DIY Outdoor Coffee Table Storage Bench Tutorial!

A modified Ana White design that ended up as a DIY outdoor coffee table storage bench for outdoors. Take a look at some tips for this cute bench!

Hi Friends! It is finally feeling like fall around here which means more family time spent outdoors. I wanted to make a few outdoor games like a large Jenga and checkers and I needed some place to store the Jenga blocks.

I also needed an outdoor coffee table so I searched around for some plans and of course ended up on Ana White’s site. I fell in love with this storage bench but it was a little too big for what I wanted so I changed the dimensions of it and ended up with this DIY outdoor coffee table storage bench!

It is the perfect size to put your feet up on and to also store some outdoor toys.

Check out Ana White’s DIY outdoor coffee table tutorial here for full instructions.

DIY Outdoor Storage Bench with Storage Measurements

My DIY outdoor storage bench ended up being 48.5 inches long x 16 1/4 inch deep x 14 inches tall(without lid).

So, here are the cut sizes you need:

Cut List for Side Panels:

4 – 1×4 @ 14” (legs)
22 – 1×4 @ 11” (side slats)
4 – 1×3 @ 45 1/2″ (same)
4 – 1×2 @ 5 1/4” (frame boards, ends)

Cut List for End Panels:

8 – 1×4 @ 11″ (end panel slats)
4 – 1×3 @ 10 1/4″ (frame for ends)
4 – 1×3 @ 9 3/4 “ (frame for the tops and bottom)

Cut List for the Bottom:

4 – 1×4 @ 47 ” (same)

Cut List for the Top:

13 – 1×4 @ 16 1/2 “ (top slats)
2 – 1×2 @ 45 1/2″ (top frame supports)

A few tips for getting everything aligned… I put a long board at top to push all the short boards up against and then had small pieces of 1/4″ plywood that I stuck in between.

I added some gorilla glue to the top of each boards and then laid the top frame board on.

I drilled pilot holes with my Ryobi drill where all the screws were going so the board didn’t split.

I drilled in the two ends first and then made sure every board was pushed up and touching the top board.

For the door hinges, I attached them to the top panel first and then the bottom. I think I put my hinges on upside down…oops… my lid opens really wide but it still works fine!

So, here is it all built! It’s not perfect, but it was pretty inexpensive to make!

Finishing My DIY Storage Bench

I sanded the whole thing my hand sander. First with 120 grit and then with 220 grit.

Paint it with exterior paint and add a couple of coats of spar urethane for extra protection if you want.

That’s it! It took a few days since there were a lot of cuts but it didn’t take too long to put together. Thank you to Ana White for another great design!