lounge chair update

I had to stay super late at work one night last week, so to make up for it I was planning on going in a little late after picking up materials for lounge chair #2 and seeing how much I could get together by the time I had to leave. Of course, that meant the baby girl had a fever and was up at 4 AM, in no shape to go to daycare for the day. Grandma and grandpa to the rescue! So the kids were excited to have a home day in the middle of the week, and while I was grateful to have someone close by able to watch them and still go to work, I sadly waved goodbye to one of my rare chances to do some shop work during the week. So sad. Oh well.

So instead of having a second chair made already I just got to kick my weekend off with a little Friday evening shop time. Fun times.  

Working...

One thing I love about having a chance to build stuff like this myself, on top of the meditative aspects of planning and constructing, is that it saves me having to take a furniture shopping trip with the wife. And don’t misread that statement. I love my wife, she is a fantastic person. But we have very different tastes, and every time we’ve gone furniture shopping is the same. Multiple trips where we’re really far apart on everything, to the point where we both get exhausted and just pick something, usually something expensive from somewhere like West Elm. It works, that’s how we got our bedroom set. But I get sick of it way quicker than she does, and don’t have the patience for visiting store after store. Building my own stuff has saved us at least two cycles of this process, for the table and then a sitting set by the pit. Thumbs up.

working, using the first chair for reference...

Anyway…my first plans for a chair were completely different. I had an adirondak chair in my head, with a white frame and darkly stained slats. This was nixed by multiple people who just wanted some cushions to sit on. So looking at some cushion options I planned out what I thought where good chair dimensions and got to work. HUGE MISTAKE. I ended up working off some HD cushions that I liked the shape of but hated the color, thinking I could just order a different color online. Apparently no one sells deep seat outdoor cushions at non-insane prices, and it took longer to find a suitable cushion than it did to build either chair. So next time I’ll find cushions first and build to those. It got so bad I even looked at some DIY cushion ideas, but an important part of enjoying your DIY is knowing your limits and I’m not really up for a sewing project.

A second one came together pretty quick. Easy build.

Eventually we found these, and sure, that’s good enough for me. I’m just glad we found cushions at all, since I ended up trying a dark stain-white slat mix and hated it. But it’ll get covered by the cushions and hopefully look better that way. The dark stain has already gotten some compliments from the wife and the boy though, so we’re in good shape. You know you’ve done well when your four-year old isn’t pointing out any mistakes and says he likes the brown color. I think he’ll like them even more when these become our s’more chairs as summer comes.

Even had enough 2x10 left over for a stool/end table.

Purchase list (same as before, minus the screws)

2 2"x10"x8' treated board, cut to 32" sections and trimmed

3 1"x4"x8' treated, cut to 24" sections for seat & back

1 2"x4"x8' treated, cut to 29" seat support & 22" back support, mitered to 20 degrees

2 sets deep seat cushions which may or may not actually exist...