Exterior Furniture Advice

Any panels wider than a few inches have to have room to move, especialy for outdoor furniture which is subject to much more temperature extremes. You can do large panels for outdoor funiture as long as the entire thing is allowed to float but slats are often used because it allows rain to go through rather than puddling up on the surface. I’d recommend sticking to slats for any table tops or surfaces like chair seats and backs where you don’t want puddles of water accumulating.

-- Don - I wood work if I could. Redmond WA.

Other than water pooling, there really should be no difference between building indoor vs. outdoor furniture. My indoor dining table moved 1/4” throughout the year, across the grain. Even if an outdoor piece moves more, you still have to allow room, it’s probably just a matter of degree. If it gets wet, it might swell even more. Ipe is an excellent choice BTW.

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails

I had an idea which was a little of the wal and that was to get the edges of the boards at 45 degrees and leave a small 6 millimetre space between them. Becaue of the angle, one board will pass behind the other making it appear that this is no obvious gap.

Its a little more interesting than tongue and groove but would it work…......l

-- Im more succesfull at making sawdust than I am at making furniture

No reason that shouldn’t work, you just need enough space to allow the boards to move. I wouldn’t do it myself though becuase of the extra work in cutting the angle on all the boards.

-- Don - I wood work if I could. Redmond WA.

Don’t glue the center area just have it as you would a panel in a door and connect the bottom on battens the have longer than normal slotted holes for wood movement.

-- https://www.artisticwoodstudio.com/videos