig.

This is how I did the Kreg Jig pocket holes in the leg pieces…

I made all the legs first and then finished off the rest.  I did decide to wrap the top of each bench with 1×4 pine pieces.  This made it look beefier and match the table a bit better!

I finished both benches to match the table like this…

I painted all the legs with Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Spray Paint in Semi-gloss black.

For the tops I chose to stain it using a fav of mine!

Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Dark Walnut

This stain is found at Lowe’s and comes in a TON of really great colors!  The best part… It dries in under an hour and only requires one coat!  Woohoo!

These are the tools I used to stain the top of the benches…

I actually rolled this on because of the size which made it really fast!  I filled in the cracks with the foam brush.

Now… To keep this weather proof, I gave the table top three coats of this…

Rust-Oleum Spar Varnish

This stuff is super easy to apply.  It dries quickly between coats and doesn’t smell strong when you are applying.  It is my new go-to for finishing projects that will be outside!  LOVE.  You can also find this at Lowe’s.

That’s it!  You wan to see a few more pictures??  Me too!

What do you think??

I hope you love them as much as I do!  Make sure to check out thefull set of plans over at Ana White’s site!

Thanks so much for coming by!  I would love for you to share and PIN this post below! ?

~Whitney