To begin this project I started by cutting the front/rear panels and the side panels.

The front/rear panels are cut to 25" in length.

The side panel pieces get cut to 10" in length.

I use a stop block jig clamped to my miter saw to help get repeatable cuts.

So with the stop block in place I cut the 10 inch pieces for the side panels. Yes I should have used this stop block for all the pieces but I simply forgot.

I switch over to cutting the leg pieces at the miter saw so I re-position the stop block to 17" and cut 8 pieces.

I rip 4 of the legs to 2" wide at the table saw so once assembled, the legs will be square.

Save 2 of the leg cut off pieces for later on in the project.

While I have everything cut, I pre-finish it with this semi-solid deck stain from Sherwin Williams. I did not sand this bench because I figured the stain would do a good job of hiding any writing on the wood but If you don't like that, hit it with some 120 grit sandpaper.

I applied the stain with a cheap synthetic brush. In between coats I simply washed the brush out with water and re-used it. I applied a total of 2 coats to the bench.

To assemble the bench I used the Kreg jig with outdoor screws.

For the legs I set the kreg jig and the drill bit to 7/8" and used 1 1/2" screws.

I put a total of 3 screws in each leg assembly.

For the remainder of the project I re-set the kreg jig to 1 1/2" and the drill to 1 1/2" and used 2 1/2" outdoor pocket hole screws.

I put 2 screws in each side of the panel pieces.

I assembled the panels using said screws and cut a 1 inch piece of scrap as a spacer to evenly space the boards.

Move the spacer below the second panel piece and screw in the 3rd stretcher.

I flipped the front/rear panels on their sides and screwed in the side panel stretcher pieces using a shorter 1" scrap piece as a spacer.

Remember those 2 scrap pieces I told you to hold on to? Well cut those to 14". They will be used for cleat that the shelf pieces will sit on.

I cut 3 pieces at 29" for the bottom shelf.

Now on to cutting the pieces for the top. I cut 2 pieces at 17" for the breadboard ends.

And then cut 4 pieces to 25" for the stretcher pieces in the top.

Again, while I had access, I pre-finished the rest of the pieces.

I attach the cleat pieces with 3 screws.

I pre-drill and screw in the bottom shelf pieces.

To evenly space the shelf pieces I cut a 3/4" spacer for the outside two pieces and put 2 screws in each side of each shelf piece.

To space the center shelf piece I went back to the 1 inch spacer.

I drill 2 pocket holes in each end of the top stretcher pieces.

And attach them with the 2 1/2" screws.

Again, using the 1" spacer to evenly space them.

When it came to the last stretcher piece I did not use the spacer, but instead made the stretcher piece flush with the end of the breadboard ends. This is more important than making sure the spacing is 1".

For hardware I went with some cheap gate hinges I picked up at Lowes.

It came out great!