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Outdoor sofa (lemmy.world)

Outdoor sofa to replace our falling-apart fake-plastic-wicker one, reusing the same cushions.

sofa with cushions

It's roughly following Wilker Do's Outdoor Sofa plans, however I adjusted the size, changed from a two-layer construction to lap joints / mortise-and-tenon joints, and filled in some missing details.

First time hand-cutting mortise and tenons, for the arm rest supports:

mortise and tenon

First time making half-lap joints, for the side frames; very happy with my new Infinity Tools Dadonator:

dado blade

half lap joints

After some attempts at CAD, I ended up just cutting out scale paper parts and then measuring angles/lengths to fit them together. It mostly worked, but some lengths didn't work out in wood.

plans

I used western red cedar for rot resistance, since this will sit unsheltered. I haven't finished it yet, I'm considering poly, boiled linseed, or Thompson's water seal (glad for recommendations). First time working with cedar, it's very soft and scratch prone, smells great, and is noticeably lighter than pine. Also pricey; one thing I didn't like about this design is it is fairly overbuilt.

side view

top view

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[-] pageflight@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Finishing update: went with teak oil, for easy re-application and wood feel but (hopefully) without the darkening effect of boiled linseed oil.

bench with teak oil

side of bench with teak oil

It was pretty easy to put on with a foam applicator, though took more than 20 minutes to cover the whole thing so some of it had gotten gummy by the time I went back to wipe off excess.

this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
71 points (100.0% liked)

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