Kid’s Table and Chairs

This is a kid-sized table and two chairs that I built for my niece’s birthday. The chair frames are made from douglas fir 2×10’s ripped down to 1.5″ width. The back chair legs have a curve cut on the table saw. I picked out construction fir boards with nice grain and no knots. The table legs and apron are also douglas fir–a ripped down 4×4 for the legs (about 3×3). The table top and seats are a pine project panel from the big box store. Attached with figure 8 fasteners to allow for movement. Because I used construction lumber and a project panel, the lumber cost was probably around $60.

I stained with general finishes dye stain (antique cherry) which made the pine table top match the reddish tinted fir frames–the General Finishes dye stain was outstanding. I then finished with several coats of Arm-R-Seal, and 3 coats of gloss Arm-R-Seal on the table top, because it’s a kids table and will likely take plenty of abuse.

I went with fir after reading a Christopher Schwarz article on using construction grade lumber for workbenches. I expect the kids will be hard on this set but douglas fir is strong, can take a beating, and isn’t expensive. Perfect for children’s furniture.

The joinery was primarily pocket screws for the frames with a mortise and tenon for the seat back. If you build anything for kids, put felt pads on the bottom, they push everything around and will destroy floors. All together the project was solid, not too difficult, and the kids are very pleased.