Table of Contents
Preface
History unknown. I first made a couple of these chairs some six or seven years ago after obtaining a rough plan from a friend who used to make them in his spare time – not only for around his own house but as gifts for his friends and relatives. He got the plans by measuring off a chair that his father had made but has no idea where his father got the original plans. Regardless, the design has been around for some time.
The chair doesn’t appear to have a common name. I have heard it called by various names including “stick” chair, “Kentucky” chair, “garden” chair, “folding” chair, but to name a few. By my way of thinking, none of those names seem to be a perfect fit for this chair. So I’m going to call this chair “the Kentucky Stick Chair”. One thing’s for sure, the design isn’t confined to Kentucky. Maybe it originated there – who knows? Some feedback might enlighten us as to its origin.
Anyway, let’s re-visit the project, dust off the old sketch plans and build another.
Introduction
This is a fun project.
In simply involves cutting all the pieces (sticks) to length, drilling holes through all the pieces at the given points, and then threading wire through the holes to tie all the pieces together.
Voila. A comfortable chair that can easily be folded up and stored, or carried.
The chair is a low, laid back, comfortable bucket-type chair.
Sit in it, and you won’t want to get out.
It is made out of a number of narrow pieces of woodTimber, lumber. The hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees (sticks) that are interwoven and held together with wire thread through holes drilled in all the individual pieces.
When finished, the chair can be easily folded up and stored, or carried.
We built 3 Kentucky Stick Chairs for our grandchildren (11, 9, 4), using your paid pattern. There are several big Jake’s Chairs on our dock, so we wanted lower profile chairs that could be used for dock-fishing, but otherwise would be inside for TV/games, etc.
Safety Design Change for Young Child
The Stick Chairs were quick and easy to make but we did have one design issue. Caroline is 4, and while tall and thin her legs do not touch the floor when sitting in this chair. The seat/back right angles and couplers make the Stick Chairs sturdy and comfortable, but they are VERY forward TIPPY when enter/exiting the chair. An adult, or even our older grandchildren, automatically compensate with no problem. We showed her how to enter/exit to the side which worked fine until she forgot :(. Not only did the chair tip forward, it folded up and the entire chair weight slammed into the back of her head. A few minutes of tears and a popsicle brought back her smile, but we knew we had to have a safety modification.
We tried adding 9″ forward-facing feet to the inside of the two front legs, but that was not enough to prevent tipping. Ultimately, we added 17.5″ legs to the outside front seat string, cutting the top flush/angles with the outside seat pieces. The front seat rod was tighten enough that the support legs follow gravity down when unfolded, but are still loose enough to fold up. After many enter/exit test, they have prevented tip-overs without further attachment. When she gets older, the two legs can easily be removed.
Finishing
We wanted bright, fun, colors but stains tend to be more house/deck conservative. We found our solution with Behr’s new water-based, tint-to-paint-colors stain. We loved Behr’s new Seasons, Home Decorators Collection of bright, beach-resort colors. Home Depot personnel had to custom match to the paint sample color due to the differences in stain/paint base, but they were happy to do so for ANY of their paint colors (thank you Margaret)! One 8-oz sample size was enough for two coats on a single chair. One coat gave good coverage, but we want a more painted look that would wear like a stain considering all the moving parts.
Pattern Layout
Am also passing on our cutting layout for using ONE 2x8x10 board, in case you think would be helpful (see the cutting layout above). We will make others, so did not want to forget and have to rethink it when we do more. Cutting smaller lengths first made ripping quick and easy for those of us who hobby-build.
We all LOVE our new chairs and thank you for the pattern & instructions!
Jerry Doty
Great project. Had a good time making these chairs.
James Piper
Built my first chair from your plans. I think it came out pretty awesome. Thank you
Julian Cofer
Thank you all for this wonderful team that gave me my first lessons to build chair. God bless you.
Cestari Carlos – Brazil
From Ahmet Ionel Dascalu
My first ever experience in woodworking was really fun and super easy. A huge picnic table no less! ‘Measure well and take it slow’ is my advice to woodwork newbies!
Whilst working on my first project, I spied an intriguing looking folding chair. I really liked its modern look and Les suggested that I should have a go at making one.
The chair I made was constructed from narrow stick ripped from wider board, and if I followed the original pattern, the results would have been a chair too narrow to sit on comfortably. We ended up modifying the pattern by adding an extra centre piece to the back, front, and seat, to make it wider. Once the pieces were cut to size and holes drilled, assembly was very quick and straightforward.
The second chair was cut and assembled to the original pattern. As this was my second try, it was straightforward and quick to assemble and secure. Cut the pieces to required lengths, mark and drill holes for threading then wire it all up. The fun part is unfolding the chair after assembly. It looks complicated but is a very easy make.
Now I have two (sort of) matching folding chairs. Slim and wide version, both very comfortable. My fellow flat dwellers Iove sitting in them on summer evenings in our shares backyard.
Overall, a very practical and satisfying project that anyone could tackle with the right tools.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtVBW2p_5SY&feature=youtu.be