How to Restore Old Stools, Shorten Them, and Remove Paint Drips - a Fixing Furniture Restoration

These stools needed a lot of work to restore them. With paint drips and splatters, loose joints, some bad replacement parts, mismatched finish, and two different heights, it took finishing, woodworking, and furniture restoration skills to get these looking similar.

In a previous repair, the taller stool had two stretchers replaced with dowels that didn't match the design of the stool. I took the stool apart to replace the stretchers but someone added nails to hold the stretchers in place. Finishing nails are hard to remove and I find a mini cats paw (see link below) is the most effective way to pull out finishing nails. I've tried many methods over the years and there's no way to remove a finishing nail without damaging the wood. Fortunately, these nails were on the inside of the stool so the damage was easy to patch and hide.

Making the new replacement stretchers was more difficult than I anticipated. The tenons were round and on an angle from the stretcher... a woodworking challenge to reproduce. The key was accurate joinery layout and the use of a plug/tenon cutter.

Once the stool was glued back together again, it was time to shorten it to match the other stool. I used a compound miter saw and a stop block to make quick work of it.

Matching wood stain can be challenging and this project showed that. While matching the stain for the stretchers was easy, the set of the tall stool was difficult, requiring three applications of stain to get the colour right.

LINKS:
- Kennedy Hardware https://bit.ly/kennedy-hardware
- Fixing Furniture Community https://www.fixingfurniture.com
- Mini Cats Paw Nail Puller https://amzn.to/4by9kmx
🇨🇦 Canadian Link https://amzn.to/3RVc2f3
See the tools we use in our workshop and the tools we recommend: https://www.amazon.com/shop/homeimpro...
🇨🇦 Canadian link - https://www.amazon.ca/shop/homeimprov...
Note: purchases made with these links help contribute to our video production work

RELATED VIDEOS:
- How to Cut Chair Legs to Shorten Chairs or Stools    • How to Cut Chair Legs to Shorten Chai...  

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Fixing Furniture is hosted by Scott Bennett, Co-owner of Wooden It Be Nice Inc. - Furniture Repair in Brooklin, Ontario, Canada. https://WoodenItBeNice.ca

#stool #woodworking #stain