Purchasing A Picnic Table Bench

Almost every family in American has a picnic table. For some of us, it consists of a few wooden planks nailed together to look like a table with a picnic table bench attached. They’ve always been the favorite of most people for one reason, the price. Picnic tables are usually one of the most affordable types of outdoor furniture.

Recently I decided it was time to upgrade mine. I’d had it for years and although you could still sit on it, it didn’t really look all that great anymore. We’d repainted both the table and the picnic table bench several times and the paint just wasn’t doing its job anymore.

When I went looking for a new one I was actually a bit surprised by the selection. I expected to walk into the home improvement store and see the standard wooden picnic table bench. It was there but it was sitting among many other designs and choices.

The first one that caught my eye was made of wood as well. However it wasn’t in the traditional rectangular shape that we’ve all become accustomed to. This picnic table bench was shaped like an octagon. You could easily sit up to eight people, if not more around it and they wouldn’t be bumping elbows the way they would if they were stuck on a normal picnic table bench.

That wasn’t the only different shape I saw though. A circular table was the next one that I seriously considered buying. The table was great, it had a leaf in the middle so you could adjust it to fit a smaller crowd or expand it when more friends or relatives showed up. The picnic table bench that went with it was in several pieces, so you could use two of the pieces for the smaller table and then add a third picnic table bench when you were using the larger table. What I liked most about this style was the benches could also be used separately.

The rectangular version was a bit different than the one I had at home as well. One of the sets that I saw at the store was made of metal. It may be difficult to imagine a metal picnic table bench as being comfortable, but it was.

I finally decided on a square table. It’s big enough to seat my entire family, yet it’s not so large that it takes up too much room. The picnic table bench with this one is actually four pieces, one for each side of the table. They move so what I’ve been doing is keeping two near the table and the other two closer to the house for the kids to sit on when they need a rest in the shade while outside playing or to sit and sip a cup of juice. To finish it I just added a water sealant because it’s made of cedar and I didn’t want to lose the beauty of the wood.