Recently I decided to get these done. They are now nicely positioned by the pool. It was worth the wait. I love them.

I used pressure treated lumber for this project. That is not unusual and actually is what I would recommend for your projects in many circumstances. However, I did something folks advise against. I "finished" the project to "fine furniture" quality. I sanded and sanded and fixed all the pressure treated flaws. I stained it cherry. I coated it with semi-gloss urethane. It is commonly advised to not use pressure treated wood for this type of quality finishing. They were right. The amount of time and effort I had to put into these benches to get them to look "very, very good" was too much. I would have been better of chosing a better quality wood (cedar or good pine or oak, etc.) and avoiding the high labor I expended. Pressure treated wood has a lot of flaws - knicks, dents, bad spots, etc. I will not be doing this again if I can avoid it. For your projects, if you wish to have a high quality finish, have it made from good wood. The savings in labor more than covers the higher cost of better wood. Pressure treated wood does not look bad, but it's not "inside your house furniture" quailty stuff. Again, for most of my outdoor projects I will use pressure treated wood, without trying to make it something it is not.

I have also found that coating outside items with urethane to be a bad idea. It certainly can be done but you will find the need to recoat the item every year to maintain a real nice finish. I prefer to make things rather than mainten them. If these benches were to be outside, I would not have coated them with urethane, but mine are under roof and do not receive harsh treatment from weather, thus, it's a good choice here. Sure looks good. Inside our out, a stain is a viable option. Painting can be done also of course. No matter the choice, re-application will eventually be required outside if a "new" look is desired. I make many of my outdoor items and just let the wood be as it is. No maintenance, greys up real nice and in my yard, old greyed up wood items is the look and the norm. Collectively, they are a nice design statement in of themselves. It's a personal choice of course.

The actual construction of these benches went very well. No horror stories beyond my choice and lesson in wood selection. The construction details as prescribed by the plan I based this upon were very good. A deviation / enhancement I added to my benches were the "adjustable feet". My house does not have a level patio (as is the case in most patios) and you never know when you might want to change the location of a bench to a spot that is not exactly level - so it was a requirment for my benches. I did of course put more screws and more strength into it than the plan called for, but the plan as it was designed was very good. I also overfinished compared to the plan - router roundovers and stain and urethane - all my choices.