A chair in the interior is the simplest model of furniture that is easy enough to choose and buy. However, if you want to have something exclusive, original, and sometimes just as cheap as possible in the country or in the house, you have the idea to make wooden chairs in your own workshop. In this article we will discuss how to execute the conceived design, to realize the ideological plan and where to begin carpentry work for the novice master.
Is it easy to make a wood chair with your own hands
Chairs accompany people all their lives. They vary with the interior, style, purpose and age of the owner, but are always present in the room. The idea to do a furniture project usually arises from those who saw a photo of woodwork on a resource and were inspired by their own experiment. If, for example, it is often necessary to repair chairs made of wood, then all the nuances of the design, the “weak” places of various models are already familiar. Therefore, there are their own ideas about how to make a reliable and comfortable chair.
Already at the starting stage, a novice furniture master assesses the complexity of the work performed, his own practical skills in carpentry skills and creates a list of the necessary tools. Beginners are never taken for the production of complex products, realizing that a lack of experience can lead to unsuccessful execution and resources and time wasted on the project. However, experience appears only in the process of work. If you start manufacturing with simple models and use inexpensive materials, it is possible that very soon your own exclusive furniture will become a subject of personal pride.
Woodworking, if desired, is easy to master. If the master has little experience, then there is no point in buying a complete set of tools, including their electrical counterparts, or asking for woodworking machines. It will be enough to buy the most necessary, and the rest of the inventory can be rented. Time will tell whether carpentry skill will become a long-term hobby or the enthusiasm for making furniture will disappear with the first model of the chair.
The tree is a very generalized name for the material for the manufacture of chairs. Not every type of wood used in the manufacture of furniture will be suitable here. The reason for the strict selection is in the loads acting on the chair in different planes. They dictate the parameters of sustainability and safety of use. If we consider the options for suitable wood, we get a considerable list of choices:
- soft breeds – pine, linden, cedar;
- moderately soft varieties – aspen, birch, mountain ash;
- moderately hard breeds – walnut, beech, pear, cherry, oak, larch;
- solid varieties – maple, ash, hornbeam, and many types of wood of exotic species.
Helpful advice! Oak or beech is ideal for the manufacture of chairs, but are expensive. For the first own furniture samples, it is better to purchase wood that is dense, but financially less expensive, for example, mountain ash.
The most durable products are obtained from solid wood. However, it is not easy to assemble such wooden chairs with your own hands, because machines will be needed for high-quality processing of the source material. The price of raw materials from solid wood is never low. Soft breeds are easily processed even manually, but the operational period of such products is not too long. Therefore, the assembly of chairs is usually planned in a combined version in order to achieve the desired strength and reduce the cost of the product. For example, you can use plywood for sitting or back.
Experts point out all conifers as an undesirable material for the manufacture of chairs because of their straight-layer structure. Ignoring warnings can lead to frequent breakdowns, spalling and a short product life. The only use of softwood in chairs is a multi-layer plywood for the seats. In other cases, even the highest quality blanks does not guarantee the durability and safety of furniture. At the same time, coniferous species should not be excluded from the list of sawn timber, if the design of the stool is planned. For such a simple chair model, pine or larch will do.
Joiner’s skill is recommended to master on those materials that are available (left from construction), and also it is possible to use the trees cut on a site. For high-quality products, for example, the remains of fence boards will not work, because the varieties of construction and carpentry wood are different. However, for the first experience in the manufacture of chairs it may well be useful to unnecessary lumber or array.
If wood for manufacturing is bought on purpose, then attention should be paid to such aspects:
- wood tables and chairs can combine several types of sawn timber in their designs: solid wood, logs, timber, boards;
- purchased boards or timber must be free of cracks, deformation, warps, knots;
- moisture lumber or blanks for chairs should not exceed 12%, i.e. wood is selected dry;
- lumber thickness rule: board < 100 m < timber;
- the presence of rot, mold, fungus, holes is unacceptable.
Helpful advice! Buy lumber with a small stock, because in the manufacture of furniture is likely to ruin or break any part due to lack of skill and experience.
For chairs, the tree is selected without visible defects. All the features of the cut, which can add textures in the manufacture of interior items, absolutely do not play any role for the chairs. In most cases, they can even interfere with and significantly reduce the strength and operational capabilities of furniture.
To make wooden chairs in an apartment or to give, you need to take care of their organic entry into the existing interior of the room. If the main part of the furniture is made in dark colors, then light chairs or chairs will look like an inappropriate detail on their background. Construction chemistry for wood processing allows you to achieve different colors. However, it is worth knowing that the dark brown color is walnut, the cherry wood will be of a reddish hue. Light brown base in oak, cedar, teak, alder, larch, and the brightest tones are characteristic of beech, pine, birch, maple, ash.
The color of the tree is not important if the chairs are to be installed in the dining area, using deep covers that completely cover the entire frame of the product. In this way, you can successfully hide minor flaws in the processing or quality of the selected wood. However, not all interiors suggest the installation of chairs with covers, no matter how practical they are.
A well-chosen wood color can be further emphasized by the expressiveness of its structure. Sometimes the interior needs a bright or, conversely, restrained wood pattern. Practically do not have a pattern of beech and alder. A tick can stand out with a striped structure. In oak, maple, ash and cherry tree rings are clearly visible. There are various techniques for changing the design of wooden chairs, photos of the results of these works can be easily found on the Internet and, if desired, done the same.
