The fishbone chair

This is probably my biggest project to date. The fishbone chair is totally inspired  from the creation of the designer Nicolas Marzouanlian. The chair is so creative and simple that I decided to give it a try.

 The original chair.

The Tools Needed:

To make it you really need 1 tool : One good jigsaw ( I love the Bosch one) and optionally, to get smooth edges I would recommend to use a router with a rounding over bit, if you don't have the router you can use a sander, it will take longer but you will get the same nice finish.

The Material:


3/4 inch plywood (4 x 8 feet)
You'll need more than one sheet (1.5 to be precise).

The Cost:

One sheet of plywood range from $30 to $80 depending on the qualityand the origin of the wood.
Mine was $35 each.
For $70, I got one funny chair and extra plywood for more projects!

The Result:

How to make it:

To start, I had no plan, just the picture of the original chair above.
So let's look at the chair again:





There are three different shapes : the croissant shape, the "spine", the legs.

The croissant shape:

I started drawing on the plywood a croissant shape that look like this:

The croissant shape

And I used only 3 different croissant size.

Croissant 1, 18 are 19 inches wide.

Croissant 2, 17 are 21 inches wide.

Croissant 3 to 16 are 23 inches wide.

One thing to keep in mind: the space between the 2 notches must be the same in all the pieces (13 inches).

The "spine":

The legs:

The legs are made of 2 circles,  2 3/4 inches wide and 18 inches diameter (the front) and 21 inches (the back).

Conclusion:

It's a project that needs patience and a little bit of skills, but if you have the patience of going through all the cuts with enough precision you'll end up with a fun and sturdy seat that is more confortable than it looks.

Update: The Fishbone chair is generating a lot of traffic on line, so, If you decide to try and need extra tips (like how to keep the notches at the exact same distance all the way through...) , don't hesitate to leave a comment, I'll be happy to help.