233 Lancaster Ave · Kitchen nook

Nook Rebuild

Four 1″ pine stair treads, 11½″ × 48″, nosing already on the front. Two runs hard to the wall on a 2×4 ledger, eight legs behind a glued 1×2 rail, no screws through the top — and the fourth tread buys the counter wrap and a centred joint. About four and a half hours from here, holes included.

The one number that changed: everything is H − 1″

The treads are 1″ thick, not 3/4″. So the top of the ledger and every leg are H − 1″, where H is your stool height. At 17¼″ that is 16¼″, and the ledger’s bottom edge lands at 12¾″.

The old sheet said H − 3/4. If you cut to that, every leg is a quarter inch long and the seat sits proud of the ledger. This is the thing to get right before any saw comes out.

What you have, and what it makes

BoughtCut intoLeft over
4 × pine tread, 11½ × 48north 48, west 39⅛ ×2, wrap 258⅞ ×2, 23″
2 × 1×2 × 8′rail: 78¼ + 4817¾″ and 48″ — the wrap’s rail
2 × 2×4 × 8′ledgers: 78¼ + 4817¾″ and 48″ — 3 legs
3 × poplar 2×2 × 3′2 legs each at H − 1″3½″ each

Legs are the tight item, and the 2×4 offcuts close it exactly

Three 36″ poplar squares give two legs each — six. The two runs need eight (five west, three north).

The ledger cuts leave 17¾″ and 48″ of 2×4, which is three more legs. Nine available, eight needed, one spare for a bad cut.

Poplar on the west run, pine on the north. Turned so the 3½″ runs front-to-back, a 2×4 shows the same 1½″ face as a 2×2 — from the room they are identical, and each run is consistent within itself.

The wrap’s two legs come later, with the wrap. One more 2×4 then.

Two things to check before the saw

Measure a poplar 2×2. Hobby squares are usually a true 1½ × 1½, but some run 1¾ or a full 2″. Oversize just sets the leg further behind the rail — nothing breaks, but know it before you lay out.

If you go clear, poplar and pine will not match — poplar runs greener and greyer. Under paint they are identical. They sit in shadow behind the rail either way, but that is the one place mixed stock shows.

Still to get: wood glue, a stud finder, a countersink bit if you do not have one, rubber pads for the table’s pedestal base, and the finish. Optional: a 2½″ hole saw + arbor, and if you are painting, drill before you paint.

No 1×1 or 2×2 on the rack? Neither is framing lumber

1×1 is in moulding and trim, sold as square dowel or “S4S square”. 2×2 is in deck railing, sold as balusters. Check there before substituting.

Rail → a 1×2 laid flat. Stocked everywhere, and better than the 1×1: same 3/4″ depth so no geometry changes, more glue area, and stiffer. The 30¼″ bay goes from 0.187″ bare to 0.050″ — the 1×1 gave 0.073″. On edge it is 0.027″ if you would rather. Two 8-footers, since you need 126¼″.

Legs → 2×4. Either rip one down the middle for two 1½ × 1⅝″ sticks — 192″ of stock against the 113¾″ you need, one board and one cut — or use them whole and turn each leg so the 3½″ runs front-to-back. Only 1½″ of face shows to the room, it sits in shadow behind the rail, and it resists front-to-back rock better than a 2×2 would. Two boards if whole.

No 1×2 either? Rip 3/4″ strips off one 1×6 — a single board gives far more than 126¼″. Do not substitute lattice or screen moulding; too thin to be worth gluing.

