Introduction

This Adirondack chair and matching love seat are designed for outdoor comfort. They're designed for easy assembly, so that a novice can build them. And you can build them from inexpensive, durable wood that, once stained, looks beautiful.

Overview, tools and materials

Matching love seat

Family Handyman

Assemble the love seat exactly like the chair, using the cutting list for the parts.

This chair and love seat combo is just perfect for outdoor lounging. The seat has a nice curved recess to conform to your body, and wide arms to hold your favorite snack and drink. And because the seat doesn’t slope steeply downward like on a traditional Adirondack chair, even your grandfather will be able to help himself out without a boost.

You won’t need an arsenal of power tools to build this furniture. In fact, you’ll only need a circular saw, a drill and simple hand tools. I’ve designed this project for simplicity as well: With a bit of patience, even a novice can do a great job.

The wood is pressure-treated pine, chosen for its low cost, high strength and longevity. And don’t worry about the drab green look of treated wood. You can brush on an exterior oil or latex stain and give it a beautiful warm glow that makes it look more like mahogany or teak than treated pine.

Select straight, knot-free, pressure-treated pine
Most outdoor wood furniture is made from cedar or expensive teak, but regular treated boards from your home center or lumberyard are perfect for this project. The trick is to select boards that are as straight and free of knots as you can find. A few tight knots are OK, and if you spot a board that looks great except for a huge loose knot, just cut it out and use the knot-free sections. It’s a good idea to buy a couple of extra boards, just in case you end up cutting out more sections than you’d planned. Also avoid boards that are still wet from the treatment process (they’ll feel cool and damp) because they might warp or crack as they dry.

Don’t assume that the treated boards are dimensionally consistent. When I got my lumber home, the boards varied by as much as 3/16 in. in width. These variations can screw up the assembly process, especially for the back slats, which require spacers to get an exact back width. Once you get the boards home and begin to cut the pieces, use the rip guide on your circular saw (or borrow a neighbor’s table saw) to trim them to the exact widths in the Cutting List.

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