Imagine a beautiful, rustic wood bar built next to your in-ground pool, lined with four great-looking, handmade wood bar stools. If you enjoy having people over for a festive celebration, yet don't have a place to seat them, worry no more. With a few tips and a little lumber, you can make your own quality outdoor bar stools. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Measure the height of your bar to determine the height of your stools. Be sure there is between 9 and 13 inches between the bar and the seats of your stools.
2. Purchase your wood for your outdoor bar stools at any local lumber supply store. Oak stock is a good wood to purchase. It is durable and attractive. Bring your bar stool measurements with you and have the wood cut on the premises.
3. Buy four 12 by 12 pieces of lumber, one for each bar stool seat. Buy four long, narrow pieces of wood for the legs of each seat and four additional smaller, also narrow, pieces of wood to brace and secure the legs of the bar stools. These are called stretchers.
4. Sand the lumber, making sure it is smooth and ready for primer, stain or paint. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can buy the wood already sanded, treated and ready for use.
5. Use a router to make 2-inch-square cutouts in the four corners underneath the seat. Make sure the cutouts are the same shape and diameter of the bar stool legs. Use a tape measure (or a square) and a sharp pencil to measure the exact placement of your holes.
6. Use the router to make the same 2-inch-square cutouts, one in each leg. It doesn't matter where you place these cutouts on each leg, only that you make them in exactly the same place. After your outdoor bar stools are constructed, you will insert a wood stretcher between each leg to connect the four legs together.
7. Glue each of the four legs into a square in the bottom of the seat. Polyurethane glue is durable and quick-drying. After you place the glue, clamp the legs to the seat and let them dry.
8. Glue a wood stretcher between each leg, connecting the legs together. The stretchers can be made from the same type of wood, or you can be fancy and use wrought iron or another material. The stretchers provide structural support as well as aesthetic value.
Tags: outdoor stools, 2-inch-square cutouts, between each, cutouts each, four legs
