BUILD THIS DIY RUSTIC BENCH

DO YOU HAVE a “no shoes inside” rule at home?

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Or do you just try to avoid tracking debris in after messy yardwork? If so, this rustic bench will be a welcome addition to your house. If you’re not into the rustic, live-edge aesthetic, you can build it with a solid slab of dimensional lumber. Choose a wood species—oak, maple, black walnut, cherry, or other more exotic woods—to match your colors or decor. Whatever you choose, make this easy-to-build bench your own by altering the dimensions to fit your space.

This project uses common tools, so you probably have everything you'll need, with one exception: a log tenon cutter. Usually used to build log furniture, this tenon cutter fits into a drill chuck and cuts a uniformly round tenon on the end of a log—or in this case, your bench leg. You can find a log tenon cutter for under $50, although you might want a nicer, more expensive model if you plan on using it more than once.

STEP 1: Cut Seat and Legs to Size

Choose a 36-inch section of the slab with an edge you like for the seat, and make sure you'll have at least 22 inches of slab left to make the legs. Mark out and cut the seat—be sure the ends are parallel. If your slab is wider than 14 to 15 inches, you can cut it down and turn the straight edge toward the wall when finished. The legs will start out square, so if your slab is 2 inches thick, you'll need to cut four 2-inch strips, 22 inches long, from the remainder of the slab.

STEP 2: Cut Leg Tenons

A log tenon cutter, as the name implies, is designed for use on logs and won't work very well on the square legs. So set your table saw blade at 45 degrees to cut the corners off the square legs, making them octagonal. They don’t need to be perfectly octagonal, just a bit closer to round, so the tenon cutter will stay centered on the leg and be easier to keep straight.