Cut list

PartFromLength
North seattread 148″no cut at all
West seat, piece Atread 239⅛″joint dead centre, leg under it
West seat, piece Btread 339⅛″
Counter wraptread 425″round the free corner 3″
Test couponsoffcuts8⅞ ×2, 23″finish and hole-saw practice
West ledger2×478¼″runs into the corner
North ledger2×448″starts 11½″ off the west wall
Front rail1×2, laid flat78¼″ + 48″tucked behind the nosing; 48″ spare for the wrap
Legs × 8poplar 2×2 (5) + 2×4 offcut (3)H − 1″5 west, 3 north. Cut one, sit on it, then the rest

The west run always needed a joint — it is 78¼″ and a tread is 48″. The fourth tread means you can put it dead centre instead of at 48″, which is the whole difference between two deliberate panels and one patched board. Two cuts instead of one, and it costs 8⅞″ of offcut you were not using anyway.

The rail is your alignment jig — that is what makes the joint disappear

The thing you would actually feel is a step, one piece sitting proud of the other by a thirty-second. You do not need biscuits or a spline to prevent it: glue the 1×2 rail continuous across the joint and clamp both tread pieces down onto it while it sets. A straight rail forces them coplanar.

Then a leg directly under the joint and a 6″ block glued across it underneath. The boards meet end to end and wood does not move along its length, so once shut it stays shut.

The most visible part of the joint is the break in the nosing — and at 39⅛″ that sits under the table’s overhang, which covers the front 4–5¾″ of the seat.

One half inch you should know about: the north seat is a full 48″ tread and the west bench takes 11½″ of the corner, so the north run ends at 59½″ from the west wall rather than 60″. Not worth splicing half an inch — just know it lands there.

Before the first cut — four numbers

Ten minutes with a tape

1. H, the seat height. Measure the top of a stool. Everything else comes off it: ledger top and every leg are H − 1″.

2. The west run. Cabinet face to the north wall, should be 78½″. Cut the seat and ledger to 78¼″ — captive at both ends, and a tight one will not drop in.

3. The north run. The tread is 48″ and it starts where the west bench ends, so it finishes at 59½″.

4. Every stud, both walls. Mark them above the ledger line so the ledger does not cover your marks.

Get the ledger level along its whole length. The seat copies whatever the ledger does, and it is far easier to fix now than with a tread on top of it.

The holes

The 3″ saw is better here than the 2½″ would have been, and it lands on a spacing that makes the seams work.

5″ centres, and every seam gets a web

A 3″ hole is 7.07 sq in against the 2½″’s 4.91 — 44% more air per plunge, so you need fewer of them. At 5″ centres the numbers fall out clean:

West run: 14 holes, first centre 6⅝″ from each end. Perfectly symmetric.

North run: 8 holes, first centre 6½″ from each end. Also symmetric — and within an eighth of the west, so the two lines read as one system across the corner.

The centre joint gets a web, not a hole. The holes either side sit at 36⅝ and 41⅝, which leaves exactly 2″ of solid tread centred on the joint. You could not place that better on purpose.

Setting out the holes · 6px = 1″5″ centres, symmetric about every seam
WEST RUN — 78¼″ two treads at 39⅛″ radiator, 60″ no radiator JOINT NORTH RUN — 48″, one tread, no cut 6⅝ 5 48″ — 8 holes, 6½″ in from each end ■ = leg hole line 3½″ off the wall 3″ holes, 2″ webs shaded = past the radiator
Fourteen holes on the west run and eight on the north, all at 5″ centres, each line starting 6⅝″ and 6½″ in from its ends — so both runs are symmetric end to end and read as one system across the corner. The centre joint lands in a web with exactly 2″ of solid tread centred on it.
RunHole centres from the end
West, 146⅝, 11⅝, 16⅝, 21⅝, 26⅝, 31⅝, 36⅝ | 41⅝, 46⅝, 51⅝, 56⅝, 61⅝, 66⅝, 71⅝
North, 86½, 11½, 16½, 21½, 26½, 31½, 36½, 41½

All on a line 3½″ off the wall — the 3″ hole spans 2″ to 5″, clearing the 1½″ ledger by half an inch, same margin as before. (The 2½″ plan used 3¼″; the bigger hole needs the extra quarter.)

