If we have a garden in the backyard, big or small, or at least a small porch or a balcony, having some nice garden chairs to sit and relax, or a bench that is also a sunbed for sunbathing or napping will help us enjoy outdoors a little more.
Yes, this is another one of those Woodgears translations that I did some time ago and for which I had not written the corresponding introduction.
The first of the projects is, as I said, a garden chair made of wood (number 8 at Woodgears translations). It is a sturdy design that is quite simple to make, even using small DIY tools, if you follow the included woodworking plans.
The truth is that if we only have simple electric DIY tools, such as a circular saw and/or a jigsaw, to make the projects easier we will need to buy wood of the right dimensions, because otherwise thicknessing and planing the wood will be very complicated.
A homemade table saw like some of the ones shown in this blog and its crosscut sled, or some of the woodworking jigs for the hand circular saw or the jigsaw will also help us to cut the pieces to the right length.
To make garden chairs look really nice you need to give the backrest a slight curve, but if you don’t feel able to make that curve with the jigsaw (you’ll need to sand with the sandpaper to get a fine job unless you have a spin sander) you can always leave it straight. And if your intention is to make several of these lawn chairs, it is also advisable to make the assembly template (which is not the same as the copy templates), as it will speed up the work of assembling all the pieces so that they are perfect and exactly the same. And I’m sure that if you bring yourself to do this project you won’t make just one of these lawn chairs.
The other project is a curious sunbed (number 5 at Woodgears translations), although I should rather call it a bench for napping on the patio. It is very easy to make if we follow the plans, although this time the plans are not in metric system (I live in Spain). It is always good to have a measuring tape in imperial system at hand in the workshop. Here, as with the garden chairs, we will find that we need to cut several curves in the wood pieces, but we can always choose to leave the surface of the lounger completely flat. The system for making the legs, together with resistant horizontal slats, make this a lounger model that is easy and quick to make.
