Here it is right after final assembly. After having somewhat of a rough week I had decided to work out my frustrations in a productive fashion. So I set out to make some kitchen furniture… from scratch… and by hand. Our new place has a bar like overhang on the kitchen peninsula and we have yet to get any stools to take advantage of this feature. My wife has mentioned that she would love to sit and talk about her day with me while I cook, and vice versa. This was my mission, create a bar stool that was well designed both physically and aesthetically. I started sketching up a design and came up with a a basic frame shape and a color scheme that was both simplistic and elegant.
Having the form be comprised of basic geometry, entirely rectilinear, was important since this project was to be built by hand with only a handsaw, a portable drill, and a hammer… in my kitchen.
While stained to look like more expensive oak, the entire project was made of less expensive high quality pine. The white seat top and short support cross members are shellacked in numerous coats of gloss white. There are no metal fasteners in the stool, it is entirely made of wood and fastened together with wooden dowels and wood glue. This was process was made much more difficult without the use of a drill press to easily and accurately place the dowel holes equally and opposite of each other. However, using a ruler and some simple geometry the portable hand held drill did it’s job.
With painting, staining, and assembly this little project took about five days worth of ‘spare time’. Now my wife or I can sit and chat about our wonder days in the world of architecture while the other cooks (and thinks to themselves can we talk about something else, like fishing or vacation?).
