I’ve always wanted to make a picnic bench (really for myself, but thought it could be fun made from split cedar) and my friends Margot and David finally offered me the chance. They needed to replace the one they had on their deck and asked me if I would like to come up with something. To speed the project up a bit we decided to make the main framing for the table and benches from rough milled cedar I had leftover from a home project. I then used salvaged old growth red cedar to make the bench seats and table top. The design is the same as your standard picnic bench, but I added some curvy lines with the joints between the table slabs. I thought leaving some space between each slab would be better than glueing it all together as it will live outside and drain water off better. I screwed the cedar on from the frame below so there are not any screw heads on the top side. This will help stop water from getting into the wood. I like to use screws when attaching cedar as they tend to hold better than nails are easier to change or maintain later if needed. The natural cedar has so many colours in it, I wanted to see that and used 2 coats of OSMO UV protection oil finish to help bring the colour out and keep it from fading in the sun. Even with 2 coats of oil, in a sunny spot on the ocean, it will need re-coating in 2 years. If finish isnt applied regularly as needed the wood will start to go silver, and will eventually need resanding to get the colour back.
