Hey guys, I am Sarah. Every week I comb through hundreds of DIY videos preparing projects for our weekly Maker show, Maker Break. Along the way, I find some good projects… and some GREAT ones, And right now, I’m going to share them with you! This is Sarah’s Top 5 DIY Bar Stools! Let’s get to it!
#5 is Woodbridge Workshop
Dan starts our list this week with a carved, saddle seat bar stool that he said is inspired by the works of the late Wharton Esherick. To give it this pretty two toned look he used lighter cherry wood for the legs and a dark walnut for the seat. He used his lathe to turn the cherry wood for the legs, which was very therapeutic to watch. Then he used his grinder to start carving the chunk of walnut and slowly but surely, a sculpted seat started to appear. Once he was happy with the shape of the seat he carefully placed the legs, glued them into place, added the rungs and let it dry. After some clear finish to allow that natural beauty shine through in that grain this project was complete!
#4 is Rogue Engineer
What if you want some awesome bar stools but don’t have a ton of time, or money to make them? You follow Jameson’s plans for these simple AND affordable bar stools using two, 2×4’s, and two, 2×2’s! He cut the curves out on the bandsaw for every seat top piece, then glued them all together before he started the sanding process. After A LOT of sanding to get those seats silky smooth he moved onto the legs. These he made using the 2×2’s with some pocket hole joinery. Before he put it all together he did make a pass with his router on the seat edges to really make sure that aws nice and smooth. Then he glued everything together, applied some pretty dark stain, and that’s a wrap!
#3 is DIY Montreal
Rob and I have talked about using this technique for a project for a couple months now, and after watching Marie make a bar stool look this pretty with just plywood, and a couple 2×4’s I am really anxious to make fun patterns with plywood for well, anything. Using strips of laminated plywood and flipping the pieces she was able to make this chevron pattern for her bar stool seat. I am always impressed with how she explains what she is doing. She does a fantastic job walking you through her process and making even tricky compound angles for a bar stool look attainable. I love how this turned out, and this project makes me excited to hopefully make a cool patterned project out of plywood in the near future.
#2 is Shaun Boyd
Shaun can be a man of few words, like in this video he doesn’t really say much, but do you really need to dialog to appreciate the journey that he takes you on with his builds? Nope! In this video Shaun is on a mission to create a modern bar stool with fun geometric shapes and details. Like most of his work this follows a mid century modern design that also has a low profile which I really like. If you need some inspiration to get into the shop this week and make something that is both beautiful and functional I highly recommend that you check this out!
#1 is Pask Makes
So a while back Neil made a couple of these stunning height-adjustable bar stools for his kiddos to use while they did homework, however he decided that it was time to make a new pair of them and level up some of the details. In a very detail inclusive video Neil walks you through the project from lumber pile to final reveal and every moment of this video is worth your time! In order to make these a little more adult friendly he needed to make this version with a slightly more bulky base and a wider more comfortable seat. Watching him thread the height adjustment rod literally gave me life. So Satisfying. Neil! These are next level awesome! Thank you for making a second version of them on video!