DIY Outdoor Patio Chairs
In the middle of all my holiday crafting, my little one wanted to drink our coffee and hot cocoa on the front porch…unfortunately I had recently taken our old wicker patio chairs to the dump and had added ‘build some DIY Outdoor Patio Chairs’ to the list! But as we all know, just because it’s on the list doesn’t mean it gets done quickly! Lol! Well, this past week my little one and I marked outdoor chairs off the list when we built these Minecraft chairs as we call them! 🤣
They turned out a little more blocky than we planned but they serve the purpose! We were bet by my older son that we couldn’t build 2 of them in 24 hours! Well, we DID! From start to completion in 24 hours, we even had to take a 2 hour trip to grab cushions during that 24 hour period and still won the bet! And if you have been around here for any length of time, you know that I take forever on projects so this was IMPRESSIVE! Lol!
Like that little planter to the left of the chairs? I have free plans for that little cutie too! DIY Large Outdoor Planter
Now I will say that if we were not on our time crunch, I probably would have messed around with the design a little more, but we kept it simple, quick to build, and cheap in cost doing them the way we did them! Cedar is expensive right now where I am located so we had to improvise on some aspects but all in all we love them more and more with each morning coffee and hot cocoa session!
I added the small blocks to one of the chairs, and left the other on the ground! We have had 3 rattlesnakes underneath my small outdoor planter that is 1 1/2″ off the ground so my hubby said he would leave them on the ground just to keep from having to worry about something underneath them…but me being the rebel that I am, had to put feet on mine! LOL! I wanted you all to be able to see them both ways!
Want to build a pair of DIY outdoor patio chairs to sit on your front porch and enjoy some coffee or hot cocoa with your favorite people…or even just enjoy some quiet time by yourself?! Let’s get building!
Here are the PRINTABLE plans to take out to the garage with you to build the chairs!
Gathering the Supplies to Build the DIY Outdoor Patio Chairs
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Materials to Build the Outdoor Patio Chairs:
Wood listed is to build 1 chair, if you want to build 2 chairs, you will need to double the wood materials! One chair costs roughly 80 bucks, that’s not bad since they are made of cedar and something similar from a store would be $400+. You can always use pine and then the cost would be about 50 bucks each!
- 2 – 2x6x8 (1 of them ripped down to make 2 – 2x3x8)
- 3 – 1x6x8 fence picket
- 1 – 1x4x6 fence pickets
- 1 box of 2 3/4″ screws ( you can also use these as your pocket hole screws, I did…but you will need an extender bit or a long star bit to be able to screw them in as deep as a pocket hole goes. Otherwise, you will need a box of 2 1/2″ pocket hole screws!)
- 1 box of 1 1/4″ screws
- wood glue
- 24×24 cushions – these are the ones I purchased but they are out of stock online, but they did say they should be restocking shortly after Christmas! If you are lucky enough to have a Lowe’s store that has them in stock they were on sale for only 44.98 in store! Best quality for the price I could find and I spent a ton of time searching! Amazon has the next best price/quality that I could find but still more expensive than the deal I got! Do not fall for the Big Lots ads on Facebook, the cushions look so good, price is good 50 bucks for the set…but they are NOT good quality!
- Hellsman Spar Urethane (by Minwax)
Cut List for Outdoor Chairs:
- 4 – 2×3 (2x6s ripped down) @ 23 1/2″ (legs)
- 4 – 2×6 @ 24″ (top front, sides, and back rails)
- 4 – 1×6 fence pickets @ 24″ (bottom front, sides, and back rails)
- 2 – 2×3 @ 25 1/2″ (arms)
- 1 – 2×3 @ 24″ (back top)
- 4 – 1×6 fence pickets @ 29″ (seat)
- 2 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 24″ (back rest)
- 8 – scrap pieces of cedar ripped down to 7/8″ x 5 1/2″ (supports for bottom boards)
- 2 – scrap pieces of cedar ripped down to 7/8″ x 3″ (supports for back boards)
- 2 – 1×1 1/2″ pieces ripped down of fence pickets @ 24″ (front and back seat boards)
Building the DIY Outdoor Patio Chairs
Step 1
Build the front and back frames. Take two legs, one of the 24″ fence pickets and two of the scrap cedar 5 1/2″ pieces. Lay them out with the legs face down, place the fence picket down along the bottom and the scrap pieces on top of the fence picket like so…
Glue the scrap blocks and screw them into place with the 2 3/4″ screws from the sides.
