Porch Makeover Part 2: Building a Wooden Hexagon Shelf -

This is Part 2 of my back porch makeover, which started when I took a picture of the porch, handed it to ChatGPT, and basically said, “Make this look more modern, cozy, clean, and like somebody decorated it on purpose.”

The concept it gave me was actually pretty sweet, so instead of just looking at the picture and moving on with my life, I decided to see how close I could get to making the fake porch real – one project at a time.

Part 1 was the pair of easy DIY vertical wall planters. Next in the AI picture was the wooden hexagon shelf in the middle. After this, I still have a floating shelf to build, and that should wrap up the wood-project side of the wall.

AI-generated back porch concept with vertical plant hangers, a center hexagon shelf, plants and warm wood accents — The AI porch concept that started this whole "make the picture real" project.

Mock It Up Before You Cut Anything

Before I touched a saw, I grabbed blue painter’s tape and started drawing on the porch wall. I moved things around, changed the size, stared at it from across the porch, moved it again, and eventually taped out a rough hexagon that looked right between the two plant hangers.

Each taped side was roughly 13 inches. I was not trying to create a precision geometric instrument with painter’s tape. I just needed enough of a shape to know whether the thing was going to look way too big, way too small, or completely stupid once it was on the wall.

Blue painter's tape hexagon mockup centered between two vertical plant hangers on white porch siding — Before cutting wood, I taped the hexagon directly on the wall until the proportions looked right.

Once the tape looked good, I went live with the idea. Worst case, if the wooden version came out terrible, I could put it on Marketplace and start again. Or make a great bonfire for s’mores with the kids. That last part is a joke once stain and polyurethane get involved. Do not cook over finished lumber.

The Lumber: Same Pine, Same Porch

I used 1×6 pine, the same board size I used on the other porch pieces. That keeps the look consistent and, more importantly, lets scraps and drops from one project become material for the next one.

I bought the pine at Home Depot, where the first stage of every woodworking project is apparently holding lumber at eye level and trying to convince yourself that one of the boards is straight.

Long 1x6 pine board laid across an outdoor work surface beside a Craftsman miter saw — Same 1×6 pine as the other porch projects – and yes, finding a straight board is part of the project.

Figuring Out a Hexagon Without Pretending I Am a Mathematician

A regular six-sided hexagon wants 30-degree miter cuts on the ends of each side. I knew that much. Then I looked back at the picture of my saw and the indicator looked suspiciously close to 31 degrees, which is when the whole thing started feeling very on-brand.

I did not go to school for math. I mean, I went to school and took math. You know what I mean.

Close-up of the Craftsman miter saw angle gauge set around the 30-degree mark — The target was a 30-degree miter. The photo looks suspiciously close to 31, which is exactly how math goes in my garage.

The goal was 30 degrees, and I treated the actual fit as the final judge. If the joints were closing up and the six pieces wanted to become a hexagon instead of abstract art, I was moving in the right direction.

Make One Good Piece, Then Copy It

I cut the first side a little long, checked it against the taped size I had in mind, marked it, and trimmed it until I liked the length. That first piece became my reference instead of trying to independently measure all six pieces and accidentally creating six slightly different opinions of 13 inches.

Comparing and marking pine boards beside a miter saw to establish the wooden hexagon side length — I got one reference piece where I wanted it, then used that piece to keep the rest consistent.

Once the reference piece was right, I set a back stop. From there the routine was simple: make one angled cut, move the board home against the stop, make the second cut, and repeat.

Fresh angled cut on a pine hexagon side positioned against the miter saw fence and stop setup — Once the first piece was right, the stop made the rest of the sides repeatable.

I still kept laying the new pieces against the first one to make sure nothing was drifting. A stop block makes repeat cuts easier, but I have enough trust issues to keep checking anyway.

Dry Fit: Close Enough to Find Out

When all six pieces were cut, I laid them out and started checking the corners. They looked close enough that I reached the highly technical stage of the build known as: “So the hell with it, let’s put this together and see where it goes.”

Two angled pine boards dry-fitted into a V shape for the wooden hexagon frame — A quick dry fit: two boards, one corner, and enough confidence to keep going.

For the record, I am in no way, shape, or form a master carpenter. I have never taken a carpentry class in my life. This is just me winging it, paying attention to what goes wrong, and trying not to make the same mistake twice in the same afternoon.

My First Real Pocket-Hole Jig Attempt

I had a VEVOR pocket-hole jig kit sitting there, so this seemed like a good project to finally use it for real. The jig itself worked surprisingly well.

The annoying part was not drilling the holes. It was driving pocket screws through angled joints. As the screw tightens, the pieces want to slide and pull around. I did not have the perfect clamp setup for these corners, so some joints took a couple of attempts before they sat where I wanted them.

Drilling pocket holes into the end of a pine hexagon board with a pocket-hole jig — My first real go with the VEVOR pocket-hole jig. The jig was the easy part; keeping angled joints from sliding was the fight.

Once all the boards were drilled, it was officially time to glue and screw.

Building the Outer Hexagon

I put wood glue on the mitered corners, lined the pieces up, and drove the pocket screws. Instead of trying to wrestle six loose boards at the same time, I built three separate two-board V-shaped assemblies.

I let those sit long enough for the glue to start doing something useful, then joined the three assemblies together into one complete outer hexagon. A few corners needed persuasion and a redo, but eventually all six sides agreed to be one object.