Before you start manufacturing, you should initially decide on the type of the product you are planning, and not pick up the material or look for instructions on how to make a chair. All the following steps will depend on this: searching for drawings, choosing wood, purchasing tools, etc. You can make chairs with or without a backrest (stool, bar stool), with a soft or hard seat, folding or transformable design, with or without armrests. It will be a comfortable chair or a modest stool made of wood, an ordinary chair for a dining area or an exotic product – such issues are solved first.
When it is finally determined what the product will look like, proceed to preliminary calculations, measurements and drawings. These actions are needed to calculate the material, the selection of optimal size and comfortable design of chairs. To do this, it is necessary to decide on the height and inclination of the back, the width of the seat, the height of the legs, etc. At this stage it is worth considering which parts can be cheapened without losing strength. For example, it is possible to replace boards with plywood or fabric, to carry out inserts from cheaper raw materials.
If you have experience in the reconstruction of finished chairs or a desire to master the art of carving, then you can try to create antique-style chairs. From the tree for the implementation of such a plan choose different species. When carved elements are present in the project, inserts are made from moderately soft rocks. Artificially “aging” of a standard chair can be done with special painting and processing methods: crackle technique, brushing, patina, coloring and other methods. The product turns out to be extraordinary, and for a certain interior design it can become one of the accents in the room.
The simplest type of chair is a regular piece of log, mounted vertically. Such furniture is not placed in an apartment: because of its special strength and massiveness, it has a place in the country, in the garden, on the lawn. However, in the pursuit of extravagance, designers offer eco-style lovers universal chairs made of logs, which can serve as racks, benches, coffee tables and other furniture attributes.
Instead of a drawing for such models, it is enough to have good photos of the chairs and perform a piece of log of that length that will be comfortable for sitting. The choice of logs also matters: the manufacturing process and product design depend on the diameter of the source material. A fairly thick piece of log can serve as the basis for a chair with a back. Logs of smaller diameter will require more cuts and other furniture stacking.
The simplest version of carpentry work with a log as the source material will look like this: take a log of a suitable diameter, measure the desired height of the seat and make a cross cut in this place. The log cut is installed vertically, if desired, it is treated by impregnation from rotting, polished, varnished, etc. It turns out to be an ordinary stool of the stump type. The base can be made in the form of a chair with a solid back. The number of log processing stages increases, and the requirements for the diameter of the source material increase:
- from the edge of the log, the desired height of the seat is measured, as in the first case, a cross cut is made in this place, and not completely, but approximately 2/3 of the thickness;
- the height of the back of the chair is outlined, the necessary part is completely cut off;
- from the upper end of the cut, a vertical cut is made to the border where the seat is marked.
Then comes the cosmetic treatment and creative work on the product: leveling or deepening the back, grinding, firing, impregnation, etc.
Helpful advice! To create a chair with a back from a solid log for cutting, a large diameter material is selected. Otherwise, an uncomfortable chair with a mediocre seat and an uncomfortable back will come out of the narrow log.
Huge logs from which a comfortable one-piece chair would have come out are rare. You can not search for wooden giants, but take a narrower material for work, cut it along and construct original wooden chairs from several parts. How to make such models, it is recommended to look on the Internet in the photo of wood chairs with their own hands. You can get inspiration from watched videos or make your own original sketch, based on the material that is already available.
Creative approach will be present in any projects involving the manufacture of products with their own hands. You can make a chair made of wood using templates and drawings from the Internet or on their base to come up with your own interesting design. In any case, there are basic rules for the production, processing of wood and the elements that must be observed.
For a standard hard chair you will need:
- measuring tools – a ruler or a square, a tape measure, a special construction pencil for marking, level;
- rifled inventory – handsaw, jigsaw, stuslo;
- tools for processing – chisel, planer, mallet;
- assembly tools – screwdriver, hammer, screws, carpenter’s glue;
- materials for finishing – sandpaper of different grit, varnish or stain.
Initially, a drawing is searched for a chair of identical design. You can make the development on the basis of their own measurements, but with insufficient experience in carpentry skills, there is a high probability of error or significant shortcomings. There are two main models of chairs on the Internet – with a straight back or a more ergonomic inclined part. The first option is easier to perform, but in the second case, a convenient and reliable product is obtained, similar to a factory one.
Helpful advice! When preparing several symmetrical parts, the first sample is made according to the drawings, and the subsequent ones – according to the first sample (as a template). In this way, an exceptional identity of parts can be achieved.
Let’s get acquainted with the step by step instructions for making a standard chair with a back. First, you need to carefully examine the finished drawing or think over your own. You need to prepare the bars of the required length for the front and rear legs of the chair. There are options when all 4 legs are the same in height or the rear legs can be much longer, combining their own height with the height of the backrest. The legs are cut from a flat profile or bent – it all depends on the design.
There are other options, when along the guide backs make at the same distance holes. In them the strong twine is passed through, and the free space for a back is filled with weaving from this twine.
You can make yourself a wooden chair without having any carpentry experience at all. Modern tools, ready-made drawings and instructions allow you to perform work quite accurately. In due course skill will increase, so, more refined and exclusive models will turn out.
