The DIY counter height bar stools turned out really great.  They were a little bit more difficult than I originally anticipated and did take a bit longer than expected, but they are a nice project for the weekend.

Everyone needs to take a seat, and these go perfectly with the DYI rustic counter height table that we built earlier this year.

Let’s get into how we built the counter height stools, which turn out to be really cheap (and modern) – much cheaper than store bought bar stools!

Remember, we all run into problems each and every time, so expect that.  Here’s our learnings from this project.

Enough about what NOT to do – on to the plan…

Wood, Tools, and Supplies Needed

Step 1:  View the plan and make the cuts according to the dimensions

Below is the image from Ana-White.com that a user posted to make this barstool.  Note that we did not decide to go with the cross-piece of wood, and instead just used square 2×3 pieces all the way through.

Be sure to read through this entire plan before acting on it.

Step 2:  Build the backside of the bar stool

Use your Kreg Jig to drill the holes in the appropriate places according to the image from Ana White.com.  We decided to show the holes on the front of the barstool (which is actually what you put your back up against – look at the finished product) to give a little bit of uniqueness.  We plugged them with dolly plugs from Kreg Tool, and stained them with a red oak stain.  We did not paint them to try to create some contrast with the darker paint.

The backside of the bar stool.

Step 3:  Build the front side of the bar stool

This is pretty simple – simply build the front side of the bar stool according to the photos.  This consists of a top brace and a lower brace that you will be able to rest your feet on.

Step 4:  Assemble both sides

Once you have completed the front and backsides of the stool, it is time to connect the two.  It’s best to lay these on a workbench or a solid floor if you are ok to crouch down.

Front and back pieces to the barstool.

Step 5:  Add the seat

We’re nearing the end! Cut the seat according to how the brace of the seat measures.  You will need to notch out the backside of the seat so it can slide into place easier.  We did not do this, but adding an upholstered seat to the barstool would make a cool (and more comfortable) spot to sit.

Step 6:  Sand

We just run a quick orbital sander over the heavily protruding spots and any place that you might sit down, like the seat of the bar stool.  Pretty simple, pretty easy.  After you are done sanding, be sure to wipe down the barstool – some people use mineral spirits, but I’ve found that water and a rag work perfectly fine too.

Step 7:  Stain, paint, and poly

View Step 7 in our DIY rustic counter height table plan for specifics on the stain, paint and poly – we used the exact same technique since it was a match to the table.  Generally speaking, we laid an undercoat of red oak stain, wiped dry, let dry, and layered and wiped the black paint on, putting a final coat of polyurethane on when we were done.  It turned out great!

Step 8:  Let dry and take a seat!

That’s it!  Here is the finished product.  Now off to make the others!  You can use these for a bistro, bar, in the kitchen, combined with a pub table for your bar area, or even outdoors!

Love this dining table – the square, neat lines make it very slick and really sleek.

Another neat dining room table that is simple and Bauhaus.  It can also serve as a nice office table or conference table, and can bring some nice style and design to typically boring office space.

What a unique table!  It might be better as an outdoor table rather than a table for the dining room, but still really cool regardless.  Find it at ettestudios.com.

Workbench:  Of course, every good garage needs a workbench. This is a must – you need to store your tools and have something to do all of your work on.

Shelves:  Another must-have to keep organized.  Shelving can hold everything – from planters to tools to random crap, shelving makes it easy.

A few quick garage organization kit overviews

Let’s move on to the kits.  Here are a few that I’ve come across:

Rubbermaid Fasttrack:  a nice, low cost solution for any garage.  The accessories can add up, but they come with a huge variety of options for anyone’s garage.

Wall to Wall Storage: very cool stuff at this site for the high-end garage guy.  Note:  not for those that are looking for an inexpensive solution – it’s pricey!

Gladiator Garageworks: I do not have much experience with Gladiator, but it looks like they have some cool options. They have a huge number of kits, where the costs range from the low hundreds into the thousands.  From looking around their site, it’s a company I could look at even more if I was looking for a garage organization kit.

Generally, paint on wood (such as our DIY rustic night stand or DIY rustic counter height table plan), where the paint was layered on very thinly and even brushed off to create a rustic mix, the paint is dry in only an hour or two.


We have also painted some signage, where it was layered on a little thicker to the wood.  This took a little longer, and I found that painting at night and letting it sit overnight was the best.  To give an estimate, it probably was dry in about 4-5 hours.

One thing we always do is paint our DIY furniture or signs in the garage, crack open the garage door, and turn on two fans to circulate the air.  This helps move the air around and helps the paint to dry faster.

We recommend reading the label on the paint can that you use to paint with to get a more clear estimate of how long it should take for the paint to dry.

Here’s the side and back of our house!

We got the hardware from Lowes and painted it a Kona Brown with a red oak undertone.  We used poplar wood, making the table top out of 2×6′s and 2×4′s, and using 2×2′s for the legs.

The drawers are definitely the toughest to do here, but once you get the hang of them they go pretty quick.  We’ll be posting another How To on how to build this fantastic DIY rustic night stand.

We did end up building two of them to go on either side of our bed, and they turned our really neat!

Photo of the night stand we built ourselves is below!

• Wood the size of the sign that you want
• The color of paint you want for the background
• Color of paint you want for the lettering
• Sandpaper

We typically make rustic signs for multiple reasons:

• Our house is newer and we really like the contrast of old and new
• Makes for a great DIY project
• They are all unique and handmade by us
• Greater room for error (the more you mess up, the more ‘rustic’ it is! )

Here are a couple really cool signs we’ve come across.

From Etsy, but you can easily make this yourself as well.

Very cool Brush Your Teeth sign from Tracy’s Trinkets.

From Tracy’s Trinkets.  Simple photo of toothbrushes and a frame – that’s it!


Hopefully you can take some of these ideas for your bathroom and go make some signage and cool decorations for the nearly impossible room to decorate for!

If you are staining a  piece of furniture or a door, and it is a good, healthy coat of stain – you had better wait at least 24 hours to let it dry.