Once you have the scrap pieces screwed into place, flip it over to screw the fence picket into place! Use the 1 1/4″ screws plus wood glue to attach.
Repeat and make another frame the exact same for the back!
Once you get both the front and back frames to the above point, add the 2×6 @ 24″ on top of the fence picket! It will be pocket holed with holes drilled at 1 1/2″ depth, and use wood glue along with 2 1/2″ screws to attach.
Complete this on both the front and back frames!
Step 2
Connect the front and back frames in the same way you built the front and back frames. Add the small scrap pieces and the 1×6 fence picket and the 2×6 board on top!
Here’s what we’ve got!
I later added some of the 1 1/4″ screws to the 2x6s just for looks to match the bottom boards!
Step 3
Add the arms!
Make sure and measure here! My cedar 2xs were actually 1 5/8″ instead of 1 1/2″ so I needed to add an extra 1/4″ overall to the length of the arms! Using wood glue and 2 3/4″ screws I just screwed straight down through the top of the armrest! You could miter the legs and the armrests and use dowels or some sort of fancy joinery…or you can take the easy route as I did! Lol!
Step 4
Add the back board! This board will be pocket holed into place from the back! Again, if you want to make them so you can set them where the back will be visible, you can always use dowels to join or screw through the outside of the leg!
I used 1 1/2″ pocket holes along with wood glue and 2 1/2″ screws to attach them!
Step 5
Make the seat.
After adding the back, I added the boards for the seat! The very front and back boards are fence pickets ripped down to 1 1/2″ to cover the 2x6s…again though, measure your 2x6s because mine was slightly wider than 1 1/2″ so I needed to rip the fence picket down a little wider than 1 1/2″! I used wood glue and screwed them down through the top of the board.
If you don’t want to see the screw heads, you can always use a brad nailer or clamp the boards down while the glue dries! I LOVE these screws though and use them on pretty much all of my outdoor projects, I actually pay a little extra for the screws because I love the heads exposed!!
Step 6
Add the back support.
Attach the 3″ scrap pieces to the back of the chair with wood glue and screws just as we built the bottom frames!
Then attach the 1×4 fence pickets to the front the same as we did the seat…wood glue and 1 1/4″ screws through the front!
Step 7
Seal the chair with some Spar Urethane! My favorite spar urethane is Minwax…I am not paid to say that, I have never worked with Minwax but I truly LOVE their spar urethane! Now, I used the satin finish, and either they changed the formula or this can was mis-marked bc this was definitely not satin, it was a semi-gloss finish for sure! Lol!
I just wanted to show the difference in the sealed vs unsealed…I love the color of the unsealed one best but knowing what happens to any of the furniture left outside unsealed in our heat and sun, it will be ugly in just a few months!😬
That picture is actually really exaggerated with the lighting or something! Lol! The sealed one isn’t quite that dark… but it is definitely darker than before!
You can choose to add feet or not at this point! You will need some scrap pieces of 4x4s @ 1″ if you would like to add feet, or you could use 2x3s if you wanted!
Boom! They are DONE BABY, DONE! Throw those cushions on and enjoy your new chair…or two! Lol!
Want to see other outdoor projects I have plans for? Check these cool builds out!😉
DIY Outdoor Concrete Dining Table
If you build yourself some of the chairs for your porch or patio, please share them with me! They would make a great gift for someone on your list too! Who wouldn’t want to get a set of patio chairs for Christmas?!
Off to mark something else off my list!😁 Happy Building, everyone!
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These chairs are awesome! Is there a way to get the plans, the link to download didn’t work for me.