It is easy to change the design to create different pieces of furniture.

Once you have the basic chair geometry, the truss sides, you can modify it to make different pieces. Lengthen the seat and back pieces and you have a bench.

The space for this chair was a little tight, you have to squeeze between it and a group of plants. I shortened the arms to create a wider aisle. The shorter arms change the proportions and feel of the chair-the arms feel less horizontal, the chair looks like its leaning back rather than moving forward.

The bench and short arm chair in their natural habitat. Things tend to get absorbed into our lush garden. Its hard to see the details, but I know they’re there.

These chairs are on the ground level of our two story deck. The chairs and the deck, although very different in size, feel similar. That’s because they share the same approach to design and constructing with wood. Lisa says that the chairs are “like sitting on the deck”.

A new garden chair, designed within the limits of the materials.

I love redwood, it weathers beautifully and lasts well outdoors in the sun, water and rain. However, it is very soft. Screws don’t hold well, square connections tend to be weak and wiggle.

I have been building garden chairs off and on for years, and for years I have been bothered by the slight wiggles in my designs. And for years I have been trying to create a chair design that used the strength and stability of triangles (like the trusses that hold up wooden bridges) rather than squares. Recently we needed to replace some garden chairs (that I didn’t build), so I gave it another try. After many false starts, I came up with this design using 2x redwood. 

The legs, arm and seat supports form a pair of triangles on each side. The angle of the seat back is echoed in the angle of the legs. The pairs of triangles are formed with supports that lay flat against each other, which makes the connections strong. I used heavy galvanized bolts at the corners of the triangles instead of screws. Bolts are much stronger, hold better in redwood and are more decorative.

In addition to my usual large scale drawings, I drew full size templates to help cut the angles on the legs. The chair is very solid-no wiggles.

A quick design and build project.

A stand for a potted epiphyllum in our garden. The plant is placed in a cluster of other larger plants, and needs to be raised above them.  Outdoor furniture takes a beating from the sun and daily over-spray from misting plants. I build outdoor pieces on the substantial side, and they last far longer than anything we can buy. Like all of my outdoor furniture, it is made from 2x redwood with galvanized screws, and is designed to be built with simple tools.

I start with sketches, then make large scale drawings like these at left to understand how the piece comes together and solve any problems.

Photographs of the finished stand.