New Seating for the Workshop
After years of making do with an estate-sale vanity stool, the House 173 workshop finally gets a proper place to sit.
Maybe not in the past year (think pandemic) but I normally spend a good bit of time in my workshop, I guess it's kind of my man cave in a sense.
Workshop Seating Through the Years
Many years ago I had an old banker's stool for the workshop. It was a pretty solid piece of furniture, with steel supports and legs, and casters making it easy to move around. But there was something about the size of it that made it a pain to have around. These were the days before the great basement redo of 2014...
...and back then the workshop had workbenches on opposite walls, leaving precious little floor space. The orange fabric seat and back support were a little worn, and I think one of the wheels eventually stopped rolling, so away the stool went.
A few of my favorite workshop posts:
• A rack for my hand planes
• Refurbishing my Gerstner & Sons tool chest
• My very simple sturdy-as-hell workbench
The Kidney Stool
One day, while visiting a series of estate sales, I found this little kidney-shaped stool:
No idea what I originally had in mind, but it's obvious the plan was to strip the paint and refinish it. I think this was one of those times when you start in a direction and realize it just wasn't going to be worth the effort. In short order it became my workshop stool, even though it was short and originally designed to go with a makeup vanity - if that's what they're called.
I like making things. I have a wood shop at home. I am a terrible carpenter but I love doing it. - P. J. O'Rourke
Finally, a Proper Workshop Stool
I have to give that little kidney stool some credit though. What was probably intended to sit in front of somebody's vanity ended up spending years in a basement workshop holding me up while I sharpened tools, worked at the bench or just sat there contemplating whatever project I'd managed to screw up that day. It wasn't particularly comfortable and it definitely wasn't the right height, but it did the job.
Anyway, I have no idea what happened this morning, but I suddenly had the idea it was time to get a new stool for the workshop. I thought about a barstool kind of thing, and thought maybe they had something at Lowes. I no sooner walked in the store and I saw this stool:
There really wasn't much deliberation involved. It was about the right height for the workbench, didn't have a huge footprint, and looked sturdy enough to survive whatever abuse a workshop stool is expected to endure. Most importantly, unlike the little kidney stool, this one was actually designed for a grown man to sit on rather than somebody applying makeup in front of a vanity. Progress!
Thanks for stopping by and be safe out there!
So, How Did It Hold Up? - 2026 Update
Well, all these years later, I can finally answer the question I left hanging at the end of the original post:How did it hold up?
Great, actually. Surprisingly great.
The stool is still in the workshop, still getting used, and honestly looks almost like it just came out of the box. The seat has held up, the frame is still solid, and there really isn't much wear to speak of. Considering the sawdust, tools, projects and general workshop abuse it's been around all these years, that's pretty impressive.
So that spur-of-the-moment trip to Lowe's turned out to be a pretty good decision. No great research project, no comparison shopping, no weeks of overthinking it, I walked into the store, saw a stool, bought it, and years later it's still doing exactly what I bought it to do.
Sometimes I apparently can make a simple decision.
Who knew?
Every workshop needs a stool, although technically we're never sitting. We're 'thinking through the next cut.' Sometimes for 45 minutes.
I especially enjoyed the kidney-shaped vanity stool ending up in a basement surrounded by sawdust and power tools. That's not repurposing. That's witness protection.
But you walked into Lowe's, saw a stool and just...bought it? No research? No spreadsheet? No seventeen samples?
I'm starting to worry about you. - Studs, Bloomington
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workshop stool, garage stool, workshop seating, small workshop ideas, workshop upgrades, garage seating, workshop furniture, small workshop organization, DIY workshop, workshop setup, House 173 workshop