Outdoor Potting Bench Table with Large Space Storage

It took me several hours to put together, but I think this potting bench will last a long time. I keep mine on an open patio, so when it rains, it gets wet. So I applied a wood preservative to the pieces before I constructed it to protect it. Since it's exposed to the elements, that also means the stuff stored underneath gets wet because there are narrow gaps between the wooden boards on the top. I bought a sheet of galvanized steel from the big hardware store to put on the top to keep everything dry and provide a good work surface. I wish it had come with a work surface like this, but it was worth the extra time and couple of bucks to add it. I attached it to the top of the bench with upholstery tacks. Now it's perfect! Not only do I use it for potting and transplanting, but it comes in handy whenever I need a work surface outside.

Looks great! Very easy to assemble. Didn't take long. Just patience. Lots of storage space. Lots of holes for your pegs Strong sturdy holds plenty of stuff and great price. Exactly what I was looking for would recommend

Once I got it put together, it was really nice. There are a lot of screws. I would suggest putting all the panels together first before you put on the door. The magnets aren't exactly aligned with the keeper on the door. The wood is lightweight, so be careful and use a good Phillips head bit. I really like that the peg board is metal so it won't break or swell by being in the weather. When I get a picture, I will upload it. Also, the shelves do not screw down. If that is a worry you should get some 3/4 inch wood screws to hold them down.

This item, while exactly as described, is very cheaply made of very cheap wood. Be warned fir wood is soft—almost like balsa—so when you are putting it together, if your screwdriver/drill slips, you will dent and gouge the wood. I’m pretty handy and used my drill with a Phillips bit for most of the construction, but still had trouble with some spots. Not all the pieces have pilot holes and in some places they really should have. I had a couple pieces split or chip as I was driving the screws through them, which would have been avoided if there were pilot holes. In fact, there were a couple of times I hit a hard spot in the wood and ended up drilling my own pilot holes. So I recommend using a drill and keeping a small drill bit handy just for this purpose. Before assembly, I did as some others did and polyurethaned all the wood pieces. I bought high quality poly, which said for outdoor use to apply THREE coats, lightly sanding in between. I discovered while doing this that there were several chips in the wood pieces because the wood is so soft. The stain is extremely thin, which means what showed where these chips were was bare, unstained wood. Also, even lightly sanding with 220-grit paper took some of the stain off. I liked the color of the piece so I bought clear satin finish poly. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a lightly colored poly, at least for the first coat and maybe some touchups. I will probably recoat the whole piece in a year or so and use one with a light stain added. BTW, there are 74 wood pieces, so be prepared to spend a lot of time if you do this. I didn’t have room to spread out all 74 pieces at once so I split them into two groups and spent a total of six days to do the three coats on all sides. As for assembly, some of the directions are just asinine. For example, why not have you put the door handle on the door BEFORE you hang it? There were no pilot holes on the handle so you just kinda had to guess placement. I strongly suggest reading ahead a few steps in the directions for things like this. If I had done so, I would have lined up the handle on the door, drilled some pilot holes in the handle to match those on the door, then clamped them together, and THEN hung the door. (There were no pilot holes for where the hinges get attached to the cabinet, either, btw. In retrospect, I should have clamped the door to the cabinet, marked the holes, and drilled pilot holes before trying to attach it.) NOTE: one of the steps at the end of the instructions is WRONG. You put the metal pegboard pieces on the back of the upper frame (which is correct) but when you mount the frame on the top of the cabinet, it tells you to drive six long screws through the bottom of the frame through the metal countertop on the BACK of the pegboard. The frame is in front of the pegboard, so this makes no sense. Just drive the screws through the bottom of the frame as described but know it’s on the front of the pegboard. All in all, it’s a good looking piece, but as stated above, it’s very cheaply made and assembly is a a little challenging. But that’s what you get for this price.

Bench was exactly what I needed for the space. It was fairly easy to assemble and holds all my gardening tools and extra pots. It's sturdy enough to hold up to weather on a 9th floor balcony. Great value for the money.

Very helpful!

I love this bench. It was a lot to put together. Two of us working on it but all is good. It would help if some of the sections were labeled front facing because we had to undo several pieces to get it right. I love it and recommend the purchase.

Now that we've had the table for a while I'm impressed with how sturdy it is. It's easy to assemble, instructions are easy to read. My wife and I have used it almost every day and it's gotten some ruff use and it is still holding up well.