Patio Chairs

Here’s a couple of examples of some Patio Chairs I built for my wife. So far they have been a big hit with everyone who sees them, including SWMBO.

When I was kid in the 1960’s, my parents had a set of chairs that were very similar. As an adult I have kept an eye out for a set to use in my own yard, but never found any. Getting more serious into woodworking in recent years I decided I should build my own.

The seat stores in the back as seen in the third pic, which IMO is a big selling point. Space in my pre-WWII garage is at a premium and anything that can be stored flat (or in this case semi-flat) is highly desired.

The legs are made of fir, the seat and back slats are plain white pine. I haven’t decided what color to stain or paint them; I may just decide to leave them bare since they are intended to be deployed as needed and stored when not in use.

Minimum tools are required to build these. A TS for sizing and ripping, a drill, a couple of bits and a sander are all you really need. I used a bandsaw for the legs, I’m just not enough of a masochist to cut 36” patterns in “2 by” fir with a jig saw.

All edges were rounded with a 1/4” round over bit on the router table and the seat and back slats sanded smooth with 220 grit sand paper. I used 2” galvanized screws, which were countersunk and the holes pre-drilled to prevent splitting. No glue was used.

Future versions of this project will likely be made from treated pine and Western Red Cedar. Material cost for the pine and fir version pictured was well under $20 each.

Since February I have made five chairs working at it in spurts on my days off. The first thing my sister said when she saw them was ”I’ll take two please”.

-- "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain