Okay so 9 out of 10 DIY projects at our house are my idea/design and I get to do most of the tedious work, but we give all the credit to my husband because clearly I must not be capable of using power tools of any kind or something and he has the muscle. So not fair.

For this particular project I decided to flip that on it’s head and do all of it myself (minus a couple cuts). Plus I like to get stuff done and let’s face it, Tyler has a job (a demanding one) and he’s not always here at my disposal for these types of things. I really wanted to expand what I could do so that I could do it on more than just the weekends and Corbin already wants me to make him a new bed sometime soon.

What’s the plan?

So we have this “flower” bed off the back of our house that has never really taken off. I had rosemary that grew beautifully there, but after our crazy Texas freeze, it all died off and I officially gave up on trying to make that bed work. I decided it’s going to be a fire pit area. The problem with deciding it was going to be a fire pit is every chair I wanted for around the fire pit was going to cost me about $300 each and that’s not exactly in the budget.

You can see the “flower” bed against the house here. The once thriving rosemary is hidden behind Saida’s head.

So naturally the thing I come around to is let’s just do it ourselves. That’s basically always the end game for everything that doesn’t fit the budget anyway. Why would this be any different? Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?.

I got lost in Pinterest for like a week making sure I’m doing the right thing and what I settled on was a DIY tutorial from DIY Queen Ana White. If you need the tutorial for these chairs, click that link. This post I’m writing is most definitely not a tutorial post and more of a “yes, you can do it because I did it” and “look what we’re up to” post.

My husband helped me with the first chair while he explained some things I’d need to be mindful of, then I took over the next 5 chairs from there. I didn’t do it perfectly and it kind of took me forever (because motherhood and life), but I’m pretty proud of what I managed to accomplish as a first timer.

Pics or it didn’t happen

Some takeaways from this project

Measure twice. I didn’t have that many mistakes, but there were a couple.
Clamps are your friend. Like your very best friend. (this link is an affiliate link)
Sawdust in the eye sucks. It’s okay to wear the dorky safety glasses.
Miter saws really aren’t scary and it’s silly that I was sort of intimidated by them.
Music makes every project better.
Say yes to pilot holes.

Stain Info

We used Valspar Solid Exterior Stain and Sealer in Darkest Night to seal and stain (I also used the semi-transparent version of this in a different color on our fence last year). I love it because the color ties in with my outdoor kitchen and porch chairs. I think it’ll look nice with what we chose for the fire pit patio as well. Also I’m usually a Home Depot and Behr kind of girl, but this one had ratings I couldn’t ignore.

What’s next?

Speaking of the fire pit patio, this is the direction we’re going with it once we have a little time to get it done. This one I won’t do by myself. Also it’s currently July in Texas so you really have to pick and choose your outdoor projects wisely this time of year. It’ll either be awhile before we start or a slow process due to heat.

Hopefully come Fall you’ll find us out back making s’mores.

-Monica