DIY Outside Couch Anyone Can Make

This project has been in the making for about 2 years! Holy Moly!! It was about time I finished my outside couch. I’m going to be totally honest with you…it had been so long that I forgot how I needed to put all the pieces together.

AHHH!! After a Google search I found the inspiration for my plan. Here is where I got my idea from.

When I was pregnant with my fourth adorable baby I so badly wanted to make a fun outside couch to help make our backyard more comfortable to hang out in.

I may have started backwards but I found these beautiful gray cushions from At Home. They were on sale and totally comfy and pretty.

There were two problems: I had to go to two different stores to get all that I needed and the top cushions had a hole in the seam and two zippers were broken. After more discounts and an hour drive to get the rest of them I was set.

After looking at the supplies needed for the plan I was going to follow we decided we wanted the couch to not sit so low. So we drew up our own plans inspired by the couch I found online.

Supplies needed:

• cushions
• wood- depending on the size of your cushions and how tall you want it
• various L brackets
• long/straight brackets
• stain
• sander
• saw
• paint supplies
• drill
• screws

When I was 5-6 months pregnant I was cutting wood and sanding for what seemed like forever! We got the help from a friend to cut the thicker wood. He was happy to help and get a jar of my homemade jam as a thank you.

• 

• 

I never got around to the rest of the couch. Until now. A few weeks ago we bought the stain. Last week I got around to staining all of the wood. I needed to do two coats and we didn’t have room to paint all the boards at the same time so it took us a few different times to get the staining done.

• 

• 

Thanks to Eddy helping stain we got it done and got to park our van back in the garage. Woohoo!

After looking at the original plans and redrawing our plans, thanks to me not remembering where I had put them, we were set to start building. We started on the sides of the outside couch.

First had to make some holes in the wood so the screws would fit and connect to the bottom piece. We alternated drilling 2 holes in one piece and the next we drilled 3. By placing the holes in different spots the screws would not hit each other.

Once all the holes were drilled we were able to screw the pieces together. We screwed 6 together on each side.

• 

• 

Then we placed one seat piece between the two edge pieces to see where we wanted the placement to be. We decided at the top of the third block. We screwed the L brackets into place under the board and onto the sides.

By laying the side board down on it’s side and the seat board straight up it was easy to get the L brackets in place. There are two side boards right next to each other. Each side got the L brackets on the same way.

Then we lifted the couch onto our wood horses so Eddy could screw the L brackets into the bottom of the seats. He did most of the screwing because my wrist were in a lot of pain from lifting heavier weights lately.

The next thing that needed to be secured was the back. We tested out were the best placement should be by Eddy holding the wood in place while I put the cushions on and took a seat. We didn’t want it to go straight up and down, the top board needed a little tilt.

The bottom board went below the seat boards. This made it easier to get the tilt in the top back rest board. We used smaller L brackets to secure to the sides of the outside couch.

• 

• 

Under the bottom back rest board we added two more L brackets to the seat board to keep it from slipping down over time.

For the top of the back rest board we added some smaller L brackets from the side of the couch to the side of the top back rest board. Then behind the outside couch we added long, thick brackets to hold the weight of people leaning back onto the couch.

• 

• 

Last we got to put the darling cushions on! We are loving our new outside couch! The new home is in the backyard facing the grass and sandbox. It has a good view of the kids playing and gets shade from the retaining wall Eddy built.

If you have any questions on how we built this or what we did please don’t hesitate to ask!! I know that some of this will be hard to understand… 🙂

Happy DIYing! What are you working on?

Xxxx, Steph