Folding Wall Bench

 The basic idea was to make a bench for two people that attached to a house wall but could be folded away when attached to the wall to provide space when it wasn't in use and also to reduce weathering of the seat.

Rough sketch of the bench. The rear legs were attached to the wall. In addition (and not shown in the sketch) there was an alder cross-bar connecting the two rear legs.

The seat was waney edge sycamore (Teale and Sons) and the legs were cut from some green hazel logs about 50 cm in length. These were left to dry and acclimatise in a cold workshop over the winter.

The four hazel legs after rip-sawing. 

The legs were shaped by spokeshave and roughing/smoothing planes and the seat sawn and shaped keeping the natural waney edge lines at the front but making the rear a straight edge so the hinges could be mounted to the rear legs but with the weight on the seat over the legs. Similarly, the front legs were mounted underneath the seat so that they could be folded away under the seat when it was stored against the wall. It is important that the weight on the seat is on the legs and not the hinges.

The rear legs were attached by a normal 3in. hinge but the front legs were attached using special lockable hinges

A rear cross-bar was made using some available alder that had been rounded to 1 1/4in. with the rounding plane.

The attachment of the rear alder cross-bar to the rear hazel legs.

The minimum height of the seat and the length and position of the front legs and rear cross-bar were determined so that the bench folded away against the wall. 

The bench was treated several times with tung oil before mounting against the wall.

The bench in its final position ready for use.

Bench seat when folded against the wall.