Recently I’ve moved into a house with a large empty living room. Having just moved across the country with only the items I could fit in my little car, I didn’t have a lot to fill it with. I’m a thrifty person, not the type to spend money on brand new furniture. I would much rather find things cheaply and second hand. My husband and I are entertaining the idea of building a tiny house some day, so we’ve been stocking up on tools and projects to gain some carpentry skills. This chair was my fourth project and I figured I would share my ideas and process, as I’m pretty pleased with the end result!
First I started off by googling “art deco furniture” to get some ideas and inspiration. I came across this chair on twistmodern.com that could be customized. In order to make the lovely art deco style style panels, I would need to use a laser cutter. Fortunately I have a local Fab Lab, so I knew this part would be pretty simple to recreate! I purchased a large sheet of 1/4" plywood from Home Depot for $8 and the rest of the wood from scrap at the Fab Lab.
Next I needed to get my hands on some upholstery foam. Having just finished a padded headboard using some cheap foam from Walmart, I was tempted to purchase my chair foam new, but luckily I found some at a Goodwill nearby! I harvested it from a $5 children’s collapsible chair/bed:
Then I found some nice soft cotton at my local craft recycling store, AKA the Idea store. This is the place I do most of my fabric shopping, as they have nice material at a good price! I already had a stapling gun and some upholstery experience, so I felt confident that the chair would be both comfortable and soft. I dyed it gray to match the blue/green/gray color scheme I decided on for my living room.
Having sorted out my materials, I needed to decide on a building plan. Since the foam squares from the child’s chair were already a decent size, I went off of those dimensions. I like using Tinkercad for my simple 3D modeling projects, as it is easy to use and I can import SVG files. I was limited by the building space in Tinkercad (max size is 40"x 40") so I scaled it down by half to find the dimensions for the wood pieces I needed. I love how I can try out different colors in Tinkercad to nail down the design!
The SVG file I used for the art deco panels I created using Inkscape, my favorite program for creating laser files! I found the pattern online and edited it to suit my side panel needs.
To put everything together I used a jigsaw, sander, measuring tape, drill, drill bit, and 2.5" wood screws. The butt cushion sits on a cheap piece of plywood. Some things I learned are the importance of pre-drilling your holes, as the wood can tend to split without them. Also making sure your cuts are straight and the correct length can be tricky!
It took me about 10 hours of work and $30 of materials, and I couldn’t be happier! Below are some other successful carpentry projects I’ve created. Stay tuned for more!
