The construction phase of the bathhouse is over, the time has come for its internal filling. And an integral attribute of the decor is its furniture, including benches. Because with their help, a cozy and comfortable environment is created and, in addition, it is the furniture that provides excellent opportunities for relaxation.
Furniture can be a variety of items, but a bath bench, made with your own hands, is one of the main ones, and also a reason for pride. The bench is one of the mandatory components of the bathhouse interior, but making it yourself is not difficult and, moreover, its price will be low.
>
Such benches in the rest room are very original
Making a bench for a bath
Wood selection
Oak is one of those materials that is not afraid of moisture
The bathhouse itself can be built from various materials, but the furniture is made only from wood.
And not just anyone, but one that meets certain requirements:
- A bench for the bath: do it yourself, it should be made from moisture-resistant wood with low thermal conductivity. Not every material can withstand high temperatures and humidity.
- Wooden benches must have an enviable resistance to cracking. In particular, an excellent bench for a bathhouse - made with your own hands, from oak, birch, linden, maple, aspen and poplar. Deciduous wood does not emit harmful resins, does not burn the skin, is easy to clean and dries quickly.
- All of the listed types of wood have ease of processing, a minimum number of knots and good density, that is, important advantages. Well, they have an excellent property that is inherent in all of the listed breeds, this is the content of useful substances that have a healing effect on the human body.
Choosing material for benches
Material for benches
The following requirements apply to the material for making benches:
- low thermal conductivity so that you can sit or lie on the bench without experiencing discomfort from the hot surface;
- high density so that the tree does not split or split, leaving splinters;
- strength that allows you to successfully withstand high temperatures in conditions of high humidity for a long time.
Of the tree species common in Russia, these requirements are best met by linden, oak and aspen. The use of poplar, maple and birch is allowed.
The undisputed leader is linden.
Linden wood is light, durable and easy to process, and has a strong tonic effect.
Bench
In terms of its properties, aspen is somewhat inferior to linden, but due to its high prevalence, it is half the cost. This circumstance explains that aspen benches are most often found in bathhouses. The main disadvantage of aspen boards is hidden internal rot. Although the boards seem durable upon external inspection, rotting processes are already occurring in the inner layers, resulting in the destruction of the wood.
It is relatively rare to make sauna benches from other listed tree species yourself.
It is impossible not to mention the African abashi tree. This is a real champion for its unique properties. The only drawback of abashi is its very high cost. Abashi is supplied to Russia in rather small quantities, and bath benches from it are made only to order.
Types of bath benches
Benches for the washing room and rest room
On our portal you can find a large number of photos of various types of furniture such as a bench for a bath - made with your own hands. What is striking is that there are movable benches, suitable for a rest room, and fixed benches, necessary in such a section of the bath as a steam room.
A simple sauna bench without a back is most often used as a footrest. It’s easy to make such a mini-bench for a bathhouse; the question of how to make a bench for a bathhouse with your own hands is completely solved. Despite this, the most popular are the more practical models - two-tier or stepped benches, due to the fact that they do not get in the way and also save space.
Step-type benches are located vertically. The top shelf of the bathhouse should be wider, due to the fact that it is intended not only for sitting, but you can also lie on it.
Steam room benches
Two-tier benches are optimal for small baths and can be climbed using ladders. It happens that the steam room is very small, then in this case a wide bench-shelf of a removable type is a competent and thoughtful solution.
Drawings of a bench for a bath with your own hands will come to the rescue in determining the location and detailed indication of all such items of interior furnishings. If the bathhouse is spacious, then, without limiting yourself, stepped benches can be mounted in three tiers.
Preparation and installation
To make a wooden bench, you will need the following tools: a plane, a hacksaw, sandpaper, and a hammer. The materials needed will be wooden beams, fastenings and thin strips. Fortunately, there will be no need to rack your brains over the design, since it has not changed for many centuries. A drawing of a bench for a bath is presented below.
When the manufacture of the necessary parts is completed, all surfaces must be processed with a plane and carefully sanded.
After this, you need to make a frame from the beams (as in the photo). Narrow strips should be nailed to the frame - longitudinally or transversely, at your discretion. It is best to fasten with wooden nails or choliki. If you want to use metal screws or nails for fastening, please note that under no circumstances should they protrude from the frame, because when the metal heats up, you can get seriously burned on it. Therefore, all such elements should be “drowned” a little, and then sealed with putty.