Does it still vent? Yes, with room

The west radiator stops at 60″, so the last three west holes vent nothing — they are there because a line that stops 18″ short looks like you ran out of enthusiasm. The 19 holes actually over radiator give 134 sq in, or 1.12 sq in per inch against the 1.0–1.5 target.

If you screen the undersideEffectivePer inch
nothing1341.12
½″ hardware cloth1180.98
¼″ hardware cloth1070.90
fly screen910.76 — too much loss

Use hardware cloth, not window screen. Fly screen is only about two-thirds open and eats the margin; ¼″ cloth stops a crayon and a small hand, ½″ stops hands and forks but not crayons. Either looks more deliberate under a bench than insect mesh. And the open bench front is a second path that none of these numbers count.

A 3″ saw is a different tool from a 2½″

Drill today, on the sawhorses, before anything is assembled. This is by far the cheapest day for it — and if you paint, drilling has to come first anyway.

Low speed, both hands, and back the tread with scrap. A 3″ saw grabs. Let the pilot find its mark before the teeth touch, keep the drill square, and back off if it starts to smoke — a scorched pine rim is permanent under clear finish.

Clear the plug every hole. A 3″ plug in a 1″ tread is a solid slug and it will jam the saw if you leave it. 22 plunges instead of 30, but each is more work.

Ease every rim with sandpaper rolled into a tube, top and bottom, before finishing.

Order of operations

TimeStepMins
0:00The four numbers. Snap the ledger line at H − 1″, mark every stud20
0:20Crosscut: treads 2 and 3 to 39⅛″, tread 4 to 25″, both ledgers, the rail. Rip the leg stock if you are ripping. Cut ONE leg25
0:45Stand the leg under a tread and sit on it. Then cut the other six15
1:00Mark and drill the 22 holes — face down on sawhorses, backed with scrap, rims eased50
1:50Mark legs, glue and screw the rail, block across the joint, both halves clamped down flat30
2:20Primer or sealer, both faces, all edges, and every bore, while the glue sets25
2:45West ledger up, then north. Three 3½″ screws into every stud40
3:25West seat down, both pieces, joint over its leg. Then the north tread. 1¾″ screws every 12″ on a line 3/4″ off the wall30
3:55Legs. Five west at 0 / 19⅝ / 39⅛ / 58⅝ / 78¼, three north at 0 / 24 / 48. Two 2″ screws each, through the rail30
4:25Sit on them.

Ledgers before seats, seats before legs, and both ledgers up before either seat goes down — then the north tread is measured off the west one actually in place.

Section · 15px = 1″1″ tread, nosing out, ledger face-flat
WALL radiator 1½″ 3¼″ 11½″ H 1″ pine tread — nosing to the front 2×4 FACE-FLAT on the wall 3½″ tall, 1½″ out top of ledger = H − 1″ not H − 3/4 — the tread is an inch thick 2½″ hole on a 3¼″ line clears the ledger by ½″ 1×2 rail, GLUED FLAT tucked behind the nosing legs = H − 1″ butted behind the rail
The tread is 1″ thick and 11½″ deep with the nosing already on the front — so no easing, no edge banding, and 2.19× the stiffness of 3/4″ plywood. Every height comes off H − 1″, not H − 3/4″. The 3¼″ hole line still clears the ledger by half an inch.

The rail, the legs, and no screws through the top

Eight legs, and the rail is what makes the joint disappear

1″ pine is 2.19× stiffer than the 3/4″ plywood this was drawn for — the thickness more than covers pine being soft. Front edge under a 200 lb adult:

BayBareWith the glued rail
19⅝″ — the west bays0.050″0.014″
24″ — the north bays0.093″0.025″
30¼″, the old off-centre plan0.187″0.050″

Centring the joint took the worst bay from 30¼″ to 19⅝″ and the whole run is now essentially rigid — 0.014″ with the rail glued, which you cannot feel. It costs a fifth leg on the west, and buys symmetry plus a joint you can put a support directly under.

