Build an Elegant Dining Chair
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| Make this classic chair (shown in ash) with loose mortise and tenon joinery and an upholstered slip seat. |
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Videos in This Series
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An Introduction to Chairmaking (Now Playing)
Take a closer look at the techniques involved in building this ash dining chair. |
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Watch how to create the full-size drawing and templates that are integral in building this chair. |
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Find great tips for choosing lumber, milling it to size, and get started cutting and shaping the rear chair legs. |
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It's time to lay out the remaining parts. Picking the right boards makes a big difference in the chair's appearance and strength. |
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Learn how to layout and cut the mortises for this chair with a simple setup for your router. No complex jigs are required.
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Learn to cut a large supply of loose tenons with an assembly line setup, and start dry fitting and fine-tuning the joinery.
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Discover the tips and techniques for preparing the curved chair parts as Teague finishes the front legs and the seat rails.
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Before shaping these curvy parts, cut the loose mortise and tenon joinery with a router.
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With the joinery complete, begin shaping the parts with a bandsaw, power sander and a spokeshave.
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The moment of truth. See how the chair is assembled in sections.
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Finish off the chair with step-by-step instruction for upholstering the seat and learn Teague's simple finishing strategy.
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MATTHEW TEAGUE
Nashville, Tennessee
I'm a furniture maker and writer based in Nashville, Tenn. After spending six years as an editor at Fine Woodworking magazine, I ventured off on my own to build furniture for a living and write about the craft.
In 2007 I built a new workshop and office behind my house, which I chronicled in a blog called The Smart Shop. It is a big step up from the one-car garage shop I wrote about in my first book, Projects for Your Shop.
In this video workshop I'm going to show you how to build one of my favorite furniture projects, an elegant, solid-wood chair. I've built a number of chairs based on this design, and I'm going to share with you all of the tips and tricks I've learned along the way.
Chairmaking intimidates many woodworkers because of the angled joinery that’s typical of most chair designs, but it's not as hard as you might think. To simplify this chair’s construction, I used slip tenons (also called loose or floating tenons) to connect the parts. It also helps to use full-size templates to lay out the joinery.
I've included a complete set of woodworking plans to guide you in your build, but I'll also show you how to adjust the chair proportions to be comfortable in a range of sizes.
TALK SHOP IN ASK THE EXPERTS
Become a member to chat with Matthew Teague and ask questions about this project in the Ask The Experts forum. You can also get instant feedback from other experts on a variety of subjects.
RECENT QUESTIONS
Coming soon. Become a member and get the full detailed project plan with dimensions.
