DIY Deck Sectional

I’m just going to start calling this summer “The Summer of The Deck” because I feel like that’s pretty much all we’ve focused on since late May.  I’m not complaining, though.  I absolutely love our new deck – it’s huge, it’s fabulous, and our house and yard are so much better now that we have it.

Another good thing about it is that it jump started some DIY goodness in my hubby!  He recently finished a big wooden American flag that I shared last week, and today I’m going to show you his awesome Deck Sectional!

Before I try to share with you how he made it, let me just show you a couple of deck updates so you can see the full layout.

We’ve got to stain it and do a few other things, but we love it!  When we built it, we knew we wanted some comfy seating, and we didn’t want to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Mark searched the internet for ideas then decided to create something himself.

I shared a couple in-progress pictures on Facebook and my readers wanted plans, so I’ll do my best to make this work for you.  We didn’t use any plans – this came out of my husband’s head, so we’ll give it a shot, ok?

*Note: The following directions are for the 6-foot piece of the sectional.  The other piece is 4-foot in length – follow the same directions modified for that size.

First, create a frame for the seat.

Attach 4 – 6 foot 2×4’s to 1 foot 2×4’s to create the rectangles you see above.  We measured our living room sofa to get a rough idea of the seat height, so you can do more or less based on your own comfort level.

Cut 4 more 1 foot 2×4’s and space them out as supports – 2 per frame.  (You can see them in the next photo for reference.)

Next, connect the front and back frames with 2 – 30″ 2x4s.  As you can see in the photo above, this is attached inside the frame built in Step 1.  Mark also later added a third base connecter in the middle of the sectional.

Mark gave our sectional arms, too.  He attached 1 – 2 foot 2×4 to the end of each frame, then attached a 5/4″x6″ decking board for the arm rest cut to 30 1/2″ long.

Next he added a back to our sectional.  To make the supports, cut 3 – 2x4s to 2’11” long and attach them along the back frame – one on each end and one in the middle.  Mark chose this height to make sure our sectional didn’t sit higher than the deck railing.

The back board is a 5/4×6 decking board cut to 73 1/2″ long.  He later added a second decking board cut to 72″ in length.  You’ll see that in the finished product.  (Sorry, we didn’t think to do step-by-step photos.)

Ok, now we add the actual seat.  To do this, Mark cut 10 decking boards to 30″ in length and attached them along the top of the frame.

We also chose to add a front to our sectional, so he cut 10 decking boards to 16″ in length.  The front boards line up with the cushion support boards.

As you can see in the photo above, we also closed in the end of our sectional using two more decking boards cut to 30″ in length.  You could leave it open (as it is on the smaller sectional above), add an “X” or whatever else you like.

Mark painted our sectional white, and we’re going to add cushions and pillows, too.  A future DIY project.  🙂

So good, right?!  Mark even made a square table out of leftover boards, and we’ll be making cushions soon.  (Don’t worry, I’ll share those with you, too!)

A quick recap:

Materials needed for the 6-foot sectional

Base: 4 – 6ft. 2×4
Base supports:  8 – 1ft. 2×4
Arm rest: 2 – 2ft. 2×4
Arm rest top: 1 – 5/4×6 30 1/2″ decking board
Back supports: 3 – 2’11” 2×4
Base connecters: 2 – 30″ 2×4
Cushion supports: 10 – 5/4×6 30″ decking boards
Front covers: 10 – 5/4×6 16″ decking boards
Back top board: 1 – 5/4×6 73 1/2″ decking board
Back bottom board: 1 – 5/4×6 72″ decking board
Side pieces: 2 – 5/4×6 30″ decking board

Materials needed for the 4-foot sectional

Base: 4 – 4ft. 2×4
Base supports: 8 – 1ft. 2×4
Arm rest: 2 – 2ft. 2×4
Arm rest top: 1 – 5/4×6 30 1/2″ decking board
Back supports: 2 – 2’11” 2×4
Base connecters: 2 – 30″ 2×4
Cushion supports: 7 – 5/4×6 30″ decking boards
Front covers: 7 – 5/4×6 16″ decking boards
Back top board: 1 – 5/4×6 49 1/2″ decking board
Back bottom board: 1 – 5/4×6 48″ decking board
Side pieces: 2- 5/4×6 30″ decking board