Introduction: Pergola Arbor Seat

About: I am a Marine Engineer in the RNZN (45 years done in various navies) and am looking forward to retirement!!! so I can do more messing about with tools

The Lady of the House said that she would like a seat in the orchard to contemplate her navel! And being a good husband, with an unhealthy passion for powertools, I thought " I can do better than that"

Step 1: The Uprights

I had a bunch of 4x4 (100mm x 100mm) poles that I bought eons ago for another project that never got done,

So using a circular saw I cut a recess at the top of 4 of them.

Step 2: The Back

So I assembled 2 of the poles with some trellis using 50mm screws and dug a couple of holes with my post hole tool, I also added a horizontal upper from 40 x 100 decking to give the whole shebang some rigidity.

I then made sure it was all level and upright and concreted in with Postmix

Step 3: The Seat Back

I then cut a "bird lip" out of the upright for the seat back top runner, I was going to cut a second one lower for the bottom rail, but then thought better as it would weaken the post too much, so as I was very much "winging" this (making it up as I go along), I used the cut out "wedge instead as an infill to get my angle for the seat back.

Once both top and bottom horizontal were in I cut slats to fit for the back and attached with 50mm screws.

Step 4: The Sides

I used 2 pieces of trellis for the sides to get the correct position for the front poles assembly. These were attached using 75mm nails.

It looks a bit cack handed in the first pic as I was doing this on my own ( as the wife has just had back surgery) so improvisation was called for.

Once I had located one side, I could dig the second hole and square everything up.

Again all concreted in with Postmix

Step 5: Seat Base

Then I put in 2 "fore and aft" pieces at each end to attach the seat slats using 75mm nails, then cut the seat base slats to length (1800 mm) and attached using 50mm screws.

Step 6: The "Roof"

I cut 13 1 metre lengths for the roof, cut off the corners and clamped together.

Then cut 2 slots as shown in each to fit (750mm apart)

Step 7: Fitting the Roof

I spaced out the roof slats evenly and nailed in position using 75mm nails

Just need to stain it and plant something to grow over it and I'm done