He stacks cinder blocks in his front yard for a brilliant outdoor furniture idea!

the first part is making sure that the bottom is flat and level when you're stacking the cinder blocks on top of each other always make sure you use an all-purpose construction adhesive it's going to hold the blocks together so there's no slippage or having them fall apart on a project like this you're always going to want to make sure you're wearing gloves cinder blocks can really rough up your hands and you want to make sure they're protected when using cinder block always know that they are heavy if you need to grab somebody to help you out don't hesitate to do so especially as you're stacking sometimes you might need to move one of the cinder blocks out of the way in order to put extra gravel or sand underneath to make sure it's level you're going to lay and stack up four of these cinder blocks together you're going to do this for both sides every time i put a brick down i always want to make sure i take my level and just make sure it looks good on this we want to make sure everything is flush looking good and again remember four cinder blocks on one side four on the other stacked on top with adhesive holding it down once we get the four center blocks as a base then we're going to take two more turn them the flat way use the construction adhesive lay it down and put the bricks on these are going to lay sideways facing each other you're going to use two by the time you're done you'll have six of these stacked on top of each other okay we've got our base now we've got six on this side and six on the other the next thing we're going to do on the back half of the last cinder block we're going to put some construction adhesive and lay this cinder block facing up this is going to be our back rest now that we've got our cinder blocks in place you're going to use a total of seven on each side the next step is putting the wood in i went ahead and with this landscape timber it's already stained it's going to go good with the outdoors you can use a four by four piece of pine if you want just make sure you stain it but this is the nice part you can use somebody to help you out and put it in i like to do it by myself because i want to surprise the family in just a little bit the way to do this is to stick the board in one end slip it through and then bring it back the other way here we are i'm going to put the last board in and this bench is going to look great when we come back i'm going to clean this area up and i'm going to show you the final project and here it is our final project i think it just turned out great i literally built this thing for less than 60. and it just makes a wonderful addition to the front of our house i'm glad you joined us for this wonderful project and we can't wait to see you again on home talk [Music] so this is the old footboard and headboard that i have and i actually scooped these up off the side of the road last spring somebody just tossed them out so i stopped pick them up and threw them in the back of my car and they're going to be perfect for this project so i don't want my bench sliding around on my front porch so i'm actually going to remove all the wheels off the headboard and footboard but these are pretty nice wheels so i'm going to hang on to them and save them for an alternate project i never throw things like this out because you never know when you're going to need a good set of wheels caster wheels it was quite simple to remove the wheels i just had to twist them around and pull them out of the hole a few of the wheels were a little tough to get out so i did need to use a pair of needle nose pliers to help me pull out all the pieces you also want to make sure that you get the whole piece of the wheel out because if you want to reuse these wheels you will need this piece um for your next project now that all of the four wheels are out of our headboard and footboard we are going to start by making our side pieces first if you are using a headboard and footboard that are different sizes you want your foot board to be for the side pieces my headboard and footboard are exactly the same size so it doesn't matter which one i use but if you happen to be lucky enough to get a nice big high headboard and a little footboard make sure you use that foot board for your side pieces the first step is to measure the foot board so that we can find the middle and this is where we're going to make our first cut the middle of my foot board is exactly 21 inches so i made a mark with a pencil and now i'm using a jigsaw to cut down the line i'm going to stop when i get to the spindle and i'm going to turn my foot board over and cut from the top we don't need to cut the spindles out because once we cut the bottom piece and the top piece that is holding the footboard together the spindles will be able to just pull out okay now after i've made my cuts here i've actually decided that um even though it was 21 inches exactly in each length here i don't like that we have uneven spindles on each side so what i'm going to do is i'm going to actually make my side pieces for my bench shorter so i think i am going to cut off this extra spindle here and just have three on each side so i'm going to cut again right along the third spindle here and again you guys make sure you save pieces like this because this is a really nice old rustic spindle you could even use it in your decor or anything like that so i never throw away things like this always hang on to them because you never know when you're going to need them using my jigsaw i trimmed off the top piece as well so that it lined up perfectly with my bottom cut now that we have both our side pieces cut we are going to give them a quick sanding on the cut edges to make sure they're nice and smooth so we're going to just use a sander and some 80 grit sandpaper so the idea is that these side pieces are going to sit up against here so when i put my pieces together at a 90 degree angle this last spindle here this third spindle is preventing it from sitting flush up against the other headboard so i'm actually going to cut this one out using my jigsaw i cut out the third spindle on each piece next i placed the headboard up on my work surface and i used two clamps to clamp it to the table so that it would stand straight up using a drill i drilled three pilot holes where i would be placing the screws in to secure my side pieces to the headboard to secure the side pieces to the headboard i used three inch wood deck screws i made sure to mark out exactly where my side piece would be going before placing it in place with the screws and then i tipped the bench over so that i could secure the screws tightly in place with the one side piece on i was able to then stand my bench up so that i could fix the other side piece to the bench i did this in the exact same way i did the other side by drilling pilot holes and then screwing in with my three inch wood screws to secure the top portion again i drilled a pilot hole before placing in my screws i do want to mention that pilot holes are very important especially if you're working with an older headboard and footboard because you don't want the wood to split now the frame of our bench is completed we can move on to making a seat first i use the tape measure to measure the distance on the inside of the side panels using this measurement i cut two pieces of wood that i would be using to make a base for my seat now i had scrap wood laying around but if you don't have any i would suggest using two by fours so what i did was i drilled some pilot holes in the side panels and then i placed my wood pieces in place and then using three inch screws i screwed through the side panel into my pieces of wood and then i repeated the process on the other side to complete my bench seat i used some scrap pieces of wood that i had from an old shelf i placed them vertically across the two pieces of wood that i just screwed in and then i took a measurement so that i could cut them to fit so there wasn't a large overhang i used a miter saw to cut all the vertical pieces since i like the weathered look of the vertical pieces i wanted to paint my bench first before fixating them so i used dune grass paint from country chic paint and i painted the entire bench i did one coat of country chic paint over the entire bench as well i painted the wood pieces of the bench seat because these will be seen through my slot pieces that are going to be going over top i placed the vertical slats in place lining them up making sure that they were all straight and that the spaces in between were even and then using a air nailer i secured the slots into place making sure that i was going into the two pieces of wood underneath now that my bench was completed and finished i placed it here on the porch in this stunning space and i love how perfect this project came together now i did use a lot of repurposed materials such as some scrap wood the slats i got from an old shelf that i took apart now obviously if you can't get your hands on these materials you can go to any home improvement store and buy lumber to recreate this project but i do hope that this will inspire you to think about what materials you can repurpose to make a cute adorable bench for your front porch i know i'm going to spend many afternoons out here enjoying my new bench [Music] you

Channel: Hometalk

Views: 962,661

Keywords: hometalk, how to, do it yourself, diy, home, garden, tutorial, instructions, craft, decor

Id: -ShdUQ6PjEM

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 14 2022