A Remarkable Sit

How do you go about designing and constructing a chair that you never want to get out of?


A few years ago, my wife and I visited a windsor chair maker in Maine and when someone gasped at the pricetag he directed everyone to a room where all of his competitors' chairs were set up. He had a Thomas Moser chair in the mix along with several other chairs of comparable price. We sat in all of them. They seemed like regular old chairs. Then we sat in his chair and one by one, we all agreed that it was by far the most comfortable chair. I remember how it slid you right back, kept your back supported and sort of hugged you in, compelling you to stay there all day. My body remembers the "sit."



Not everyone wants a reproduction of a several hundred year-old windsor chair. So, we used the same elements of comfort and updated the look with our own fingerprint. I think they turned out quite remarkably. You may have to sit in one before you have seen the light.


We spent quite a long time on the prototype. After it was roughed out, we fine-tuned some of the angles and resumed building the finished chairs.


We carved the saddle (or seat) out of a block of 1.5 inch stock. That is a lot of wood to remove and fine tune! The front and back legs all meet the saddle and the aprons at compound angles and in some cases compound curves. The spindles follow the curve of the spine. Even the radius of the backrest was held-up to several different peoples' backs to make sure it was right.


These four chairs go with the table in the post below. We are excited to build more of them.

Indestructable

This table is part of a breakfast nook. Two of the sides will have chairs and two of them will join a built-in bench. The client's only instructions were: "make it earthquake proof." Just joking. The base is made of cherry and is at the finisher as we speak being dressed in a rich dark finish.

The top is made of thick quartersawn oak with walnut inlays and is going to have a natural finish, making it a medium value to contrast with the dark cherry. The chairs are also cherry with a contrasting quartersawn "saddle."


The table is joined together with deep mortises and big tenons, which are locked tight with dowels. The two main parts are connected with a central runner and two aprons, which are removable for moving. Fully assembled this table probably weighs more than my car.

While I was finish-sanding the top, I had it standing on end and looked away briefly to grab a new piece of sandpaper. The massive thing fell and almost ended my life! What we have to sacrifice for art...

Inspiration

Have you ever heard of Daily Tonic? It is really a boss blog. They showcase brilliant architectural and funiture design worldwide. Check it out at dailytonic.com

I'll occasionally repost some pictures that inspire me, pictures like these!:

'Offset' stool by Giogio Biscaro

Funeral parlour by C18 Architekten, photo by Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart

'Bac' chair by Jasper Morrison for Cappellini

Collaboration

In sharp contrast to yesterday's rustic fireplace, here is a contemporary collaboration I did with M3 design, the other SLC-based group of talented young chaps.

The design is interesting from multiple viewpoints, and is made of some really great materials. I could really dork-out about the specifics, but in a nutshell the base is constructed mainly of brushed white oak. The wire brushing makes the grain stand out in high relief, accenting the "thumb print" of the wood which I really dig. There is also walnut, sandblasted glass and two of the raddest handmade copper sinks, which will take-on their own dark patina over time.

Archives

As we were finishing up the installation of the fireplace, the clients asked if we'd done other fireplaces in the past. Here is one I designed way back when. The finish is multi-layered and I wish I had a picture of the whole thing. It is about 9 feet tall overall.
Anyway, here's one from the archives:
P.S. Images of the (current) finished fireplace with mosaic will be forthcoming! Keep your socks on!

Reclaimed Oak Timbers

How is that for rugged? Solid white oak. Joey and Chad have been like stonemasons this last little while heaving, shaping, taming the timbers.

This is a preview of the mantle for the fireplace shown in drawing form below. It is exciting to work with such unusual materials. After our backs feel normal again, we'll say that we had a good time!

Have a look at this massive joint:

Fireplace: Three Birds

Here is an introduction and preview of a mosaic we are doing for Mr and Mrs. "A" (for whom we built a kitchen last year.) The artwork features three gamebirds: a pheasant, a chukar and a quail. The mosaic surrounds the fireplace and will be crowned with a really unusual reclaimed oak mantle and hand carved cherry frame-and-panel upper section.

Here are some in-progress pictures of the project. For materials we used vitreous glass 1x1 tiles and broke/cut them into thirds. We also used some really beautiful watery white art glass from Beehive Glass, which became the background.

The process started with a drawing and some dimensions and specs. I am always amazed at the kinds of things that can spring from a scratchy drawing on a little skinny piece of paper. Wonderful things large and small that make life beautiful. In this present case a medium-sized thing is in the process of springing from this tiny little drawing:

Next we built forms to hold the glass square as we were laying it down. Then we made full sized drawings in reverse in order to glue the pieces to. And then the work began...