The rule that matters more than any of it: the leg must touch the seat

Leg top bearing directly on the underside of the tread is 700–900 lb. The same leg hanging off screws pulling out of the rail is about 240 lb. Three to four times, free.

So the rail locates the leg and stops it racking; it never carries anyone. Tuck it behind the nosing rather than flush — the tread already has the finished edge the rail was going to fake.

Screws — you own all of them

JointUseGoes inSpare
Ledger → studs3½″1½″ of studthrough 1/2″ drywall + 1½″ ledger
Tread → ledger, at the back1¾″3/4″ into the ledger3/4″
Rail → tread, upward1¼″1/2″ into the tread1/2″
Rail → leg, horizontal2″1¼″ into the leg1/4″
the 2½″ and 3″ boxesnothing here needs them

The inch-thick tread makes the upward screws safer than they were: 1¼″ now leaves half an inch of margin instead of a quarter. Plain wood screws into the studs are fine and not close — six people at 250 lb is roughly 45 lb per screw in shear at two per stud, against well over 100 for a #8. Put three in every stud since the box is open.

Two drilling rules that matter more than the screws

Clearance hole in the near piece, pilot in the far one. If the threads bite the near piece the screw jacks the two apart instead of pulling them together — and on the ledger that means it never pulls tight to the wall. Clearance-drill the 1½″ ledger before it goes up.

Pilot everything entering a leg. 1¼″ of screw into a 1½″-wide leg splits it, and a split leg looks fine until somebody sits down.

Six things that bite

Read this once before you start

1. H − 1″, not H − 3/4. The treads are an inch thick. Ledger top and every leg.

2. West seat 78¼″ total, not 78½. Captive at both ends.

3. One leg, sit on it, then the other six. Height is the only thing here you cannot fix afterwards.

4. A leg goes directly under the centre joint at 39⅛″, plus a 6″ block glued across it underneath — and clamp both pieces onto the rail so they set flush.

5. Nosing faces the room. Obvious until you are gluing a rail to the wrong edge at speed.

6. Stud marks above the ledger line, or the ledger eats them.

7. Drill the holes before anything is assembled. Today, on sawhorses, is the only easy day for it.

Reference

NumberValue
Seat thickness1″
Seat depth, wall to nosing11½″
Ledger top / bottomH − 1″  /  H − 4½″
Ledger projection1½″ (2×4 face-flat)
Leg lengthH − 1″
Legs, west5, at 0 / 19⅝ / 39⅛ / 58⅝ / 78¼
Legs, north3, at 0 / 24 / 48
Back screws into ledger1¾″, every 12″, 3/4″ off the wall
Vent holes3″, 5″ centres, line 3½″ off the wall
Walkway at the crook20.6″ → about 27″

Finish

Check the treads first — it decides everything

Look at an end and a face for finger joints (interlocking zigzags every few feet) or a pre-primed coat. Knot-free pine at that price is usually one or both.

Either means paint. Finger joints show through clear finish as a permanent zigzag, and if it is pre-primed the decision has been made for you — happily, since it saves you a coat.

Solid clear pine with no joints? Then clear is on the table. Know that pine dents — Janka about 400 against red oak’s 1290 — and four children will find every fork drop. Under paint that reads as wear; under clear it looks beaten.

If painting — and you can take your time over it

Primer blocks stains rather than sealing them in, so bare treads through a few weeks of dinners cost you nothing. Build now, paint when you feel like it.

Zinsser B-I-N, the shellac-based one — not a water-based primer. Pine resin bleeds brown haloes through waterborne primer within months, and finger joints bleed worst of all. Prime both faces and every edge while the treads are still on sawhorses; that is the only free chance at the underside.

Then two primer coats sanded at 220 — that is where flatness comes from, not the colour — and two coats of a waterborne alkyd enamel (Benjamin Moore Advance, Sherwin ProClassic). Not wall latex, which stays soft. Read the recoat window before you plan the weekend: 4 to 16 hours is the difference between a two-day job and a four-day one, and it is hard in two to three weeks, not one.

