"S" is for Stools

I finally finished making the four counter stools for the island. The plans came from Ana White's Knock Off Wood blog and they were super easy. I modified her bar stool from the Simple Outdoor Collection to be counter height. They did take some time to paint, sand and paint some more but I think they look pretty good. We'll see how long they survive.

Completed and in place:


Now from the beginning. We started with a pile of wood which by the way girl #1 and #2 loved loading it onto the cart at Home Depot. It was a bunch of 1 x 2's and 1 x 3's.


Then I cut about a gazillion pieces and each kid got to work priming all the pieces. Let's just say the primer went on thick and goopy with lots of drips but thank goodness for the sander and some really coarse sandpaper.

Then we followed the instructions for screwing and gluing everything together:



Then I painted two coats of satin "Elegant White" and put them in place at the island just to see. Holy smokes way too sterile, too white on white.

So back to the garage and I brushed some stain over the white, then sanded some more:


Then added one last coat of the white satin, sanded some more and one coat of satin poly. Finally not so white, slightly worn looking and the kids love them:


Now that I have my first building project completed I'm ready to tackle another one. A bench with storage for the back door.