Customer Reviews

Oxford Garden Classic 5-Foot Shorea Bench

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been searching for a bench for my small inner-city backyard for months. This one is perfect. And the price is right! It arrived in a timely manner, took 20 minutes to assemble, and now I am enjoying it daily. The bench is sturdy and was surprisingly easy to construct. I'm looking forward to years of use from it. Thanks for making it available, Amazon!

I recently bought this four-foot English Garden bench for my small little private cove toward the back of my several acre back yard, and it is surrounded by spruce trees, flowers, and shrubbery. I hauled in crushed stone last fall and dug a hole to place a neat solar streetlamp, and with addition of the bench, I now have a perfect spot for lolling away an hour or so in the coolness of the screen of trees, shrubs, and flowers each morning, and watch the Labradors as they play. I have enjoyed using it since the sturdy construction easily supports someone my size (at 260 lbs) and is a lovely naturally weathering bench made from Shorea wood, a handsome and durable piece of all-weather furniture.

The bench is constructed using mortise and tenon joinery techniques, which gives it both unusual strength and durability for extended use ove the four seasons of weather-pounding we get here in New England, although I will store it each year. It also features solid wood dowel construction, and will weather over time to a rich graying patina. It has both a high back and a fairly deep seat, with very sturdy and large armrests that will comfortably fit two or three (unless I am hogging up half the space!) adults or a couple of grandkids alongside me. I love reading the new York Times book review out there, when I am not being gently pestered by the dogs, my granddaughter, or the pesky black flies that are the bane of mankind and that we seem to have buzzing around here early in the summer. All that said, this is a neat English Garden style bench that is both rugged and sturdy as well as being a handsome piece of outdoor furniture offered at an attractive price. Enjoy!

I didn't have one of these, but have a little park close to my house in Los Angeles has a bunch of the 4' benches. I sit on them every weekend to read the newspaper and relax, and finally found out they come from Oxford Designs. I dropped a hint to Santa, and I just got this one today (Christmas) for my new garden. We just put it together. Well really, I mostly did it myself, with no help from the family men anxious to get their hands on the challenge (I am usually not so good with these things, but I didn't have a single problem!). It's absolutely great, and I can even afford to get another one to match!

What a wonderful addition to the peace and calm in my backyard! This is now my favorite place to stop a enjoy nature. Most benches are not comfortable enough to be able to truly relax and enjoy your surroundings, this is the exception!

Just recieved this bench today (2 days after ordering!) and I am very pleased. The build quality of this bench is simply excellent. Very solid, very sturdy, and it took about 15 minutes to assemble.

The wood is beautiful, and I plan to get some teak oil to bring out the color (as the instructions suggest).

The curved bench seat fits my rear just right. However, my only qualm with this bench is that the seating position is a bit upright. I would just rather prefer a more relaxed seating position. However, my spouse loves it and it is primarily for her, so no big deal. This is really the only problem with buying something like this online--no way to see how well it 'sits'.

If I see some assembly required I break into hives, but when I saw the other reviews I thought 15 to 20 minutes would be bearable. Needless to say I'm not handy!

First, I couldn't find the instructions. They were in a little plastic ball the size of a baby's fist with the dowels and the screws and almost ended up in the garbage. Fortunately it does snap together rather intuitively. The dowels are hard to line up and the screws don't catch.

This was a gift for my dad for his 83rd birthday. We ended up putting it together. I would have never been able to put it together myself. Total assembly time was 2 and half hours.

It is a beautiful bench and the wood is lovely.... but all you assembly-phobes beware!

Karen

I bought 39 pieces of Oxford outdoor products, including 4 of the four foot benches and assembled all of them in less than two days. All the pieces fit very well together with plenty of screws and dowels (several packets left over). I sealed them all with the teak oil that, I'm sure, will help greatly in the harsh beachside environment. They are beautiful. One other thing. All the furniture is very heavy and stands up very well to the strong winds on the coast. Only during the strongest storm did we have some blowing over. But then it blew my large self over too!!

I bought this bench to go on a small balcony. I found the assembly easy. However, I find sitting on it for more than 20 minutes uncomfortable. There is little or no back support. If you are considering this bench, I would suggest finding some cusions both for sitting on and for the back.

After more than a year of this bench in my garden, I remain a fan of the piece. It has weathered beautifully; is comfortable for reading the Sunday paper; and Bessie Smith, my 12-year-old mutt cat, enjoys sunbathing on it. The frequent bird visitors have made the bench a handy stopover before heading to the feeders or birdbath within close proximity. You HAVE to witness the vibrant RED of a male cardinal against the weathered grey of this furniture - it is breathtaking! This has been one of the best purchases I've made from amazon.com (the best being the DVD version of West Side Story. The bench comes without a soundtrack, however.) You will not regret it!

I assembled my bench in less than half an hour over the weekend. After reading some of the reviews on here, I was pleasantly surprised with how easily and quickly it went together. As some others have suggested, I used a water-based glue on the mortises and the finished product is stable as a rock. It looks beautiful and is perfect on our front porch ... exactly what I had in mind. I think I will add a couple of coats of teak sealer to maintain the color and add a little added protection against the elements. I have to say that this bench is as nice or nicer than ones I've seen costing much more. I am very pleased!