"Chairs, Stairs, and Public Squares, the three hardest things to design." My old boss used to say this to my rolled eyes. There's some truth to it th I've taken a crack at one of these it's certainly been a challenge. I cringe every time a staircase is handed to me at work, and luckily, I've only had to design public squares for school. My next project is a reading chair.

To challenge myself, I set the goal of starting and finishing this chair in one (long) weekend. It was ambitious, but setting those kinds of timelines can really focus the process. For instance, stains and sealing coats had to go on before I could stop for the day so they could dry overnight. I made sure I had full inventory of the pieces needed including cushions, lengths of 2x4, finishing products, and joinery. The design was fully worked out in advance, so I could start cutting right away.

Proportionally, the assembly took the most time. The domino/biscuit joiner is still my favorite way to quickly join pieces, but it doesn't leave any room for error. Because of this, I took my time to plan out each joint and the overall assembly sequence. There was a lot of dry-fitting and re-measuring. The back and seat of the chair have many points of connection, which were tricky to keep straight.

I think the final chair looks pretty good, and I was able to hit my deadline. Success!