We’re changing an unused portion of our finished basement into a reading and TV area. The room is almost ready, the nightstand is out of my shop so now it’s time for furniture for this new space. Our personal tastes lead more toward Arts and Crafts, so a natural choice for seating are Morris chairs. I’ve been wanting to build one for awhile and have several plans from magazines and books. All are the same base design of course, but slight variations. I haven’t decided exactly which plan I am going to use, but am leaning to the one shown in the Oct. 2004 issue of Woodsmith. I am going to build 2 chairs and I think matching foot stools.
I bought the lumber on Saturday. The biggest variation on the Art & Crafts idea is quartersawn white oak. I am going to use White Oak, but not quartersawn. My sawyers prices are hard to beat and he doesn’t quartersaw. So I’ll take the best looking and straightest grain for the best faces and will have to plan accordingly.
My last blog ended up as a dead end as I forgot to continue the series. OOPS. My plans are to keep up with this one.
Thanks for reading. Any and all comments/suggestions welcome during this whole process.
5 comments so far
Topapilot
home | projects | blog
123 posts in 736 days
posted 87 days ago
Dave,
I would love to see pictures of the construction of your chair. BTW, have you seen the great morris chair project on sawmill creek?
CaptainSkully
home | projects | blog
490 posts in 454 days
posted 85 days ago
I’ve run into some nice almost-quarter-sawn oak on the flat-sawn skid. No shame in that. It’ll have the same tannins, so your finishing options should the same.
I’ve got permission from the S.O. to build a pair. Mine will be a laminated bow-arm. Some Morris chairs don’t sit very well. I’m concerned about leg height. Robert Lang mentions adding 2” to the leg bottoms.
Please post pics!
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails
Dave T
home | projects | blog
90 posts in 516 days
posted 85 days ago
The 2 plans I have been favoring look like they would be comfy. The one thing I don’t like about the Woodsmith plan, is the arms is not bowed. The pic you posted above looks like the one I am referring to. The one in Fine Woodworking a couple of months back had the bow. I am still considering which one I want to build, heck maybe I’ll just take the features I like from each.
I guess I better get to deciding because I plan on starting to mill up some lumber tomorrow morning. I am officially on vacation for the rest fo the week and am going to get at least 2 good shop days in.
Scarcraig01
home | projects | blog
72 posts in 90 days
posted 84 days ago
A Morris chair is on my list of things to build someday, I will follow along!
-- Craig, Springfield Ohio
CaptainSkully
home | projects | blog
490 posts in 454 days
posted 83 days ago
Yeah, I tried to help with an accurate rendering of what you’re talking about. I will be tweaking the design a bit. I’m going with a laminated bow-arm, but I will be using the small spindles as shown above. I don’t care for the large spindles with the decorative cutout. Plus it doesn’t match any of the other stuff I’ve made.
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails