Hello AT,
I'm hoping your wonderful readers can give me some creative suggestions for these bentwood stools I picked up from Target.
I had hoped to make two bedside tables with the large stools up-ended on the bottom and the small tool balanced on the top and then making a horizontal board to go between the two, joining them and making a shelf. I know it might sound a little hokey but I thought it would be fun...
(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
editor(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)
Link To All Good Questions
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
editor(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)
Link To All Good Questions
Sadly, when the stools arrived I realized that they don't have
the same sized bases and I think they look just so wrong when put
together this way.
I put together a Flickr set showing my dilemma (with sketches!).
Anyone have any creative ideas or should I just use them as nature intended.
Thanks! Amanda
Veronica & Keith's Handmade Chic 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Hunslet Dinner Plate
A Beginner's Guide to Superb Stir-Fry: Quick, Healthy Meals from a Wok
Easy Pitcher Cocktail Recipe: Strawberry Basil Margaritas
Comments (9)
I'm not sure how it would look (or if it's even possible), but what if you took the smaller stool, turned it upside down, and placed it as high up as possible inside the bottom part of the larger stool? It would create a sort of rounded shelf close to the floor.
I guess you'd have to glue the bottom edges of the small stool to the inside of the large stool or, if you want to use the extra piece of wood, cut that to fit the inside of the large stool, glue it, and rest the small stool on top.
Does that make sense?
Otherwise, I think you should just use them as is.
Do the small ones nest inside the large ones? If they do, just use them as bedside tables that way... a lamp or clock on the 'seat' of the large ones, with the small ones tucked inside - to be pulled out when you need extra surface room for a book, a mug, or whatever...
I think you had a fun idea, but from the photos it just doesn't work.
if you have any children - paint them a fun color and use them as smaller one as a desk.
I like them as they are meant to be. I'd put the small one so that the handle-side is facing out, and keeping some of the top available, so you've got a tiered thing going on.
Would the small one also work as a breakfast-in-bed tray? or is it too tall?
Nice views out those windows of yours!
You sure got a great deal but I would leave them for what they were intended. Perhaps as Jaya mentioned a breakfast bed tray or for placing a couple of books, magazines with a small plant. I would keep them for a while since you might find another good use for them that's if you have the space to store them for now.
Make some pillows with some snappy fabric, and build some tie downs with snaps or buttons or, you know, enough fabric to actually tie it.
Then you can sit on the pillows. Or put your feet up on them.
I bet the tall stools let you put your feet up when you're sitting on your couch, while the small ones work really well for those IKEA chairs you have in your TV room...
LAQUER 'EM! It won't matter what you do with them once they're all slick and glossy.
Er, lacquer, rather.
There's some great suggestions here -- thanks, all!