Hey guys, this is Susan from MellowPine.
We built a classic style small wooden stool for our home and wanted to share it with all our readers.
This build uses pocket-hole joinery and is a beginner build that can be completed in under two hours.
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Things you need for this build
Materials
- 1 in. x 12 in. x 6 ft. Whitewood Common Board ( Actual size would be ¾ in. x 11-¼ in. x 6 ft, which is the exact size we need for this project)
- 1 in. x 4 in. x 6 ft. Whitewood Common Board (Actual size would be ¾ in. x 3-½ in. x 6 ft)
- Pocket-hole screws
- Wood Stain
Tools
Plan for Making the Wooden Stool
Additional plan views are included in the steps below.
How to Make the Wooden Stool
Step 1: We took a 37” x 12” x ¾” board and made a 24” long piece for the stool top and took the remaining 12” piece for one leg of the stool.
If you are buying dimensional lumber you can reduce the length to this size from the 11-¼” x ¾” x 6 ft. size. (6 feet = 72 inches)
We trimmed the leg pieces to 11-¼” from the original 12” length.
After this point,the leg pieces measured 11-¼” x 11-¼” x ¾” in size.
Step 2: Then took a ¾” x 3″ x 36” piece and cut out two pieces of length 12 inches each and cut off a triangle with 15° at the edge using the miter saw.
If you are using the dimensional lumber linked above, cut off ½ inch to bring the lumber to ¾” x 3″ size.
These two pieces with the mitered edge will be our bracing pieces preventing our stool from collapsing on itself.
Step 3: Next we needed to work on the leg pieces of the stool.
The stool leg will be wider at the bottom and shorter at the top.
We marked a line 1-5/8″ into the top corner from the bottom corner (see picture below).
Cutting of this small triangle will give us the desired shape for the legs.
Step 4: Next we need to cut out slots in the legs for holding and carrying the stool.
We drew half an octagon with the measurements shown in the picture. This half-octagon will be cut out to make the slot.
Step 5: Next we cut out the half octagon we marked in the previous step using a jig saw for both the legs.
Step 6: Next we had to shape the corners of the top seat of the stool. We cut out triangles from each corner with 2-¼” long sides.
Step 7: After this we cut out the edges of the legs along with the small triangle we marked in step y, using a circular saw.
I used my Kreg Accu cut to ensure that the cut was perfectly aligned with the line I drew.
I could have easily done most operations in this project using a table saw, but I deliberately avoided this due to a large number of people requesting me to do projects which don’t need a table saw.
So, I wanted to show them that you can do these projects easily without a table saw or a planer.
Step 8: So we want the legs of the stool to be angled rather than vertical.
So we need to give a bevel at the top and bottom edge of both the legs.
The more angle you give, the more sideways it will go.
But you don’t want it to be too high, as this would considerably reduce the amount of load this can take.
We gave it a bevel angle of 20 degrees for the top and bottom edges.
Step 9: Ok. so we were done with the sizing and shaping of pieces and were ready for joining them using pocket holes.
We first drilled two pocket holes in both the bracing pieces using 1-¼” pocket hole screws.
Since the edge is mitered, the pocket holes will be at an angle. We made to sure to drill pocket holes on the side that would go inside the stool.
We did this on both ends of the bracing pieces.
Step 10: Next we drilled two pocket holes at the center of the bracing pieces for joining the bracing to the top seat of the stool.
We made two pocket holes in the top edge of both the leg pieces as well for joining it to the top piece.
The great thing about pocket holes is that the exact position where you make the pocket hole doesn’t matter much as long as they are evenly distributed.
Step 11: After this, we sanded all the pieces all the way from 120 grit to 220 grit.
Step 12: Next we used 1-¼” inch pocket hole screws to join the bracing pieces to the legs.
To hold the bracing piece in place while we used the impact driver, we used the Kreg right angle clamp, which is a pretty handy tool while making pocket hole joints.
We did this for both legs and both bracing pieces and now our lower frame of the stool was complete. Now we had to join the top seat to the stool.
Step 13: So we marked two lines to perfectly center the frame of the stool on to the top seat of the stool and used 1-¼” inch pocket-hole screws to screw the bracing and the legs to the top piece.
We used a total of 8 screws to join the frame to the top piece.
Step 14: Next, we finished the stool with cabernet gel stain, to get the color of a red vine.
We applied a coat and wiped it off after a little while. Then we applied another coat to get a darker finish and wiped the excess gel off again.
Step 15: Then we applied Varathane water based PU to seal the surface.
So we’re done with the stool at this point. This is a fairly easy beginner project that can be completed in 3-4 hours with a bit of preparation.
If you liked this build, pin the photo below to your DIY/Woodworking board for viewing later
Check out other DIY projects of ours:
