It’s spring and soon will be summer! Get your yard ready with our top picks for DIY outdoor projects, woodworking plans, and tutorials. Includes arbors, benches, and outdoor furniture for the patio.
In our very own backyards, we’ve built some amazing outdoor woodworking projects we’re very proud of. Garden arbors, patio furniture, and pergolas — all our favorite DIY outdoor wood projects! See all of the printable plans and tutorials here.
Best Outdoor Project Plans and Tutorials
These outdoor project plans and tutorial are crowd favorites — and for good reason!
Summer dreams and southern living — this fire pit swingset pergola is amazing. It includes a buffet/bar area — which can also convert to a removable movie screen!
For a simpler way to add ambiance to the backyard — add posts and lighting around the fire pit!
Redo an old swing set and play area by turning it into a DIY American Ninja Warrior course!
Planning an outdoor wedding or other backyard event? Check out these DIY Outdoor Wedding Ideas, including plans to build an A-frame Standing Chalkboard Easel!
Favorite Outdoor DIY Wood Project Plans
At the Canyon House, this gothic arch vegetable arbor was one of our favorite projects (of any of our projects). It made a great entrance to our new custom raised garden box area that we built after we installed our concrete patio ourselves (phew!)
Our girls were just tiny back then (see above photo), and we loved our indoor barn door baby gate, so we also built an outdoor baby gate to keep them safe from climbing on the deck stairs.
We also added these easy and affordable exterior DIY wood shutters and saved a bundle — only $40 per pair!
Related Reading: 25 Inspiring Outdoor Window Treaments
Then, at our Birch House, we built and stained a deck — and then removed that stain (thumbs down!) and refinished the deck (which still looks great a year later!).
Since we were spending so much more time on the deck, we bought this patio table — and so many of you loved it, Amy created a building plan to build your own X-base outdoor coffee table.
Justin built this portable wooden wedding arch for his sister’s wedding — and we happily installed it on our deck after the ceremony!
For some added seating, we built an outdoor sectional sofa from plywood. It’s designed to fit standard size patio cushions, and the cushions slide under the bench for added weather protection.
The next summer, we changed things up a bit. We moved the sectional and the wedding arbor, and added our modern deck pergola. The simple construction makes it easy to adjust to your deck size, and it’s perfect for adding easy string lighting and making the space feel more finished.
Related Reading: DIY Deck Pergola (aka how to build your own backyard shade)
In our other backyard at the Jordan House (remember we have 2 houses right now?) — We revamped our concrete patio with paint, then updated our outdoor dining area and added this fun dimensional wood wall art — see the fully finished patio space here:
We have big plans for this space this summer… we’ll see how they turn out! Starting with building our own monogram planter — you can build one, too, with the plans in the shop (and more letters coming soon! request yours to bump it up our list 🙂
Related Reading: 25 DIY Outdoor Furniture and Decor Projects
This summer, we built some raised garden beds to use as planter boxes! You can order the woodworking plans here and they’ll come right to your inbox.
We’ve also added an amazing Hidden Mickey Shaped Flower Bed Planter at Justin’s mom’s house — where are my fellow Disney lovers?!
It’s not so “hidden” but it comes together pretty quickly and will be really strong for many years with our tips in the video tutorial.
DIY Outdoor Furniture: Patio Table Woodworking Plans
For summer entertaining, this patio table with built-in drink coolers and matching benches is perfection! Plus, see how creative readers have fitted the table to fit serving dishes and made other modifications, too.
Build this round or octagon outdoor coffee table for the patio — the criss-cross lattice legs would be right at home in your living room, too!
Build a planter into the center of a waterfall edge outdoor coffee table — or swap it out for a drink cooler.
Make building a breeze by building your own table saw workbench first! It’s an amazing large work surface with clamps and guides.
Need an extra buffet table or work table? Build an 8-ft portable folding table!
DIY Outdoor Benches: Tutorials and Woodworking Plans
Redwood is naturally rot resistant, which makes it a great alternative to treated wood for outdoor wood projects. We combined redwood with a concrete base to make this outdoor bench.
Deck benches add a lot to a wood deck. These built-in deck benches are designed for a small deck and take up minimal amount of deck space, thanks to their clever space-saving design!
This outdoor garden bench takes only 2 boards to build — so you can build one for every corner of the yard. Easy to make, with a perfect farmhouse detail on the legs.
Related Reading: 25 Benches Built with 2x4s
Build a reclining outdoor lounge chair with storage — it can double as a backless bench when you’re not sunbathing!
DIY Outdoor Pallet Wood Projects
Pallets are cheap and sturdy material for outdoor projects — see our post here for tips to choose and break down a pallet for the wood.
Have you ever thought you could build an entire deck from pallets!
Inspired by the patio table with drink coolers, we built a reclaimed wood outdoor coffee table with a drink trough (or planter) from pallets!
See 30+ more Outdoor Pallet Projects
With a few leftover pallets, you can also build a pallet bench!
Use rustic pallet wood to build large outdoor planters like these. (See this post for 25 more ideas for great DIY outdoor planters.)
More outdoor projects:
- How to Paint a Concrete Patio
- 15 Easy Ways to Increase Patio Ambiance
- 50 Outdoor Wood Projects Using 2x4s
Please pin this to save it for later and share with friends!
This will be a good way to pass the time while in quarantine.
Just what I needed! We are looking at pergola ideas for our deck and there are so many great ideas here – thanks for sharing!
You are welcome!
Love so many of these projects, not sure which one I want to try first! Pinned!!
This is incredible! Love all of the detailed pictures! Even though we’re asphalt paving contractors, we love to see people DIYing their own work. As accomplished as we feel after a long day, we want everyone to know what that feels like. So I appreciate the effort you put into providing these ideas to homeowners. When you get to do this kind of work in your own home, you get to feel that satisfaction each and every time you walk outside.
Your blog is awesome, keep up the great work!