Every now and then, you’ll come across a beautiful piece of furniture that needs a little lift off the ground. Take our blanket chest for example.
By installing wooden furniture feet, you can lift your flat-bottomed pieces off the ground, or swap out the feet that are already there!
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Osborne Wood Products. Here at Eight Hundred Furniture, I share products and companies that provide the highest quality products and services related to the furniture refinishing industry.
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Wooden Furniture Feet From Osborne Wood Products
There are lots of places where you can go to find wooden furniture feet. Your local big box store will have some, but you only have one wood species to choose from and your style selection is limited.
Consider sourcing your wooden furniture feet from Osborne Wood Products. This Club Round Bun Foot caught my eye on their website and I knew they’d be perfect to elevate my blanket chest off the ground!
Osborne has a HUGE selection of furniture/cabinet feet and legs. Their products come in all different species of wood, including but not limited to Soft and Hard Maple, Red Oak, Knotty Pine, Rubberwood, Alder, Cherry, Mahogany, Red Birch, Black Walnut, Douglas Fir and Tiger Maple (just to name a few).
I opted for the soft maple, which is paint-grade.
They also have metal hairpin legs if you’d like to add a retro touch to your project.
You can also take advantage of their volume discounts if you want to buy in bulk!
- Save 5% when ordering 24 or more pieces of the same product
- Take 10% when ordering 50 or more pieces of the same product
- Enjoy 20% when ordering 100 or more pieces of the same product
What Makes Osborne Wood Products Different?
What differentiates Osborne from the rest is their standard turnaround time of 1 business day on stock products and free quotes with 24 hours for custom items.
They’ve been in business since 1979 and are a family-owned and operated company.
Of all these fabulous characteristics, there was one that stood out to me the most – their Company Culture statement.
“We strive as a business to operate under the lordship of Jesus Christ. It is our desire to relate to you – in both personal and work relationships – in a manner that would be pleasing to Jesus Christ. This is the standard to which you can and should hold us accountable.”
Supporting an American, family-owned and operated company with quick turnaround times, a fabulous wood selection and a variety of styles to choose from?
Um…yes please!
Step 1 – Install Corner Plates on Bottom of Furniture
To attach your wooden furniture feet to the bottom of your furniture, I like using these corner plates. Technically, they’re called a “top plate”.
I bought mine at The Home Depot. You can search for one at your local hardware store.
Your furniture feet will screw into this plate and look like this when you’re done:
To start, line up the corner top plates on each of the 4 corners of your piece. If these won’t fit, you can try a square shaped top plate. These corner plates are heavy duty and are ideal for chunkier, meatier furniture feet like these!
Using a Sharpie, mark the holes for your screws and drill pilot holes. Then, screw each one into place.
Step 2 – Install a Hanger Bolt
(This part is a bit tricky to explain in words, so I encourage you to watch my video tutorial at the end of this post for a better visual!)
In order to attach the wooden furniture foot to your piece, you need to have a bolt sticking out of the top of the furniture foot. Not all feet have that bolt pre-installed, like my club feet from Osborne.
But that’s okay – after reading this blog post, you’ll know how to put one in!
What is a Hanger Bolt?
The bolt you need is called a “Hanger Bolt”. It has a pointed end and a flat end. The pointed end goes into the furniture foot, and the flat end gets screwed into the corner plate.
My corner plates have a 5/16″ diameter hole where the Hanger Bolts go, so I bought four 5/16″ diameter Hanger Bolts that were 2″ long. You’ll have to check and see what the diameter is on your specific plate you purchase. The length of the Hanger Bolt you buy depends on how big your furniture feet are. Mine are 4.5″ tall, so a 2″ long Hanger Bolt was perfect.
Drilling the Hole for the Hanger Bolt
Drill a hole in the middle of the foot using a bit that’s the same size as, or slightly smaller than the diameter of your Hanger Bolt. For example, my bolt is 5/16″, so I would use either a 5/16″ or a 1/4″ drill bit.
Make sure you drill straight.
I have a trick for knowing how far to drill down in my video tutorial at the end of this post.
Screwing In the Hanger Bolt
Next, install your Hanger Bolt. You can’t screw it in by hand, and you can’t use a wrench directly on the threads. You’ll strip them if you do.
To give yourself something to grab onto for torque, you need to attach 2 nuts that are the same size as your Hanger Bolt. These are two 5/16″ nuts.
Screw them onto the top of the Hanger Bolt. Use a wrench to tighten them in opposite directions so they lock in place. (Again, see my video tutorial.)
Screw the Hanger Bolt all the way down until you hit the nuts. Then, gently loosen them with your wrench and remove the nuts.
Step 4 – Screw Furniture Feet Onto Corner Plates
Gently screw your furniture feet onto your corner plates. Make them hand-tight. Don’t over-tighten or the Hanger Bolts may not have any more wood to grip.
Your furniture is now elevated to a new height with more structural interest!
Step 5 – Paint or Stain Furniture Feet
At this point in your makeover, you can either paint or stain your furniture feet. For my project, I’m going to use General Finishes Stains.
Stay tuned for a separate blog post on that process!
How to Install Wooden Furniture Feet Video Tutorial
Enjoy this 6 minute video tutorial that demonstrates how to install wooden furniture feet that don’t have a pre-installed bolt!