Making a bench in the bathhouse
The process of making bath furniture is largely based on imagination, although there are instructions that provide some standard actions. Let's start with something simple: a classic bench without a back.
A simpler bench
A simple bench for a washroom
Such a bench for a bathhouse is simple in its manufacture, due to the fact that it contains a seat, four legs, slopes and crossbars necessary to increase stability.
So, we determine the dimensions of the bathhouse bench with our own hands and get started:
- According to the dimensions, we cut the parts of the bench: a seat made of boards, legs, slopes and crossbars made of bars.
We measure the dimensions
- All parts are carefully polished to avoid splinters.
- We make spikes on the crossbars, and accordingly, grooves on the legs for their fastening.
- The crossbars are attached to the legs using glue, most often special wood glue is used, and using wooden nails. To do this, a hole is drilled through the leg and the tenon, slightly smaller in diameter than the nail, which is driven into this hole.
Tip: The material of the wooden nail should match the material of the bench parts. Otherwise, the nail may fall out of the hole and the bench will crumble.
- Using self-tapping screws, screw the seat. The heads of the screws are deepened into the board at a distance of about one centimeter, then these recesses are puttied.
The product is almost ready!
Attention: It is necessary to putty the recesses from the self-tapping screws, otherwise water will accumulate in them and the bench will deteriorate.
Bench for a bath in a steam room
When you need a drawing, with its help nothing will be missed in the work process and, in addition, you will save significant time. It is more convenient to work if you have a diagram at hand.
Shop layout: a little more difficult to execute
Before you make a bench for the bathhouse with your own hands, you need to prepare the material and tools. Materials include boards 50 mm thick, bars with a section of 50x50 mm, wooden nails or choppers, screws, thin planks.
The tools you will need are a screwdriver, a hammer, a grinder, sandpaper, a hacksaw, a plane, and a hammer.
- According to the diagram, parts are cut out, processed with a plane and polished until ideal smoothness is achieved.
- The frame is made using fasteners.
Assembling the frame
- Horizontal and vertical planes are sutured.
It may turn out like this
- Benches are mounted in several tiers. For ease of cleaning, the benches located at the bottom and top are removable, and those in the middle remain fixed.
Three-tier shelf in the steam room
Attention: It is not recommended to coat the structure with paint or varnish. When heated, they release substances that are harmful to humans, and they do not smell very pleasant.
Bench manufacturing technology
The simplest design for saunas consists of legs and boards that are secured as a seat. It is created as follows:
- First, a drawing of a sauna bench is created, which indicates the dimensions of each structural element.
- After this, the legs are made. For this, bars with a cross section of 50x50 mm are usually taken.
- Then grooves are created on the inside of the supports. This is necessary to install the transverse bars connecting the legs. The connection does not only occur at the top of the supports. At a height of 1/3, additional bars are installed that connect the legs. Subsequently, they are connected using a bar in the middle, located along the structure.
- After securing the lower longitudinal support, the transverse bars are connected using boards. For greater stability, grooves are created in them.
It is necessary to leave gaps between the boards so that water does not accumulate at the joints. The screws should be tightened so that the head is completely recessed into the wood. The holes must be filled with a mixture of PVA and sawdust. After manufacturing, the bench needs to be plastered. To make the bench safer, it is worth removing sharp corners using sanding discs.
Purpose and design of a footrest in a bathhouse
This stand is designed for installation in relatively narrow steam rooms that have an elongated rectangle in plan. It is fixed at a convenient height from the floor grid on the wall opposite the shelves.
The main criterion for using the stand for its intended purpose is the distance from its supporting shelf to the shelf on which the steamer sits. It should be such that he can freely stretch his legs and put them on the stand.
If the above condition is not met, then you will have to use it as an ordinary shelf. Even in this capacity it will be useful, for example, for storing any bath accessories.
The footrest is a wooden structure, which when assembled is similar to an ordinary shelf. However, it has a significant difference from it, which allows you to quickly and easily move the stand from a horizontal to a vertical position, and vice versa. To do this, it is enough to remove the rotating bars from the stops and rotate the shelf around its axis by 90 degrees.
The stand is fastened using self-tapping screws on a log wall or a wall covered with clapboard.
Shelves in a bathhouse (steam room) 3d layout
(Choose the one that suits you)
Here are more than 30 drawings (with dimensions) of shelves for a bathhouse, which you can make with your own hands
Typical mistakes when designing a canopy in a bathhouse - clearly illustrated by example
Material: crackers (this is a tree that has dried out or been uprooted under natural conditions). Aquatex 2 layers. The face is made of aspen, coated with ordinary bath oil using brushes.
