Striped Wood Stool

To add a nice colour effect to a wood stool, a friend of mine had the smart idea to insert some coloured stripes in the wood board.

As you can see from the picture, the effect is really cool. Although a good result is mainly obtained with a good artistic talent, I will here describe the steps of the making process, so that you can try by yourself.

To obtain the wood striped you can both colour some wood boards and then cut the thin rods from it, or you can also paint directly the rods. Difference is light, but you will see a different detail along the edges.

If you have different wood types, try to keep some of the rods with natural colour, you will add wax at the end.

To make a couple of stools which make a pair, but not too much equal one each other, this project considers to cut in a complementary way the two boards.

Indeed you have to remove the central part of one board, and the external parts of the other, like in the picture.

To remove the central part you can both use a circular saw or a milling machine.

Now make some test in arranging the coloured rods in the grooves. There is no need that the rods are all on the same plane, since a bit of difference in height will make a better appeal. Here is the step in which you have to free your artistic talent.

When you are satisfied with the stripes disposition, take the out and glue them, keeping joined with some vises.

When the glue is dry you can insert and glue the three groups of rods in the right grooves. Also in this case use some vises to tighten them in place.

Now we have to make the legs for the stools.

Draw the shape of this supports as you like, but try to make a central hole for each of them, since you have to add a central bar as reinforcement.

Make holes for wood plugs, both in the top surface of the legs, and on the bottom side of the wood board. You have to choose the same diameter of the plugs you will use.

Also add a wood profile over the short edges if you wish to cover the extremity of the thin bars.

Then glue everything, tighten with vises and let it dry.

Add some rods inside the hole, so that this new bar will improve the stability of the stool.

To make the bar stronger it's better that you glue all the rods together, then glue the group into the holes.

To finish the stools you can add wax and some wood treatment, so to increase veining look and durability of the material.

Here you can see the second stool in its full beauty and complementarity!