Reading chair

[Jamie Buxton]

It seems to me that most livingroom chairs must have been designed for use by orangutans. The chair arms are too low and too far apart to provide any support for human arms. Me, I want the chair arms to provide support for my arms while I'm holding a book or a newspaper. I designed the pictured chair with the idea that the arms would be useful.

The chair is honduras mahogany lumber and khaya veneer. The lumber was mostly bandsawn roughly to shape, and cleaned up with a handplane and/or sander. The joinery is mostly loose tenon and mortise. I generally use loose tenons on pieces like this, where nothing meets at nice angles. (The back is narrower than the front. This, combined with the curves, means that there are no joints which meet at 90 degrees.) The substrate under the seat and back cushions is just plywood, not webbing. The back plywood is double-curved to fit my back. It was formed in a vacuum press from six layers of 1/8" bending ply over a bending form. The arm pads are built like slip seats: a wooden buck (curved in this case) with dense foam glued to it, covered with fabric. The fabric staples to the bottom of the pad. Connector bolts come up through the arm to T-nuts in the buck.

Visually, the chair turned out to be kinda Danish Modern. I'd started out with the idea that it would be Arts & Crafts, but somewhere along the line it changed. I like the looks, but more importantly I like the feel. It is a very comfortable chair for me.

[Jamie Buxton]

In developing a chair design, I generally have to build a series of prototypes. I mess around with one, tweaking and modifying, until it gets so cobbled together that I have to build the next in the series. This chair took only two prototypes. The second is pictured below. I was using it mostly to investigate functionality. I knocked it together in a couple of hours. By moving a few screws, I could change almost anything about it -- seat height and angle, back height angle and shape, arm height and spread and shape, and such. This one was also sturdy enough that I could put it in my livingroom and live with it for a while, sitting on it to see how it felt over the course of months. I did drape a sheet over it.:)

[Bruce Page]

Jamie, I grew up with a chair very similar to your design except that it did have webbing. My parents were heavily into the Danish style back in the ‘60s.
Very nice design and craftsmanship.

[Frank Chaffee]

Wow Jamie,
Nice use of a flexible prototype for finding the angles in a chair that is comfortable for you.

The end result is magnificent in all respects!

Happy reading!

Frank

[Lars Thomas]

When I first skimmed the post, I thought the first chair was your inspiration and the second was the result. My initial reaction was ‘Nice try’. After reading (interesting concept), was WOW. That’s very nice work and very effective use of a prototype.

[Jim Becker]

That's outstanding, Jamie!! If you ever decide to share the design...count me in!

[Todd Burch]

Well Jamie, that looks real nice. And, when you make a second one, I'll come over with a 6 pack of cool beverages, we'll sit in these chairs, and you can explain to me why you put African mahogany (khaya) veneer over solid Honduran mahogany. Huh? ;)

Todd

[Jamie Buxton]

Thank you all for the compliments.

Jim, you're welcome to my shop drawings, but I'm afraid they won't do you a great deal of good. There was a lot of tweaking and eyeballing in the construction phase; curvy stuff is sometimes like that.

Todd, as it happens you can't see the veneer in the posted photo. It covers the bent plywood which forms the back, and you can see it only from the rear. (And although you can't see it without removing the cushions, I also veneered the front of the back plywood, and both surfaces of the plywood under the seat cushion.)

[Vaughn McMillan]

Very cool, Jamie. Very clean and contemporary (which suits my tastes well), and I'm sure it feels great to sit in. I also enjoyed the insight into your design process.

- Vaughn

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

It's oddly reminiscent of an Adirondack chair in some ways (which is also a very comfortable chair).

Any chance a person in the next town over might get to see it some day?

[Mark Singer]

Jamie,
Very nice chair . It looks comfortable and the prototype is always a good way to insure that

[Guy Baxter]

Jamie -

Nice design, your chair looks very comfortable.

I have a chair very similar in proportions to your chair except the whole form (arms, seat, and back) can tilt forward or back like an office chair. I've noticed that if it tilts too far back I sometimes find myself wishing for a headrest. I think you picked a happy medium in your seat angle.

GB

[Dave Richards]

Ooh! I like that chair. Excellent work,sir.

[Pete Harbin]

Really nice Jamie! The second chair still needs a bit of work though! :D

Pete