Soda box chair

This chair was sold $325 at auction...Upcycling becomes expensive, or maybe is it just because of the old trendy boxes used for this project?

Back of the chair

Upcycling bath tub into a chair

Bath tub are usually pretty comfy, so what about using them as a chair?
These designers from Reddish studios gave it a try, and it looks comfortable to me, with minor changes to the tub, just few cuts, they did a great job. They even kept the drain hole!
If you like it, you can look at other bath tub upcycled into sofa, I posted previously.

Giving a new life to an old chair is also upcycling, No?
I found this chair in the street few month ago, and for years, I wanted to give a try to reupholstering. I thought that this chair was the perfect occasion to start.

Before

Before

I found some fabric I like at a local store for $50, but I also had to understand how this chair was made, including the buttons on the backseat and all the tacks surrounding the fabric, and also few tricks I didn't know about but you learn them while you remove the old fabric.
I bought an upholstering hammer (thinner than regular hammer) and a tack remover, I also bought a cheap piece of fabric to mess with it before using the expensive and final fabric.

 

Done....

It's a pretty fast description I must admit, if you have question, I'll be happy to answer. Reupholstering was fun, I'll try again if I find the right chair.

An upcycled chair

This chair, that could also be a bench, is made of recycled wood blinds that have been wrapped around a reconstituted wood frame. Using a jigsaw, it's pretty easy to give the shape you would like. You'll have to keep at least 3 identical shapes for a bench and 2 for a chair. It's made by an argentinian design company: Gruba Design Studio.

Based on the same technique: The coffee Table

Fun cardboards

This reminds me of the fishbone chair I made on my first post. The difference is that it's cardboard, and computer-cut... so no problem to adjust all the pieces together. It's made and conceived by David Graas. The "cardboard lounge" is sold for 250 euros and the chair for 69 euros.

  

A chair made from a shipping pallet (4/4)

Here it is, I could finish the chair before the week end!

It is made with less than 1 shipping pallet. I tried to make a chair with thin profile different from most of the bulky one I could find on line (see previous post). When the wood is ready to be cut, it takes around 2 hours to make it, with some training, the chair can be made in 1 hour. It's really easy and rewarding to make.

The Tools:

Jig saw, tape measurement, drill

The material:

Deck screws (1.5 inches minimum) and a shipping pallet.

 

How to make it:

The pallet I found, come with two different size of wood.

40 X 3.5 X 5/8 and 

30 X 1.5 X 3

The legs (A and B) come from 40 X 3.5 X 5/8 pieces and the piece of wood that the legs are attached to, come from 30 X 1.5 X 3 pieces.

Step 1 is to make the cut in the stud C that is around 19 inches long.

Step 2 is to cut the legs (A and B) and attache them to the stud.

Step 3 is to cut the pieces that make the seat and the back seat. Start attaching the first piece on the seat closest to the back legs. Cut one piece and screw it, then cut another one.

A regular seat should be 16 inches wide.

The Cost:

As long as you have a pallet and screws, it's pretty cheap to make .

Conclusion:

Now that I know how to make a regular chair, I think that I will try to create or replicate a fancier design. The chair is really confortable. I might be tempted in writing a full tutorial and sell the pdf online and give it for free to the followers of my website (thanks Stuart for being my first and only followers in spite of the not-so-bad traffic my blog is having).

   

  

A chair made of a pallet (3/4) progress report...

This weekend I was hoping to complete the chair project, but I only could spend a couple of hours on the project. I tried to stick to the first sketch of the chair I was thinking about and made this :

      

The good news is that to make this chair you just need a table saw or a jig saw, they both great for it, a drill / screwdriver, tape measurement and a pencil.
I will continue to work on the chair as soon as possible, worse case scenario, it will be this week end, but I might be lucky and find some time during the week.
I will try to give a step by step description of the making process.

I just need to finish the back seat, it should not take more than 30min. My only question is, where should I stop filling the back seat?  All the way through or low enough to be confortable to seat on? I might go for the second option.
Should I finish the seat using wood stainer and give an ironic rich look to this almost free chair, or stay basic and leave it this way?
If you have any idea or advice, just drop me a comment!

A chair made from a pallet (2/4)

I have to step back from my ambitious design in the previous post. In a first time, my goal will be to make a functional and stable chair but I will also try to add a modest touch of style. It's not because the wood come from a pallet that I should stick with the rustic look I have seen most of the time.

I think I know how the profile will be, but still hesitating between these two.
I think I might have some time to start this project this week end and luckily I will have some pictures on monday to show if there's any progress. Now I have the pressure, because most of the time, when I talk about a project, it's because i'm just thinking about it or it's finished... this one has just started.

A chair made from a pallet

I have not posted for a couple of weeks, but I'm thinking and trying to collect few pallets to start making a chair, I don't have the final design yet but I'm trying to make something a bit different from the chair I have seen around. This is the usual designs:

I would like to come with a design that looks more like this one:

Something that looks more comtemporary, but still easy to make with one single pallet, like the one I just found yesterday:

I'll try to do this project as fast as possible.... and will keep you updated with the design I'm planning to choose.

2 Projects I would like to start and need your feedback.

To keep you updated with my projects. I have been thinking about replicating my way two iconic designs.

The first one is the PH Artichoke lamp from  the designer Poul henningsen.

I'm still trying to find the best way to make the inside frame, but I think, since Easter is approaching, I might use the plastic-eggs shape to support the leaves. I might use milk plastic bottle to make the leaves.

I have not figured this out yet, to be honest, I'm just in the planning process but wanted to share this idea with you. The planning process is the part I like the most. It can take forever, but once I have resolved the problem, the making is usually the easiest part.
If you want to share any ideas with me to resolve the making if this lamp, please feel free to leave a comment! I have a lot of traffic on my website but no comment!!! Please be the one and you'll get all of my gratitude forever!

The second one is a much more difficult project that might never take shape because of my ignorance. I would like to make a chair out of plexiglass or lexan. I have some idea how to make chair out of wood (see the fishbone chair post), but Plexiglass is a brand new field to me. Also, to get everything even more complicated, I want to make the iconic Cherner chair:

Bending Plexiglass is something doable, but cutting it looks more difficult. I'm buying a piece of plexiglass this week end and will try cutting using a jigsaw. If this is possible, that might be an exciting project to come. Please leave your comment!

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.