The Bonfire Chair build blog

This is the blog describing how i made this chair.

For a long time I have had this corner of my garden that have a place for a bonfire. We use it a lot and the favorite there is making pancakes using a pan on a long stick. My son loves it!

But the place itself could use some help. Especially the chairs are a bit annoying. I keep them because they were a gift from a friend and have a fun story to them (they are made by the inmates of a local prison that houses long term prisoners):

The chairs are not super comfortable: a bit too upright, a bit too square and just not "right" Looked around for existing outdoor furniture and did not find one single chair that i liked. Then looked at what was available for indoor use and a few things had the rigth feel or parts that looked right.

I wanted:
- A simple shape- yet elegant
- A transparent pieze
- Something that is all weather proof
- Chairs that are super comfy and is good for hours of star gazing and bonfire coziness

Here what i found:
This Wegner chair has a great shape- and is super comfortable - but not transparent enough:

This one by our own member Boris Beulant is transparent and super elegant as well, but a little too squarish:

This one by Jørgen Høj is a favorite. Simple, transparent and comfy. But allmost too devoid of details:

So it is time to bring out the drawing gear. Had this idea that the sides should be straight and square and the vertical parts curved:

This whole thing started in mid winter with snow in the garden. The workshop definitely too cold for anything but shorter durations of work:

Made a quick minature prototype:

And, after waithing for (a bit) warmer weather, a rough, full scale one:

Looking good! But something about the top had not translated well to the larger scale. Tried this way:

Much better!
Decided to use Siberian larch that are heavy, strong and rot resistant. Started by making the 6 double rounded, vertical piezes by ripping in 3 piezes and gluing together in shape. Planing before gluing:

Making a glue jig. Here shaping the radius using the large router:

And Gluing together. Taking a full 24 hours each to cure, and me only being at the workshop in the weekends, this took nearly 2 weeks to complete. Lots of clamps! In the background it is barely visible that I finally managed to put doors in the workshop. Ceartainly helped on the draft:

The sides went much quicker:

Did the mitres with finger joints:

Like so:

Do not have a bandsaw so rigged this contraption up for the curved sides (notice the Q´n D air blower):

At this time spring had come and things went faster:

Sides glued together:

Dividing 20 holes on a double curved line in 3 different spacings gave me a lot of challenges until i had a "doh" moment: Hey - thats what dividers are for!

To cut the double angled mitres on the curved boards i devised this jig from some of the offcuts:

And a test fit before glue up:

Lots of dowels, lots of glue. The luggage straps was perfect to keep things together:

And one glued up- one to go:

2 layers of outdoor paint:

This project has now been on its way since february. And then suddenly, this morning, things went fast. String for flags contrast nicely with the black- and are UV resistant:

Each chair use exactly 23 meter of string. Lots of pulling through holes and rather sore fingers at the end:

From below:

And suddenly, on a nice sunny spring day, they were done:

A happy woodworker. Now all i need to do is make a large batch of pancake batter…

 
Fun and challenging process. I find that the more i define and design my projects the more happy I am about them. Can easily see this design for indoor use built of a light, crisp wood like ash and with dark rope/string instead. Perhaps with soap finish for extra nice touch.
 
Have already sketched up a table to go with the chairs. And possibly a lamp if they go indoor. And about 200 other tings…
 
I would like to thank all at this site to inspire me to do more and be more ambitious about it!
 
Hope you liked to follow along. Please share questions, ideas, suggestions below!
 
A side note: Just gave the old chairs to my neighbour who is this friendly guy from Poland. We share almost no language (him: polish, russian - me: danish, english, german) but with sign language he signaled that he had been looking for chairs exactly like that because of a back problem. Perfect!