Sunday, September 25, 2011

First Steps to Building a Chair

I would really like to replace the turquoise chair in the back room with a pair of chairs. Couldn’t you image it as a nice little reading corner with comfy chairs and the windows on both sides? Unfortunately the kind of chairs I want are expensive, about $400 each. Not really in the budget right now. Instead I’ve been playing with plans to build some. Here is the first version:

Since it is hard to judge the comfort level from a plan, this project seemed to need a trial version first. $14 of cheap lumber later, I started constructing the frame. Immediately it became apparent that cutting the back angled pieces out of 1 piece of wood with a jigsaw or circular saw was not a fun idea. It was too imprecise for my taste and there was too much room for error. Also the circular saw was a hand-me-down and is ancient and I took it as a bad sign when smoke started appearing almost immediately…. I already have an idea of how to better design this part.

And now we know: I’m glad I did a trial version this time, I think the chair is a little low to the ground, even when the 3 or 4 inch cushion is added. I am still undecided if they are too big overall, at 24” wide and almost 30” deep, they see really large. Though there is the width of the cushions to consider.

No comments:

Post a Comment