In case you missed the first two installments about our new harvest kitchen, check out part 1 and part 2.
On Tuesday, Stefan took the day off because I had to go to the dentist. The last time I went with Mack in tow, it did not turn out so well. She screamed pretty much the entire time I was in the chair and since I was having a filling done, we could only assume the drill noise only amplified things. One of his assistants took her and walked around in the office with her but that did little good and quite possibly made her scream even more.
Stefan decided to take advantage of the day and continued working on the harvest kitchen. A seating area was next on the to do list so we took a trip to the home improvement store in the morning to gather supplies. Thankfully, there were no cart thieves this time and our trip went fairly smoothly. Stefan got right to work and had cut out the bottom framework for the seats before I left. When I got back, he’d put everything together and had the legs on too.
We used a construction similar to our table for growing lettuce in the courtyard. I haven’t talked about that much yet but I swear it’s on my list of posts to get to soon. The bench frame is build from 2×4’s and the legs are two 2×4’s screwed together. One is shorter and supports the frame and the other runs up to the height of the seats.
Then he cut supports for the back rests and screwed them in place at an angle of 68 degrees. Apparently that is the optimal angle for a bench – and after getting to use the seats several times in the last couple days, I have to agree it’s pretty perfect for relaxing against.
The bench seats are made from outdoor Douglas fir decking wood. They should hold up well in the outdoor air but don’t have to be treated since this area never gets wet…unless Ayla starts using it for her dog cave.
Once all the decking was cut to the right lengths, everything was screwed in place and we were ready to go. We debated for a while about what to do with the corner. Should we make it into a corner seat or a table? In the end, we went with a table because it was a little easier to build and just made more sense. It seems that when you have a corner seat, it rarely gets used for someone to sit in. Plus you can never have too much table space when you cook in mass quantities like we do.
We put a temporary table in where the Newf is standing so we could try everything out. Next on the list is building a table that will fit perfectly in the middle and to do some decorating. We’d like to do some sort of wall tattoo but haven’t figured out what it should say yet. We’ve been looking for quotes that have to do with homesteads, harvests and things in that direction but haven’t found a fitting one yet. Maybe you guys can share a favorite quote of yours that would be fitting?
that’s a really neat idea!
Servus. How did you cap the back of the bench off? Does gunk collect there? Are you happy with your choice to do a table in the corner, or do you now wish that people could scootch through there? How is the 68 degrees working out? For something like this that’s outside, I can imagine you just butted the bottom backrest board against the seat and got on with things, but tell me, would you do it differently if this was in your (my) dining room?
Hi Lauren,
Because the back touched up close to the wall, we didn’t end up trimming it out. But if you wanted to, and you could move your frame out forward, you could do a shelf around the top. Things like that just gather clutter and dust in our house. 🙂
The 68 degrees was great. We did have cushions on the benches to make them easier to sit on for hours on end. Bench vs table height was also ideal. We also liked the corner table for candles, decorations, music speaker, etc.
We don’t live in this house anymore but we spent MANY days and nights hanging out there. Wouldn’t change much except maybe not using something grooved — impossible to keep stuff out of those ridges, especially when prepping food for canning!
Happy building!