How to Take Apart a Bar Stool

Turn the bar stool upside down and place it on its seat. From this angle, you should be able to see the stool's structural fixtures, such as the bolts and screws that hold it together. Undo the bolt at the center first, if your bar stool has one. This is called the mounting bolt; it is the base for all the other fixtures.

Unscrew the bolts that hold the legs in place. There are usually four of these, evenly spread in each quarter of the seat. Remove the bolts and set them aside.

Push your needle-nose pliers under the staples that hold the upholstery to the underside of the seat.

Identify the points where the stool's legs join. If they are bolted together, unscrew the bolts now. If the stool has wooden legs, however, chances are that the legs are held together by mortise and tenon joints, which work as a square peg into a square hole. These are often held together with a small amount of glue inside each mortise, or socket, to give the joins more stability. To disassemble the legs, use a hammer to gently loosen the grip, hammering in the same direction as the mortise while holding fast to the tenon portion.