Consider satin rather than high gloss. The chairs are vertical and catch light edge-on; a seat is horizontal and catches it flat, which is the hardest surface there is for gloss. Same match to the chairs, and it hides dust and scuffs by an order of magnitude.

Not tomorrow

All of it defers cleanly and none of it makes you undo anything.

Vent holes — the layout is settled, see the build section

Full setting-out is up in The holes. Short version: 22 holes at 3″, 5″ centres, on a line 3½″ off the wall, first hole 6⅝″ in on the west and 6½″ on the north.

The counter wrap — needs a fourth tread

Three treads leave a 17¾″ offcut and the wrap wants 25″, so this one costs another board. Two legs at the outboard corners, 40 minutes, nothing into the cabinet — the face is a finished end panel, so it blocks nothing, but a 1/2″ end panel is not something to hang a bench off. The inboard end ties to the west run’s frame and the whole thing lifts out.

The U in plan · 5px = 1″13″ of new seat, and the curve runs along its front
WEST WALL NORTH WALL COUNTER · 36″ high the bean, v2 46¼ × 58¼ 3″ round the free corner 13″ new 25″ 78½″ 48″ THE WRAP 25″ off the same strip as the north run — 73″ of 96″ two legs, both at the outboard corners screws to the west bench frame, not the cabinet — it lifts straight out WHERE THE TABLE LANDS v2’s 16⅛″ flat runs straight along the wrap 4 to 5¾″ of table over the seat — a place at the table, not a perch
The wrap is 13″ of new seat past the shared corner, and v2’s flat lands right along its front — 4 to 5¾″ of table over the seat, exactly the overhang you want to eat at. On the table you have now the edge lands at the seat’s front, which is a perch. It also has the only real backrest in the nook, at 36″.

Anchoring the table — after the benches settle

Do this bit tonight, it is independent: rubber pads under the pedestal base (not felt — felt is built to slide), six to eight screws through the flange instead of three, shim any rocking foot, wrench the column bolt. That takes out the shift and most of the wobble.

The rest is a block in the crook, seat to tabletop, screwed both ends — roughly 6″ out from each wall with a bench leg under it. It turns one support point into two about 21″ apart, ending shift, rotation and tipping together. Glue a 4½″ cleat to the tabletop rather than screwing up through a 3/4″ top with the good side up. Height and position wait until the table is where it will live.

Section at the crook · 10px = 1″the block does all three jobs
WALL about 11″ — measure yours ~6″ 3/4″ tabletop cleat, GLUED on 4½ square, 3/4″ ply — so no screw ever has to reach the eating face the block two 2×4s face to face, or a 4×4 offcut 4 screws top, 4 screws bottom — out again in two minutes put a bench leg directly under it the front leg, where it always was
The block sits about 6″ out from each wall, in the crook square nobody sits in, with a bench leg under it so the compression path goes straight to the floor. Glue the cleat to the tabletop rather than screwing through it — then the top screws land in 3/4″ of cleat instead of 3/4″ of finished eating surface.

USB — needs the holes first

The vent holes are the cable pass-throughs: 2½″, at the back of the seat behind everyone, and they swallow the slack. Don’t leave a charging brick in the cavity — it runs 100–120°F over the radiator and most bricks are rated to about 104°F. Either swap a receptacle for a tamper-resistant USB-C one, or put the brick in one of the two radiator-free stretches. Clip the cable off the fins; six-foot cables.

Notching the ledger for the outlets is fine. It is a cleat lagged to every stud, not a spanning beam. Notch the bottom edge, never the top, and put a screw into the stud each side of the notch.

The window sill

Still open, still separate. Sill at 20½″ and the seat at 17¼″ makes it a 3¼″ step up, so the bench makes climbing easier, not harder. Measure the sill depth — 4″ or under and a sloped board is the whole answer for one plank; over 5″ and it becomes a comfortable wedge they will still sit on.