When buying furniture, you may notice a clear discrepancy between the prices of materials for their manufacture and the final price of the product. This is especially noticeable when buying fairly simple pieces of furniture, such as stools.
Stools are most often made of chipboard. This is a fairly cheap material, easy to work with, durable and perfect for indoor use. Once you look at a chipboard stool, it is easy to understand that making it yourself is quite easy. We suggest you familiarize yourself with detailed instructions on how to make various configurations of stools at home.
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General recommendations for making stools
You can make a stool with your own hands, having professional and non-professional elements and devices at hand.
Mandatory tools include:
- electric jigsaw, complete with a fine saw blade;
- screwdriver.
You may also need a drill with a bit and a construction-grade stapler.
Materials for manufacturing:
- chipboard sheets, new, substandard or leftover parts from old furniture;
- self-tapping screws, no longer than the thickness of the chipboard;
- 4 confirmats. Size 6.4 mm by 50 mm;
- metal corners 4 pieces;
- adhesive tape for processing sheet edges;
- heels made of any acceptable materials;
- sandpaper for grinding.
Non-professional tools that can be found in any home:
- pencil or marker;
- cardboard for making templates;
- ruler or tape measure;
- a knife of any configuration, the main thing is that it is sharp.
To decorate the seat of the stool, you can also prepare foam rubber and upholstery materials. The upholstery can be fabric, oilcloth, leatherette.
Create a project
Making a stool from chipboard with your own hands allows the master not to limit himself to standard models. It would seem that the simple design of the stool has several dozen different models. Visual examples can be seen in furniture stores, from neighbors or on the Internet.
Usually, several stools are needed at once, so it is extremely important to choose one shape you like and make identical items according to the selected drawing. When making a drawing, it is important to remember that the design of the stool requires strict balance between its lower and upper parts. Mismatch of the seat size and the width of the legs can lead to imbalance, as a result of which the item will be very unstable, and therefore dangerous.
We select the material for manufacturing
Stools can be made from different materials. Chipboard, multilayer plywood, wooden blocks and boards will do. The cheapest and easiest material to work with is chipboard. Sheets can be purchased in a store, at furniture factories, or you can buy scraps from small companies that make custom furniture. Old chipboard sheets that were previously parts of other furniture will also do.
The main thing is to decide in advance on the number of pieces of finished products and calculate the required volumes of materials.
We apply graphic markings
Having decided on the model of the future stool, it is necessary to mark the chipboard sheet, thereby preparing it for further work. If you plan to make several identical stools, it is better to make a template for all parts of the furniture. The template is conveniently made from thick cardboard.
For further ease of use of manufactured furniture, the corners of the parts should be rounded. It is better to make even roundings using a compass. The absence of this item can be compensated, for example, with a plate of a suitable diameter.
After cutting, it is necessary to clean all the edges of the stool with sandpaper.
Depending on the chosen shape and model, the dimensions of the elements can be as follows.
№ Stool model Seat dimensions Leg dimensions Crossbar size
- 1 30x30 30x40 20x12
- 2 30x40 30x40 30x15
- (3 pieces)
- 3 40x40 20x35 (8 pieces) 30x20
- (4 pieces)
We cut out elements for the future stool
Cutting out elements from existing pieces of chipboard is done using an electric jigsaw. A good edge cut can be made using a fine saw and high jigsaw speed. High speed will ensure cutting sheets without chips and nicks.
After cutting, it is necessary to clean all the edges of the stool with sandpaper. Such treatment will ensure a good fit of one part to another and will simplify assembly.
The final step in preparation before assembly is to drill the necessary holes. Make sure that the holes are drilled at the same level.
Assembling a stool
When starting the final assembly of parts, it is necessary to pre-process all cut edges with a special tape. The tape should be selected to match the color of the sheet or, on the contrary, contrasting shades.
The tape is applied to the edge of the legs and seat and glued using a hot iron. The iron should be applied with quick and short movements. The warm tape should be pressed down with a clean cloth. The glue, which is on the back of the tape, sets very quickly and does not require long heating or cooling.
The parts of the stool are assembled using confirmats and screws. To simplify the assembly task, you can first glue the parts together and then fasten them with screws.
The seat of the resulting chair can be made soft using foam rubber and upholstery material.