One stool, two stools. Three is a bench?

Hello my dear friends.

Stools and benches were and are common items of furniture. From the simple wooden constructions in a humble abode to elaborate carved and decorated pieces in a palace. When chairs were still a luxury, stools and benches were here, there and everywhere.

Naturally a house like Huis ter Swinnendael will have several of them. Today I want to show a few that I made for the servants quarters. Simple and sturdy structures made of 4 mm thick beach paint stirrers. First I made a few templates out of cardboard. This should help to make good matching pairs. I made my first template for the leather coverings of the stretcher chairs and it is rapidly becoming a favorite method for serial work.

the sketch and the template

I sanded the stirrers down so that the lettering and staining of previous jobs is hardly visible. I cut the stirrers in pieces of the apropriate length with my new mini-sawtable. A very generous gift from my partner. And it works better than me trying to saw by hand!

My newest toy. :-)

Then I put the cut out templates on top and traced the outlines on the wood. Next step was cutting them out with a fretsaw and glueing the pieces together. This is always easier said than done. Contrary to the chairs I do not aim to make sets of matching stools.  Therefore I made one set of two similar stools and a different one. All of them are (loosely) based on original (miniature) examples that can still be found today. I will make a few more, including three legged examples and a few luxurious ones for in the state rooms upstairs. But that's for another post. I gave both types a different height to the legs and a different length to the seat. I hope it will add more realism to them. After all, there were no standardised measurements for furniture in those days. 

first the set of two...

The set of stools and the single stool will have legs that go straight down from the seat. After filing both ends of the legs It was time to stick it all together.

Then the single one.

In the 16th and 17th century furniture was generally unpainted in the Netherlands. Painted furniture really got into vogue in the 18th century. These stools will all be painted in the end because the original lettering is still visible through the stain. They are only visible on the inside pieces so with an appropriate colour the lettering will disappear from sight once painted. But since I have not yet decided on a final colour scheme for the kitchens I have only stained them for now.  

And the result. sturdy and functional.

Because these stools are not items of luxury but are used daily, there is quite some wear and tear on them.So after the the first coat of woodstain I used several files and a knife to mark the stool, trying to avoid regularity. And lastly I added the finer wear and tear  through sanding with some sandpaper and steelwool. And there we have it. Three well worn stools.

That's it for now.  I hope you have enjoyed reading this post. And till next post.

Huibrecht