31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 25 - DIY Rustic Mudroom Bench

After being inspired by tons and tons of DIY furniture photos on Pinterest and then seeing what Dave built out in the woods a few weeks ago, I urged him to please, pretty please, build us a bench for the mudroom. Finally, he conceded.

The source of our lumber came when his dad hired someone at his place next door to cut up a few fallen oak trees into lumber for a lean-to that he's planning to build. He let Dave grab some extra slab wood with the bark still on and a few rough-cut 2 x 3's and with that, Dave fashioned us a fabulous rustic DIY bench. I am absolutely in love with this thing.

With the pieces of wood that he chose, it looks like they just sliced the tree in half long-ways and unfolded it to make the bench. 

It is held together with some mortise & tenon joints and a few square nails that we purchased from an Amish hardware store in PA a few years ago.

This piece of furniture has a story and I love that most about it. For example, this piece of wood holding the legs together on the left side has a blue streak in it. Phil pointed out that the streak came from a nail that he pounded into that tree 55 years ago when he built a tree house. As the tree grew around that nail, it discolored the wood. The nail is still in it.

Dave thought that story was so neat so when he needed a short piece to brace the legs together, he went back over and dug through a pile of split wood that was still sitting in the yard and picked this particular piece out.

We talked about staining it but I think we've both decided we love it just the way it is.

You just can't buy furniture this special. Seriously. It is the perfect addition to our mudroom.

What do you guys think? Would you love to have one? And isn't my husband a genius?

For the rest of this 31 Day Series, click here.