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Summer DIY Challenge with The Home Depot // The Reveal

I can’t do boring. I can’t do plain. For 6 months I watched our front porch sit bare. I hate to admit it, but it was boring and plain. I feel about my porch the same way I feel about my entryway – it’s the place where the true first impression of your home is made, so make it a good one.

I spent the better half of early spring searching out everything from wicker chairs to a bistro dining sets, but none of them truly represented my style. I didn’t want a “filler” piece, I wanted a “statement” piece. Spring quickly became summer and the porch sat empty. Sigh. Then came the call that I knew would turn it all around…

It was almost as if the wonderful people over at The Home Depot could sense my frustrations, and knew the only way I was going to get exactly what I wanted was a good ol’ fashioned DIY. They presented me with a Summer DIY Challenge; create a summer project that was for outdoor use, was portable, and could be built on a budget. I accepted their challenge.

After weeks of researching, sketching, and planning, “J” and I were ready to get started (yes, I somehow managed to rope “J” into this one!). We spent almost the entire July long weekend locked up in the garage building my favourite project to date… The Cedar Bench.

Inspired by this bench, I instantly fell in love with the idea of having planters on either side. Incorporating planters into the bench design would allow us to include some colour, texture, and interest. I also envisioned something a bit more modern than your standard “boxy” wood planter. By alternating the boards on the planter boxes we were able to create a more modern and airy looking bench.

What do you think? Statement piece right? I can’t tell you how pleased I am with how it all turned out. Sometimes I even find myself out on the front porch just staring at it… like a creep...

With that, I am happy to say…

You can read more about the building process here, and make sure you check out the other talented bloggers that took part in The Home Depot’s Summer DIY Challenge:

Click here to buy the project drawing & rending!

Did you complete an outdoor DIY project this summer?

Disclosure: I was provided with a gift card from The Home Depot in order purchase supplies to complete the Summer DIY Challenge. 

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12 Comments

  1. Hi Britt. Just want to thank you for sharing your bench project. I really love it. It is very original and when I saw it I knew if I find a bit of time I will build it something like that…. and I just did 🙂 I asked my husband to help me with this little DIY project this weekend. I used your project, modified it to suite our needs (we live in the terraced house) and here we have it. I thought I would share. Have a look:

    http://somewherebetween2dots.com/diy-bench-project.html
    Thank you again and greetings from Poland.

  2. WOW Kasia! I love what you did with your bench! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and share the link! I hope you had a great time building it (and it's really not as hard as it looks is it!?)

  3. Thank you, Britt. No, it is not. It is actually quite easy. If you have all your measurement specs ready and you get all your wood cut before you start then it is matter of putting it all together, like building blocks 🙂 We had so much fun doing it together and we feel indescribable satisfaction every time when we look at it.:)

  4. Wow, this is pretty awesome. Going to attempt something similar this week. Hopefully it turns out half as good as yours.

  5. Did you use crate pallets or built each square stacking long the way? My husband and I would like to recreate your idea. Thanks.

  6. Hi Britt,

    Beautiful project! I want to purchase the cut list but I live in the UK and Sellfy gives me an error saying that the product is not available in Europe. Is this working as intended or maybe you were not aware of it?

    Many thanks!