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Home owners: Doné and Eddie Hanekom
Location: Kingsely, WA
The project: Outdoor seating makeover
The budget: $1200
Doné and Eddie’s top tip for renovators: “Understand what you can do and get help for the things you can’t.”
Husband and wife team, Eddie and Doné Hanekom have a great renovating relationship. Doné comes up with the vision and then Eddie sets about bringing it to life. “I see the things in my mind and then I say to Eddie ‘Okay, I think we should do something like this’,” Doné says. “I always say it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be quick, it’s going to be cheap. It’s never any of those things.”
For his part, Eddie, who is a fly-in-fly-out geologist working in WA’s mines, looks forward to his renovating assignments when he gets home. “I like to be busy,” Eddie says. “So if there’s something for me to do, I just jump straight into it. I’m happy to tackle anything.”
Since moving into their suburban Perth home with their kids in 2020, the couple have installed an electric fireplace in their bedroom, built a bar in the games room and erected a fountain in the backyard. Perhaps their most ambitious project though, has been remodelling the outdoor seating area.
“It was a very bland space and difficult to put furniture in,” Doné says. The undercover area faces the pool, and Doné and Eddie wanted to transform it into a space the whole family could enjoy. They also wanted to remove the planter boxes and landscape the area for more privacy.
Due to the challenging dimensions of the space, it made sense to conceptualise the furniture first. “I started to think about built-in seats, and one day I woke up and said, ‘I know what we’re going to do’,” says Doné, who spends her spare time looking for design inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest.
Before starting on the outdoor bench seat, Eddie had to lift up pavers to make way for the foundation. “The whole area was paved so we marked out what the footprint of the seating was going to look like,” Eddie says. He then used an angle grinder to cut the pavers to sit flush to the base of the bench.
This job was harder than Eddie expected and came with some collateral damage. “I burnt out the angle grinder from overuse,” he says. “It was a small handheld one, so it was bound to happen. I had to buy a new one at Bunnings.”
Doné’s vision was for a floating seat so once the area was prepped Eddie started on the construction. “We built the frame with structural pine and then we built the little wall with bricks,” Eddie says. The ‘little wall’ is the foundational support and backrest of the seat.
Eddie decided to use besser blocks for the wall for a few reasons. “Besser blocks are bigger so you need less bricks and there’s less manual handling,” he says. “You can also put rebar in the middle and then cement around them to firm it up and ensure it’s not going to fall over.”
The foundation is so solid in fact, the couple agree the seating might be there for life. “That wall is not going anywhere,” Doné says.
After building the wall, Eddie rendered it. “I generally won’t do rendering because I’ve tried it and I realised it’s not for me,” Eddie says. “But I did this because it was a small job. It looks a bit rustic but it’s mainly hidden behind the cushion so it’s okay.”
Doné and Eddie, who can be found on the Bunnings workshop community as dhanekom, love the finished seat, particularly the timber decking base that Eddie made from spotted gum. They were also happy with the price of the project, which came in at around $1200 before adding the outdoor seat cushions that Doné had custom made.
And just as they wanted, the outdoor room is now well utilised by the entire family. “We spend a lot of time here,” Doné says. “I drink my first cup of coffee here at 6am and when we're in the pool, we’re always here. Eddie likes to cook, too, so he’s always out here barbecuing.”
To see more projects like Eddie’s, visit the Bunnings Workshop community. There you’ll find a huge range of projects – small and large, indoors and out. You can also join the community and get advice on your next project.
Asbestos, lead-based paints and copper chromium arsenic (CCA) treated timber are health hazards you need to look out for when renovating older homes. These substances can easily be disturbed when renovating and exposure to them can cause a range of life-threatening diseases and conditions including cancer. For information on the dangers of asbestos, lead-based paint and CCA treated timber and tips for dealing with these materials contact your local council's Environmental Health Officer or visit our Health & Safety page.
When following our advice in our D.I.Y. videos, make sure you use all equipment, including PPE, safely by following the manufacturer’s instructions. Check that the equipment is suitable for the task and that PPE fits properly. If you are unsure, hire an expert to do the job or talk to a Bunnings Team Member.
