I had the exact same situation- four stools with curved legs that needed to
be shortened by a few inches. Here's how you do it...

Get a board that is 5" wide (or however much you want to cut off the legs)

Lay the board on its edge along the floor and hold it against the chair leg.

Draw a line along where the board meets the chair leg.

You may want to use the board to draw a line around all four sides of the
leg- this will tell you exactly where to cut so that the stool will lie flat
on the floor.

As Todd said, don't try to do this with a power miter saw. I used a circular
saw, but even a basic hand saw would make pretty quick work of it.

"Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
We ended up buying a kitchen table with stools that are about 5 inches
too tall. My question is how to shorten the chair legs properly so they
sit and look good. You are talking to a novice with a power miter saw
that I think would do the job but I need a heads up on how to go about
things. Thanks.