Looking for ideas for a counter chair

[Sergio Escudero]

Hello. For a few days now, I've been thinking that I'd like to make (at some point) a counter chair for my friend's bar/restaurant: my own personal chair. I've been looking at the latest posts from Wood by Wright on Lost Art Press, where they're making Welsh-style chairs, and I really like them. I'm looking for ideas to achieve a similar backrest design (open fan-shaped slats/rods on a curved top with a low backrest), with a solid but elegant and light, slightly trapezoidal lower structure. I want to achieve something halfway between a classic Windsor style (too ornate) and modern (sometimes too simple). I'm debating between octagonal (I love octagons) or round legs and lower structure (I don't have a lathe, but I can do it by hand planing). I'm also torn between a flat seat or one shaped for the butt (sorry, I'm sure there's a more technical name for this, but I don't know it). My wood options for making it are red or white oak, perhaps accompanied by some beech accents. Perhaps oak for the legs and the rods that join them made of beech. I will make the curved piece of the backrest where the rods are inserted by gluing laminations together. The central lamination can be beech and the outer ones oak.

I am completely ignorant when it comes to chairs and chair styles. Can you tell me what types of styles you like? Even something Asian/Japanese could be an option for me. As with many things, I want to dive in head first and present my restaurant owner friend with something I made myself. He knows that I am just starting out in traditional carpentry.

Here are some images that I have seen and liked so far, and which I am using as a starting point.




I really like this backrest.

[wtnhighlander]

I would go with the bar stool pictured last, myself. The armless design is a bit less complicated to build. The curved back piece, called a 'crest rail', can be steam bent, or a bent lamination. The butt-shaped seat is usually called 'sculpted'. I think the trickiest part of making such a chair is getting the correct 'sight lines' for drilling the spindle holes, everything lines up correctly. That involves marking lines on the seat to mark the radius of the curve, and spacing of the spindles, along with a bevel gauge to guide your drill at the desired splay angle. It is more complicated to describe than to do.  Maybe find some videos similar to this one for a visual reference:

Some people use modern laser levels and mirrors to aid drill alignment, but pencil lines and a bevel gauge work fine.

 

[fcschoenthal]

On 1/29/2026 at 12:55 PM, Sergio Escudero said:

I really like this backrest.

With not much of a curve to it, you could cut it out of a single thicker board, without going through the setup and issues with bending or lamination.

[Coop]

I’m not a chair builder so can’t help you there. But, I do think it’s pretty cool having your own home made stool at your friends bar. Just don’t make it too comfy! 

[Mark J]

Just from sitting in various chairs I can say that a sculpted seat is more comfortable.

[Sergio Escudero]

On 1/29/2026 at 11:52 PM, wtnhighlander said:

I would go with the bar stool pictured last, myself. The armless design is a bit less complicated to build. The curved back piece, called a 'crest rail', can be steam bent, or a bent lamination. The butt-shaped seat is usually called 'sculpted'. I think the trickiest part of making such a chair is getting the correct 'sight lines' for drilling the spindle holes, everything lines up correctly. That involves marking lines on the seat to mark the radius of the curve, and spacing of the spindles, along with a bevel gauge to guide your drill at the desired splay angle. It is more complicated to describe than to do.  Maybe find some videos similar to this one for a visual reference:

Some people use modern laser levels and mirrors to aid drill alignment, but pencil lines and a bevel gauge work fine.

 

Fantastic video, very informative, but now I'm more scared than before. Anyway, there's no turning back now.



I left the wood acclimating inside the workshop; it will stay there for a couple of weeks. It also got a little wet when I removed the plastic tarp that was covering it. There was a little water in a fold and it dripped onto the wood. I have white oak and jatoba. There are some planks that cannot be seen in the photo because the wider ones (up to 30 cm) cover them, but there is a tatoba plank that is 7 cm thick and about 15 cm wide. What wood should I choose? I like the reddish brown color of jatoba, I think it's very elegant, but it's also very expensive and this is all I have.

[wtnhighlander]

Either species should work, so long as you respect the strengths an weaknesses of each. I sm not so familiar with jatoba, but white oak is strong, heavy, and rives (splits) well along its grain. Selecting straight-grained parts for all the spindles & legs, and splitting them to rough size, will help avoid breakage.

Windsor chairs are often painted, because multiple species are used to gain advantage for different parts of the chair. Oak for spindles and legs (riven, straight, and strong), soft pine for the sculpted seat (easier to carve), and maple for the crest rail (resists wear & tear) were common. Traditional methods also involve baking the spindles to shrink them before assembly, and using slightly 'green' wood for the seat and crest rail. This allows the spindle ends to swell, and the holes to shrink, resulting in a tight fit, without glue.

Let me be clear, I am only passing along knowledge from observing others, I do not build chairs, myself.

[BillyJack]

I would stay away from spindles…

[pkinneb]

On 2/5/2026 at 9:31 AM, BillyJack said:

I would stay away from spindles…

Becuase?