DIY Tapered Furniture Legs

How to Make Furniture Legs Using 1x Lumber

I needed legs for a chair I was building for the new front room of the house and I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them (they can be expensive!). I wanted something substantial but not overly bulky, and wanted to be able to cut tapers in them because I think it looks more streamlined that way. I came up with an easy way to make DIY tapered furniture legs using 1x lumber that can be customized to any thickness and/or length. Plus, making DIY wooden furniture legs like this is economical and the legs can be created using scrap!

The legs for my chair needed to be 13” high. I was able to make four legs using ONE 1×6 board! Three layers of 1x makes the legs 2-1/4” thick.

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I started by cutting the 1×6 into three equal pieces. It’s OK if they aren’t perfectly equal – close is good enough! I spread glue on the face of one board, and laid another board on top of it. I then spread glue on the face of that board and laid the third board on top. I clamped the boards together firmly and let the glue dry for at least a day. (Wipe the glue that squeezes out off of the sides of the boards…)

Once the glue was dry, I cut the layered piece on the table saw. I set the fence on the saw at  5-3/8” and ran the piece through the saw. This cuts very little off the side to make a flat, even surface.

I set the fence on the saw at the same thickness of the layered piece. For example, the piece measured 2-1/4”, so I set the fence to make 2-1/4” square legs. I ran the piece through the saw twice so that I had two 2-1/4” square pieces.

I took the pieces to the miter saw and cut two pieces from each at 13” long (I saved the remaining short piece to use as legs on a cabinet for our TV).

I cut tapers in two adjoining sides of each leg using a tapering jig on the table saw. (I wrote an in-depth tutorial on using a tapering jig on the table saw.)

I sanded all sides using 150 and 220 grit sandpaper, then stained the legs using Golden Oak stain by RustOleum (<– affiliate link!).

This is my favorite way to make DIY tapered furniture legs. It is easy to do and the legs can be made in virtually any thickness or length with minimal adjustments!

Originally posted 2019-06-23 12:44:59.