The Center Shelf Taught Me Something

The shelf in the AI picture was not dead center; it sat just a little lower. I liked that look, so I rough-measured where I wanted mine and cut the shelf slightly long on purpose. It is a lot easier to trim a board again than to make it longer after you get excited and cut too much off.

Raw pine hexagon shelf frame dry-fitted on a garage workbench with the center shelf in place — The raw hexagon finally looked like a hexagon. The center shelf was test-fitted before finishing.

I wanted the pocket holes hidden, so my first attempt put them on the bottom of the shelf. That sounded smart until I tightened the screws and the angle made the shelf pull upward and away from the joint, leaving a gap.

Back to the jig. I drilled the pockets from the top instead. This time the screws pulled the angled joint down into place and sucked the mating surfaces together instead of pushing them apart. That was the better setup for this particular joint, so that is what stayed.

The Triple Ps: Pine Pocket-Hole Plugs

I did not want to leave all the pocket holes exposed, so I bought a bag of pine pocket-hole plugs. Pine board, pine plugs. Made sense to me.

I started calling them the Triple Ps because apparently every part of a garage project eventually gets a nickname.

Pine pocket-hole plug dry-fitted into an oval pocket hole near a glued hexagon joint — The Triple Ps: pine pocket-hole plugs. Dry fit first, then mark, trim, glue and sand.

I dry-fit each plug first, marked it with a pen, then used a hand trim cutter to get it close to the surface. I worked a couple at a time: dab of glue, push the plug in, let it set, trim it, then sand it flush.

Hand trim cutter clipping a pine pocket-hole plug with a bag of spare wooden plugs below — Trimming a pocket-hole plug close to final height before sanding it flush.

Trimmed wooden pocket-hole plug glued into the pine board beside a mitered hexagon joint — Not pretty yet, but that is what sandpaper is for.

At this stage the center shelf was still out. I wanted to get the main hexagon plugged, sanded, stained and protected before putting the center piece in permanently.

Sand, Dark Walnut, Polyurethane

Once the plugs were dry, I sanded them flush and went over the tops, bottoms, edges and faces of the frame. I am not going to make up a magical grit progression here; I used what I had and sanded until the plug repairs and boards felt right.

Dark walnut stain being applied to the assembled wooden hexagon frame outdoors — Dark walnut stain – the same finish used on the other porch pieces so the wall stays visually tied together.

For color I used the same dark walnut stain as the other porch projects. Keeping the finish consistent matters more to me than trying a different stain every time and ending up with a wall that looks like a lumber sample rack.

Stained wooden hexagon frame standing outdoors before the center shelf was installed — The outer frame stained and sealed before the center shelf went in for good.

After the stain, I protected the wood with clear polyurethane. Once the outer frame was finished, I installed the center shelf, tightened it up using the pocket-hole direction that actually pulled the joint together, and did the extra stain/poly touch-up needed to bring it into the rest of the piece.

Can of clear polyurethane held in front of stained pine boards outdoors — After stain, I protected the wood with clear polyurethane.

Finished dark walnut wooden hexagon shelf with center shelf on a garage workbench — Finished enough to leave the garage: outer hexagon, center shelf, stain and polyurethane all together.

Hanging It on the Porch

For mounting, I used small low-profile keyhole hangers on the back so the hardware would stay mostly out of sight.

The screw heads I had were too fat to slide into the keyhole slots, so I thinned them on the bench grinder until they fit. That is what I did with the hardware I had in front of me. If you are copying the project, buying screws that correctly fit the hanger is the smarter and more repeatable answer.

The two existing vertical planter boards gave me my layout. They span about 24 inches, so I used the middle of that span as my center reference. Height was mostly an artistic decision based on the AI porch picture and what looked right from across the porch.

I marked the wall, stretched a tape across the points, checked it with a level, decided it was pretty darn close – close enough for comfort – and that is where the holes went.

Mounting hardware depends on what is behind your siding. Use exterior-rated fasteners or anchors appropriate for your wall and the loaded shelf weight, and seal penetrations as needed to avoid water intrusion.

The Finished Hexagon

Finished dark walnut wooden hexagon shelf mounted on white porch siding beside a hanging plant — The finished hexagon on the porch wall. My job is to build it; my wife gets to decide what lives in it.

It is empty right now, and that is intentional. My job is to build it. My wife’s job is to figure out what goes in it.

It is not perfect, but for my first hexagon and my first real attempt at using a pocket-hole jig, I am pretty damn happy with it. I can point out every little thing that is not quite right, but I am trying to get better at not doing that.

It is hanging on my porch, it looks good from where I am sitting, and I learned a bunch building it.

At some point you have to quit fixing things nobody else is going to notice and move on – or you end up with a project that takes 13 years. Trust me. I have those.

So the hexagon is done. Another piece from the AI porch picture has made it into the real world.

Wide view of the back porch with two vertical plant hangers and the finished wooden hexagon shelf centered between them — Part 2 in place. The blue tape underneath is already pointing at the next project: the floating shelf.

And yes, that blue strip of painter’s tape under it is already there for the next piece.

Next up: the floating shelf.

Stuff I Used

1×6 pine boards
Miter saw
Wood glue and pocket screws
VEVOR pocket-hole jig kit
Pine pocket-hole plugs – the Triple Ps
Hand trim cutter
Sander
Dark walnut stain
Clear polyurethane
Low-profile keyhole hangers
Blue painter’s tape
Tape measure and level

Build things. Learn things. Make mistakes. Redo things. Have fun. Repeat.