02/11/2024 5:07 AM

Nuclear Running Dead

Building the future

Best DIY Outdoor Project Plans & Tutorials

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 DIY Outdoor Wood Projects: DIY deck pergola tutorial

DIY deck pergola tutorial

Click here to see all our printable outdoor project plans

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.

outdoor tall baby gate

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!).

Best Outdoor Wood Projects: Restore Refinish Redwood Deck With Oil

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!

DIY Outdoor Woodworking Projects: how to build a wood arbor as a backyard wedding arch, portable and simple to build

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.

DIY Outdoor Furniture Woodworking Plans: Plywood Sofa Sectional

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.

Best DIY Outdoor Projects: Modern Deck Pergola Plans

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:

Outdoor Dining Room With IKEA Furniture @Remodelaholic 19

We have big plans for this space this summer… we’ll see how they turn out!

Related Reading: 25 DIY Outdoor Furniture and Decor Projects

Coming up in our summer plans — we’re building some raised garden beds to use as planter boxes! You can pre-order the woodworking plans here and they’ll come right to your inbox as soon as we finish them up.

Pre Order Woodworking Plan Diy Raised Garden Bed Planter Boxes Remodelaholic

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.

DIY Outdoor Furniture Woodworking Plans: Patio Table with Drink Coolers

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!

DIY Outdoor Furniture: X Base Octagon Outdoor Coffee Table Woodworking Plans

Build a planter into the center of a  waterfall edge outdoor coffee table — or swap it out for a drink cooler.

DIY Outdoor Woodworking Projects: Patio Coffee Table Plans

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.

DIY Outdoor Woodworking Projects: Redwood and Concrete Bench Plans

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, th
anks to their clever space-saving design!

DIY Outdoor Benches: Space Saving Deck Bench Plans

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.

DIY Outdoor Project Plans and Tutorials: Farmhouse Garden Bench

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!

Best DIY Outdoor Wood Projects: Reclining Outdoor Lounge Chair/Daybed with Storage, Woodworking Plans

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!

DIY Wooden Pallet Deck

Inspired by the patio table with drink coolers, we built a reclaimed wood outdoor coffee table with a drink trough (or planter) from pallets!

DIY Outdoor Pallet Wood Furniture: Patio Coffee Table with Drink Trough, Woodworking Plans

See 30+ more Outdoor Pallet Projects

With a few leftover pallets, you can also build a pallet bench!

DIY Outdoor Pallet Projects: Pallet Bench Tutorial

Use rustic pallet wood to build large outdoor planters like these. (See this post for 25 more ideas for great DIY outdoor planters.)

Outdoor DIY Pallet Wood Projects: Diy Large Pallet Planter

 

Best Outdoor Project Plans and Tutorials

And, just a few more of our favorite outdoor projects….

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!

Best Outdoor Project Plans for Summer: Fire Pit Swingset Pergola DIY Tutorial

For a simpler way to add ambiance to the backyard — add posts and lighting around the fire pit!

Best Outdoor Project Tutorials: Add Lighting Around a Fire Pit

Redo an old swing set and play area by turning it into a DIY American Ninja Warrior course!

Best Outdoor Projects to Build: DIY American Ninja Warrior Course

More outdoor projects:

Please pin this to save it for later and share with friends!

Best DIY Outdoor Projects, Woodworking Plans And Tutorials #remodelaholic

DIY Outdoor Woodworking Project Plans And Tutorials For Summer Yard #remodelaholic

Remodelaholic is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Please see our full disclosure here.

About Cass