Easy 9-Step Tutorial On How To Level Chair Legs Yourself

It is always nice to have a good sit after a tiring day, but it is not fun if your chair gets wobbly, right? Here is how to level chair legs and basically, how to have a good rest after hours of work.

When your chair gets rocky and you want it stable A.S.A.P, you can always slip a piece of cardboard on the shorter leg and that’s it! However, you just won’t stand the eyesore. If a cardboard piece slips out, the chair will rock back and forth again — such a hassle!

how to level chair legs

To solve your problem most effectively and creatively, you should just level your chair’s legs. This way, you won’t have to worry about sitting on a wobbly chair tomorrow — missing your long-awaited rest — and even in the next months!

 

What You Need

When working on leveling your chair’s legs, you won’t really have to prepare a lot. Just make sure these things are present, and you’re good to go.

  • The (problematic) chair
  • A masking tape
  • A pair of scissors
  • Sandpaper
  • Coping saw or any available saw
  • Varnish that matches your chair (optional)

 

Leveling Your Chair Legs

WARNING: the following steps are intended in fixing wooden chairs as chairs made of other materials become wobbly for a different reason. For safety, wear a pair of gloves and protective eyewear.

Step #1. Place the chair on a flat surface. You may put it on top of a table so you can have a better view. Now, inspect the chair and identify which legs are uneven.

It will help if you rock the chair to see the shorter legs. However, if you have good eyes, you can just inspect the legs with your eyes and see which do not touch the surface.

Step #2. Once the shorter legs were identified, measure the distance between those legs and the table. This will determine how much wood you’ll cut from the longer legs.

Step #3. Next, mark the longer legs with masking tape. You can rock the chair again just to be sure. They are the ones you are going to trim later so you better mark correctly!

Step #4. Prepare for the trimming and turn the chair over. You may put a piece of cloth underneath to protect the backrest and seat from scratch.

Step #5. Before trimming, remove metals or other materials on the legs depending on the chair you have. Then, measure and mark the longer legs.

Remember the gap between the table and the legs that you measured, use that measurement. Wrap the parts of the legs you’ll trim to make sure you’ll be cutting them right.

Step #6. You can now start with trimming. Using a coping saw or any saw that can be used on wood, cut the parts that you marked. It is best to do short strokes for even results.

Step #7. After cutting the excess parts, use sandpaper to smoothen out the trimmed ends of the legs.

Step #8. Now, do a double-check. Turn the chair over and rock it a little. If it is still wobbly, you can sand a little more until all legs are even.

Step #9. For finishing touches, you can brush the legs out with some varnish or wood stain. This can make your chair look brand new. Just remember that its color matches your chair’s.

 

Other furniture problems you can handle yourself

With great furniture comes great responsibility — this may be new but it is in no way untrue. Furniture pieces may have damages from time to time so you have to fix some a lot of times.

You cannot call an expert anytime your furniture breaks. Here are some furniture problems you can actually fix all by yourself.

 

Loose wood joints

For the longest time that chairs have been pulled and pushed to the dinner table, their wood joints might loosen up. To fix this, you must first remove the old wood glue. Then, with a syringe, put in some wood glue to the loose joints to bring the wood pieces back together.

 

Busted handles

When handles have been used frequently for a long time, the screw holes may be stripped. Once they become loose, you can never tighten the handles no matter what you do.

You would have to pour in some putty into the screw holes so the screws will have something to hold onto. Then, once the putty has dried up, reattach the handle using a screw.

 

Wood scratches

Woods do last but they are not scratch-proof. This is why it is inevitable to have our tabletops,  chair seats, and other pieces of furniture get scratched in a matter of time.

To make them look as flawless as possible, you may use a paste finishing wax. You can get clear wax from hardware and home centers so you won’t have to worry about matching the colors.

 

Conclusion

Learning how to level chair legs and other furniture works is a piece of cake, right? Now, you won’t have to worry about sitting on a wobbly chair and can now enjoy the rest you deserve.

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