Outdoor Furniture

A Seat Outside.

Outdoor furniture uses the same building techniques as indoor, but with some major adaptions. Firstly, I have to use air dried oak, rather than kiln dried. Secondly it must be durable in itself, or protected by a coating to make it weather proof, and thirdly. It must be designed in a way that does not allow water to collect and produce rot points. It also has to look beautiful and be comfortable too!

The woods I tend to use for outdoor work are Oak, Cedar and Douglas Fir. All are sourced as locally as possible and are air dried to minimise movement and cracking in outdoor conditions. 

To Make A Bench.

You start with what looks like a huge amount of timber! The pieces that need to have curves in them have to be bigger, so that the curve can be cut out of them. 

For this I use a band saw. the other pieces are cut to length and planed so that they are smooth to the touch. You don,t want anyone to catch their clothes on a splinter!

Then its back to the old fashioned hand tools for the big joints. I can do the smaller ones by machine, but I prefer to check and adjust all my joints by hand.

 

Now I have one big jigsaw. Its a good thing I like them. All the joints are fixed using a weather proof adhesive as well as solid dowels.

The bench is then assembled the centre splat has been sent away for memorial carving.

Delivering these benches is a bit of a work up as they weigh a ton. But hopefully they will give many years of use.

Tree Bench

Designed to take in three beautiful and different garden views, this tree bench has three seats and room to put a cup of coffee!

Made out of Douglas fir, it will withstand many years of weather, fading slowly to be a silver grey colour.

A working garden.

A keen gardener will always have a greenhouse. But on the way to hardening off those precious seedlings you need to use a cold frame. 

You can do quite a lot with an old window and some bits of wood, but when you have a beautiful Robinsons Greenhouse like this one, it is nice to have a set of frames to look the part. 

Made with toughened glass and out of a durable Douglas Fir timber, these will give many years of service. Swivel latches give an option of different opening gaps and sticks can hold the glass fully open if required.