One of the unfinished projects that I want to complete as part of my New Year's resolutions this year is to finally finish up my patio furniture. In the summer of 2010 I had a contractor put in a patio in my backyard. I looked into doing it myself but since I wanted something a little complicated (a half circle built up off the ground) when I priced out how much materials and equipment rental would be it just didn't make sense. 
Patio furniture was a completely different matter. I was in love with the West Elm wood-slat sectional but there was no way I could justify a few grand for patio furniture. It looked like a pretty simple design so I thought I could build it and doing some internet searching brought me to Ana White's fabulous website. She has all sorts of simple furniture plans for knock-off versions of catalog favorites as well as some original designs. This is not New Yankee workshop, but it is easy with beautiful things you can build yourself and it is really inspiring.
Just my luck, Ana had plans for both the armless section and corner section of the outdoor sectional. I bought out the cedar 1x4s at my local Lowe's and got building. The thickness of my boards was a little different than what Ana assumed in her plans so once I got going I realized that I had to make some minor adjustments to my cuts for everything to fit, but other than that it was very straightforward. I used my Kreg Jig to join everything together with pocket holes which made things easy and meant less holes to fill in later. Since I made a lot of sections (six armless, two corner) I did everything assembly line style which sped things up for me.
After I finished building the sectional I made a coffee table as well as a dining table that I designed to match with the same slat design as the sectional for the top. Unfortunately, that is where I stopped. I bought 3" outdoor foam (from Foam N' More) and outdoor fabric (from JoAnn's during a 50% off sale) but I just never had the time to make the cushions or paint the furniture that I built. I have loved the furniture and it has gotten a lot of use the way that it is with barbecues and relaxing in the backyard, but this summer I really want to get it all done. Wish me luck!
