Windsor Barstool

    I've been playing around with a few different ideas on making Windsor Barstools which seem to be, at least for me, becoming more popular. I've been making side chair versions for a little over a year now and thought the arm chairs might be something to think about too. I made this Philadelphia Arm chair version this past week and am pretty happy with the results except for maybe the paint choice. More on that in a second. I think this would make a great set of barstools to set at a counter in the kitchen and honestly it's pretty damn comfortable too.
                                                 Anyway now for a little about the paint.
  
     Originally I painted it with Real Milk Paint's Union Blue over Yellow Ochre and thought initially it looked decent. After a coat or two of the oil/varnish mix I top coat with, I began to see that it wasn't the right look in my eyes. I had some Ultra Bond that is suppose to make the milk paint stick to almost anything, so I mixed it in with some black to see how well it works. I am completely happy with that product. Even over a couple of coats of oil/varnish mix the black milk paint bonded and is just as tough as it is when it goes on bare wood. That's a very good thing to know when I am working on a customers chair and the paint colors aren't coming out right.
     If you've ever used Milk Paint you know it's hard to tell what it will look like till you have a coat or two of finish on. Then it's been where you have to sand back down to bare wood and it's a total pain in the hind-quarters.  I'm glad to say even if the oil is on you can change the color without all the sanding and scraping I've had to do in the past. I know my arms and shoulders appreciate that product too.

Fan Back Windsor Bar Stools

The order I am currently finishing up included 9 chairs overall with 3 of them being fan back bar stools. I have made several bow back bar stools before but never a fan back. I was thrilled to see how one of the fan backs would turn out and to my surprise they look incredible. The height at the pommel is 27" on these and to make it comfortable to sit at with your feet on the foot rest, the foot rest needed to be between 17-18" below pommel. I had to play with the legs a little to see what would work the best and came up with what you see in this picture. It sets perfectly, very comfortable and the foot rest is at just the right height. The seat height on my regular fan backs, or any chair for that matter, is typically 18" at the pommel. If it worked out to that every time I would be totally happy with every chair. I like most chairs that are just for sitting to have about a 1" drop from front to back but on sets that are for a table I think 3/4" works better and helps keep the sitter more involved in what is going on at the dinner table.