How to make a folding chair from plywood with your own hands: step-by-step instructions for making

Furniture stores offer a wide selection of chairs of different stylistic directions. It is also possible to order such an item from a professional craftsman. He will fulfill the order, taking into account the slightest requirements. During production, the craftsman will use any materials (components) chosen by the client. Such pleasure is not cheap. If the craftsman's services are too expensive, it is better to make a comfortable chair from plywood yourself with minimal cash costs. Such furniture will become an original decoration of the room. It is much more valuable than store analogues.

Benefits of working independently

Making furniture with your own hands is a fascinating activity with many undeniable advantages.

• The ability to create a unique chair design. Stores offer a limited selection of chair models. It is easy to create a unique design on your own, which your neighbors and loved ones have no analogues.
• Saving money. Making a plywood chair requires minimal investment. You only need to pay for the raw materials.
• Gaining invaluable experience. Template furniture has long gone out of fashion. Today, products of original design are valued. Not everyone can make them on their own. Having practiced well on making chairs, it is easy to learn a more complex craft.
• Ease of work. Making chairs yourself seems complicated and burdensome to many. In fact, the work will not take even a few hours, and the process itself will not require any expensive tools or materials. The main rule is to strictly follow the instructions. This article provides extremely clear recommendations. They will help you quickly cope with the task.
• An opportunity to surprise your family. Chairs made with your own hands will be a great gift option for any celebration. Such a present is doubly pleasant.

Preparatory work: determining the type and size of the structure

Making plywood chairs should be done thoughtfully, so as not to spoil the materials. The first stage is preparation. At it, you need to decide on the key aspects: size, height, type of construction.

First, you should decide: why do you need a chair? It may be needed in the garage, in the children's room, in the country. For household needs, the chair may have a simple design. For living rooms, it is better to choose original drawings of the product. A children's chair should be soft, safe, reliable.

Having decided on the purpose, it is worth choosing a style direction. The style of the chair should intertwine with the style of the room. If the room is decorated in a classic direction, then folding plywood chairs should be truly graceful. They need to be painted, then varnished. For the country style, a product without special finishing is suitable, and a Provence room needs a chair decorated with fabrics.

Next, we decide on the complexity of production. Here, everything depends on your initial skills. Beginners should only take on simple designs. Working on them will help you gain invaluable experience, which will definitely come in handy in the future. If you have experience, feel free to experiment with complex shapes!

The most important aspect is the size of the product. Creating diagrams and drawings is not a task for beginners. Experts recommend that people without experience use standard sizes. The height of the chair can always be adjusted. The correspondence between a person's height and the desired height of the product is presented in the table.

Preparing materials

The following materials and tools will help you make a chair with your own hands:

• plywood sheet (2 cm thick, dimensions – 600x900 mm);
• foam rubber (70 mm thick);
• furniture fabric;
• a sheet of cardboard (dimensions 600x900);
• pencil;
• ruler;
• grinding machine;
• construction stapler;
• PVA glue;
• electric jigsaw;
• self-tapping screws;
• furniture assembly jig;
• hammer;
• bolts with sleeves.

Some useful tips

1. Plywood is inexpensive. It will last longer if it is made of birch. Birch wood is durable, easy to process, easily tolerates painting and various finishes. It is impossible to use too thin sheets of plywood. Be sure to adhere to the specified thickness. A thin sheet will not withstand the weight of a person, it will break, and may even cause injury.
2. The assembly jig is not a household tool. It can only be found in a person who has been making furniture structures on his own for a long time. If you don’t have such a tool, it’s better to buy one. It will help you assemble the chair structure in the most professional way.
3. It is not necessary to use foam rubber with furniture fabric to form a comfortable seat. The seat can be hard, especially if the chair is needed for household purposes.

Step by step instructions

Step 1 – creating templates. To do this, prepare cardboard, a ruler, and a pencil. We first transfer the drawing of the chair onto cardboard, cut out all the details, and then transfer them to the plywood itself.

Step 2 – cutting out the parts. To make a chair with your own hands, you need to prepare all its components. They can be cut out of plywood using an electric jigsaw. The parts are cut out precisely along the marked lines.

Step 3 – sanding the parts. The chair should come out neat, so all the parts need to be carefully sanded and leveled. If you don’t have a special sanding machine, you can use regular sandpaper.

Step 4 – creating holes for hinges. The locations of the holes must be coordinated with the drawing. It is better to use bolts with sleeves as hinges. To increase the strength of the sleeves, they should be fixed in the holes with glue.

Step 5 – Making the holes for the tenons. The folding chair is held open with wooden tenons. The holes for these should be made with a Forstner drill.

Step 6 – assembling the structure. Now we assemble the chair according to the drawing. Then we make the seat. To do this, we cut out the foam rubber in the shape of the seat, cover it with fabric, and fix it to the seat with a stapler.

Decorating

Today, the interior of a room and the appearance of its contents are given much more attention than twenty years ago. This is not surprising, because original design solutions have come into fashion. A simple chair made of ordinary plywood is definitely not the ultimate dream. It can (should!) be improved with a little decor.

You can use varnish to decorate the chair. The product covered with varnish will already look much more attractive. If you want to add color, you will need good paint for wood. You can choose any color: red, blue, white, brown. It is better to choose the color based on the color scheme of the room's interior. After painting, the product is also covered with varnish.

Applying an ornament is another interesting way to decorate furniture. To do this, you need to use a thin brush and paints of different colors. You can look at photos from the Internet for drawing ideas, or come up with your own. It is better to use waterproof paints.

Fabric can also become a decoration of the product. A soft seat will emphasize the interior of the room, make the process of using the chair more comfortable. It will be ideal if you use a fabric identical to the fabric of the furniture in the room to decorate the chair.

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