Scrap wood and somewhere to sit

When I'd retrieved two pieces of tree trunk from a Tree Surgeon I'd got it into my head to build a natural bench for the garden where I could sit and watch the Sun go down. They stayed in the Workshop/garage for weeks while I mulled the idea around, until I realised that I had timber lying around from other projects completed, and not completed, over the years. So I thought "build an Arbor", but in truth I had no idea what kind of Arbor so I just started building something...............which is definitely no way to go about it. But here's how it started out and how it finished, and I hope it encourages others to build something out of bits of wood and things left over from something:

I had some long pieces of 4" X 2" timber, enough to make the 4 corner posts. I wasn't prepared to give up any border or path more than necessary, which meant squeezing the Arbor in and being dictated to by the surrounds. I had some Hazel trellis for a job that never got started so I used them as the sides and back, after cementing the posts in, giving it an open look:



I strengthened it with cross bars, again spare wood, but should I leave the roof open or put one on, and what kind of roof?? That meant another look in the Workshop/garage and leaning against the wall were two pieces of marine plywood just wide enough for the front and back of a sloping roof. So I started to build this without having any real idea of what it would look like:



That's when I thought about having a bird box in the roof so I drilled the hole and put the box on:





After that it was the struts and at the same time trying to keep it simple:



I'd treated the wood against weather as I went along, again spare stuff, but had to move the roof, which was getting heavy, single handed from the Workshop/garage to the Arbor, along the paths and through borders 120' away, which wasn't easy!!!



I then, again singlehanded, had to get the roof on the top of the Arbor. I'm 5' 7" tall and the height of the Arbor posts was 7' 6" so I'll leave that operation to your imagination!



After that it was the roof "tiles" made out of 2" x 2" timber. I ran out of this three quarters of the way through and I confess had to pop down the Timber Yard for some more.



To make the roof waterproof I used some old pond liner and then laid the roof "tiles" on top.









I also fixed the roof on solidly using screws, brackets and battens, 'cos it can get windy around here. After that it was fixing the seat supports in properly, putting decorative flashing on the front which had been lying around for some 20 years, an old Green Man ex door knocker, sprayed gold, for the badge at the centre, a spire from a car boot sale - 50p. and the gold dragon again from a car boot sale - 50p.



The two Foo Dogs took some finding but there they are:



And you've got to have somewhere to put your drink without knocking it over while watching the Sun go down so:





So now I'm waiting for Roses Compassion and Alchemist which I've ordered, bare root, to arrive next month and hopefully next year or the year after it will be smothered in roses and I can sit there watching the Sun go down and breathe in the scent!!

The point is if you haven't got an Arbor but want one then why not have a go. After all, if a clumsy, fumble fingered idiot like me can do it, you most certainly can:D:yess:

 

Thanks Cosmos, I'd already got plans to build some bird boxes for the garden and was thinking about them when building the Arbor, so I guess that's why the idea popped into my head about putting one into the roof.



That's what the bird box looks like from the inside, and of course it has a lift up top so I can clean it out when necessary.

 

Hi Kyle, thanks for that. The Arbor had to be built in the constraints of where it was so it's 52" wide, 37" deep and over 10' tall. Having no fixed idea in my head as to how it was going to look when finished it was a fear that it might end up looking like an outside toilet:D The thing is that it was so easy to build.

 

Well done Armandii