A Second Test Dining Room Chair

At the end of March I built that test dinning room chair, but was not happy with the design. After some more research into dining room chairs styles to see what I liked, I re-designed and came up with new plans.

All the previous issues are addressed; the back rail is angular not curved, the seat is an inch less deep and it is an inch higher from the ground. 

I worked off the previous chair frame, keeping as much as I could and cutting new back rails. I cut an inch off the side pieces of the seat and added blocking to raise the front legs. 

Unfortunately, my crappy webbing job on the previous chair meant I didn’t even have enough to do 2 strips in each direction. Since I didn’t have enough to double over the ends where the staples were, the pressure of people sitting had caused them to fray. Now the back only has one vertical strip…it’s really not very strong. 

This time I did add an extra layer of fabric between the webbing and the foam which helped support the foam much better. 

Here is the comparison between the 2 test chairs. Overall I am much happier with the proportions of this 2^nd chair, but I still think it lacks something to make it unique. I need to think on it…tufting the back? Contrasting colour piping? Or something in the construction of the chair? 

And now we know: it was definitely worthwhile to make both these chairs. I now have comfort and proportion part nailed down, it’s just the aesthetic I need to fine tune.