DIY Kentucky Sticks Chair

I know my most recent project is always my favorite. However, this time, this chair truly is my favorite. We built this chair in one day, actually! It came together fairly simply and looks great. We liked this chair so much that we’re planning on building a few more.

Without further ado, here is the much anticipated instructions and materials:

Materials:

4- 2x3s (you could also use 2x4s for perfected squared edges)
Vinyl coated metal wire with hardware
Table saw
Hand sander

I also put together a handy-dandy guide for constructing these chairs. Below you will find a chart indicating quantities and lengths, a drill guide, and the wire layout.

Right out of the gate, I’m going to flag that stringing together the chair pieces with the metal wire was definitely the trickiest part. It’s easy to get lost in all those pieces! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We started by cutting down our 2x3s.

You should be able to get away with (4) - 8ft, 2x3 boards, which will allow for some margin of error/practice cuts. Using a table saw is the safest and easiest way to cut down the wood.

If you use 2x3’s, your edges will be slightly rounded off. Rounded is the look we wanted for our chair, and we sanded our pieces to emphasize the rounded edges. So, after running the boards through the table saw, we ended up with these cuts.

After all our chair pieces were the proper size, we began drilling and sanding. Barrett tackled the drilling, and I handled the sanding. It’s important that the drill instructions are followed precisely, so that the tops and bottoms of the chair line up straight.

We used a tape measure, marked where each hole should be, and then drilled through each piece carefully.

I highly recommend sanding each piece of wood down. We absolutely love our Dewalt Hand-Sander; it makes the job so much faster. It also removes any chips or splinters, which is kind of important for something that you sit on.

After the sanding and the drilling were completed, it was time to line up the pieces. Line up each piece in accordance with the wire instructions above. You’ll want to make sure that your holes are properly lined up.

Next, it’s time to string all the wood pieces together. We started by stringing together the seat of the chair. Run the wire through each piece until all pieces are strung together. Then we ran the wire through the back portion of the chair, in the same way.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Lay the back portion of the chair directly on top of the seat of the chair. You’ll use the metal wire to string the two halves together. You’ll want to pull the “F” pieces upwards as connecting pieces and the holes should align.

After everything is strung together, secure with hardware on the ends. You’ll want to pull the wire fairly tight, but not so tight that it doesn’t allow for movement.

Now, you should be able to stand your chair up and unfold it.

And that’s it! It’s a fairly easy build once you have your pieces done. We did have to unstring and restring our pieces a few times because we either lined them up incorrectly or strung it together incorrectly.

Suffice it to say, no fingers were lost and we love our new chair! All in all, a great build. Check it out.