Have you ever had buyer’s remorse? This project is the result of one of mine. I made my Son an outdoor bar table from some recycled decking planks and fencing posts a few months ago. But unfortunately, I did not have enough wood left over to make some bar stools to go with the table. I went online and spent $400 on these bar stools and instantly hated them once they were built. They looked so rubbish next to the table. I could not send them back because the postage costs were so high so had no choice but to keep them. So I did the next best thing and gave the bar stools a makeover to match the table.

My idea for these chairs was to cover them with recycled decking planks so they matched the table. The issue I had was the chairs were metal so it would be difficult to screw wood into the frame. I finally came up with an idea to make covers that would simply slip over the top and the base.

Supplies

Materials needed

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Decking wood/pine
Dropsaw/any saw will work
Drill
Wood screws
Counter sink drill bit
Orbital sander
Wood Clamps
Corner clamps
Pocket pole jig

Step 1: Making the Base for the Seat

Start by measuring the outside dimensions of the seat to get the size of the frame. I measured from the front of the bar stool to the back of the backrest. The reason I included the backrest of the bar stool was to leave a gap so the cover would slide over the backrest. This will stop the seat from slipping forward when someone gets on and off the bar stool.

Next, use a pocket hole jig and drill two holes on each end of the sides pieces of the bar stools. Because I was using decking planks that have ridges on one side, I drilled the holes into the flat side. My reason for doing this was to get a more secure joint and the ridges could also be a feature on the front.

I added some wood glue to the joints and used some corner clamps to hold the wood in place while I added the screws.

Step 2: Cutting the Wood

Before you start cutting all the wood that goes across the frame, test that the frame fits over the bar stool. Next, measure from one side of the frame to the other to get your measurement. I needed approximately 50 pieces for the 4 bar stools, this was including the pieces I had to cut a bit smaller for the top and the sides.

Step 3: Drill the Holes

I wanted all the screws to be in the same position on each piece of wood so it would look nicer. But the thought of measuring each piece of wood was a nightmare for me. To make this job quick and easy I used a scrap piece of wood and made a template for the screw holes.

To prevent the screw heads from causing injury or damaging people’s clothes I counter-sunk all the holes so that the screw heads did not stick out.

You can now screw the wood into the sides of the bar stool frame. The image below is how the bottom seat of the bar stool will look.

Step 4: Making the Backrest for the Bar Stools

You will need to leave the base in place while making the backrest so you know where to start adding the wood. I started by adding one piece of wood in the front to hold the sides in place. This will allow you to accurately measure the height and width of the side pieces of wood.

I marked out the measurements with a pencil adding 1cm to the depth of the sides to allow for inconsistency in the plastic covering already on the chair. I cut the sides to size before adding the front and back panels like I did for the seat. Once you have covered the front and the back you can screw the last piece across the top.

Step 5: Making Footrests for the Bar Stools

To try and balance out the wood colour I added some wooden footrests. These were created by simply boxing in the metal frame. I cut wood to the measurements of the footrest and screwed them together.

Next, I clamped the wood in place and flipped over the bar stool and screwed in the final piece of wood.

Step 6: Sealing the Wood

Finally, I used an orbital sander to remove any rough edges and to clean up some of the watermarks in the wood. I added 2 coats of timer oil and I was done.