My First Home-Built Picnic Table

Since Cheria and I had been discussing a mutual desire to place several benches and tables in various locations around our property, I decided to begin dabbling with woodworking as a fun and inexpensive way to get some outdoor furniture. I started out by building a bench out of a stack of old lumber that I found in our outbuilding, then I built another bench using small logs for the frame and scrap lumber for the top.

The benches turned out pretty well considering my status as a novice so I decided to take a stab at building a nice picnic table. I made a mental list of the materials I would need, then we headed for Lowes to stuff the car with treated lumber. We returned home later in the evening with a couple of 6 foot long 4x4's, five 8 foot 2x6's and nine 6 foot 1x4's. Before we went to bed that night I had turned $64 worth of treated lumber and a few screws and nails into a 6' x 3' picnic table.

Although I made a few minor mistakes, my first "made from scratch" picnic table turned out pretty darn good, and today Cheria and I used it for the first time when we hosted a "cookout" party for my mom in celebration of her 79th birthday! Happy birthday, Mom!

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