Interesting!!!: In the comments to the video, a dispute arose that the author of the video sheathed the walls horizontally and that this was not correct, because This makes the water flow worse, according to the instigator of the dispute. However, he was immediately objected!!!
These are detailed and step-by-step 3D layouts on how to make two-tier benches in a steam bath.
The design of the frame and the features of nailing the boards are shown in detail here.
Here we will touch on how to make shelves in a small sauna on the balcony with your own hands, and at the same time consider the process of creating such a small steam room in an apartment. In general, reviews about saunas on balconies are mostly only positive; if you do everything correctly, then there should be no problems. The advantage of a bathhouse on the balcony is that
- that the apartment will not be burdened with sauna ventilation aspects.
- As for the cries about a fire, any purple household appliance (for example, an electric stove) can also start a fire in the kitchen. The same cable has the same probability of short circuit and fire. And on the balcony, if something suddenly happens, the author will even be able to pour it on more easily with a fire extinguisher.
- This is a balcony. The apartment will be a little off to the side. In case of force majeure - extremely good.
Some advantages.
Minuses:
- block off half the balcony with a wooden box,
- block natural light,
- leave the hood window in the direction of the glass (you’ll appreciate it in winter),
- complete lack of ventilation on the balcony
- A household extension cord was used as the power cable.
Here are collected layouts of bathhouses with 3 rooms: a steam room, a washing room and a relaxation room. Here you can see the approximate design of the shelves
(Click on photo to enlarge)
Surreal beauty
Here we created a floating shelf made of linden in a sauna steam room with our own hands. Please note that the lower supports are oblique, this is so that they will not be visible in the future, i.e. the effect of floating shelves is created. All walls are impregnated with special tikurill varnish for saunas, and the shelves are covered with shelf wax. He heated the steam room thoroughly and wiped off the remaining wax with a cloth. The author claims that the boards, of course, darkened a little, but after a day they brightened again
The steam room has a heated water floor and a heating radiator. When I decided to cover the shelves, I went into the steam room: with the oven completely turned off, the temperature in the steam room was about 40 degrees Celsius. I lit the stove and after 15 minutes it was already 60-70 degrees in the steam room!!!
Lighting at the bottom of the shelf is a 25W light bulb.
Notice the decor is made in the same dark white style as the shelves.
You can completely disassemble this shelf (down to the racks), take it out, paint it and reassemble it again. The author is of amazing skill. We advise you to watch his video at the link below the description, there are 5 parts and they are very long, but with detailed comments not only regarding the designs of the regiments, but also on carpentry in general.
If you want to make an inclined shelf in your steam room in the form of a couch, on which you can lean back and enjoy the steam, then here is a great option for you.
The photo shows the finished model from different angles and one photo of the frame design. Then everyone will guess for themselves what needs to be done.
To make a bench for a bathhouse with your own hands, you must first create a drawing of it, indicating the width, length and height of each design detail, as well as the dimensions of additional elements. Naturally, you need to decide on the shape and type of product. If there is a backrest, in addition to its height and width, an angle of inclination is required.
Making drawings with your own hands is not so difficult. To create, you need the dimensions of the room itself. All wooden components are cut strictly according to the parameters shown in the figure. For convenience, the drawing can be made in several projections.
Furniture for a bath: a few secrets
Wooden furniture for a bathhouse or sauna is a classic interior option. Most often it is made from linden or aspen. Such shelves and benches practically do not warp, and when heated, they cannot leave burns and almost do not rot. But if you decide to make bath furniture yourself, consider a few nuances:
- It is customary to fasten individual elements of bath furniture with oak wedges, for which appropriate grooves must be made. A simpler and more modern option is self-tapping screws. But metal caps can cause burns. Self-tapping screws must be recessed to a depth of at least 5 mm. Cover the top with a layer of wood putty. By the way, this will protect the metal from oxidation;
- When assembling the surface of a bench, table or shelf, do not place the boards right next to each other. When temperature changes, wood will expand. In addition, the gaps between the boards will contribute to better ventilation and water drainage;
- All parts must be perfectly processed. The edges must be made rounded, and the surface must be sanded twice: first with a machine, then with sandpaper by hand. And, of course, sauna furniture cannot be coated with any varnish.
