Workshop
Ask a question

The Bunnings Workshop community can help with your home improvement projects.

Altering chair height to fit into a living room

jenny123
Growing in Experience

Altering chair height to fit into a living room

We decided to buy 3 chairs for the family room after finding we were unable to find some to suit.

 

One of the concerns with modern chairs is they are made to a price and even the expensive ones have sharp feet that damage, dig holes into timber or vinyl floors and scratch tiles.

 

We found some breakfast bar chairs and all we need to do is alter the height.

Materials

20250220_122902.jpg

Tools

We needed to make sure the cut and finish had to look as if the chairs made that way and the changes were not noticeable.

  • A tape to measure how much of the leg of the chair we needed to cut.
  • A pencil to mark where the legs were to be cut and a pencil eraser to remove any pencil marks afterwards.
  • A sharpened Tenon saw, clamps to suit and hold the chair whilst cutting.
  • A square to mark the cut all the way around the leg.
  • Sandpaper, and block for finishing and cleaning up the cut on the leg afterwards.

Steps

Step 1

20250220_122238.jpg20250220_122959.jpg

Step 2

  • Determine the height of the chairs and pencil mark on the leg(s) of the chair to be cut from the bottom of the leg - it is important to make sure the chairs are level when you finish and it is easer to mark it this way,
  • Cut one of the legs allowing for the thickness of the cut and this can be used for all the other legs for marking up and less likely to make a mistake when measuring.

Step 3

20250220_122732.jpg

Step 4

  • Once the cuts are complete finish off by sandpapering in such a way the paint on the timber is left clean.
  • Remove and pencil marks carefully with the pencil eraser.

The project should take about a day to complete.

A photo of the chair cut down to a more comfortable height.

 

Hint -make sure the pencil lines around the leg line up all the way around and you may have to make the cut following the line around the leg.

JacobZ
Bunnings Team Member
Bunnings Team Member

Re: Altering height of chairs to fit into a living room

You've done a wonderful job trimming down and repurposing these breakfast bar chairs.

 

It's always fantastic to see high quality, slightly older furniture given a new purpose and staying out of the scrap heap.

 

Nice work @jenny123, thank you for sharing.

 

Jacob

 

Why join the Bunnings Workshop community?

Workshop is a friendly place to learn, get ideas and find inspiration for your home improvement projects