The Deckchair

Buying a deck chair off the market usually means picking between two bad options: cheap and structurally weak, or well-made and priced like it. There isn't much sitting in the middle. I wanted something that held up and looked considered, without paying for either extreme.

Buying a deck chair off the market usually means picking between two bad options: cheap and structurally weak, or well-made and priced like it. There isn't much sitting in the middle. I wanted something that held up and looked considered, without paying for either extreme.

Mortise and tenon joints for the frame, heavy screws where they were needed, teak salvaged straight from the renovation, and seating fabric pulled from old curtains instead of buying anything new. Working next to the carpenter meant I wasn't guessing at joinery, I was learning it in real time, which ended up shaping how I approached every project after this one. I documented the whole build in photos and put together a dossier detailed enough that someone else could follow it, basically an open-source recipe for the chair.

Mortise and tenon joints for the frame, heavy screws where they were needed, teak salvaged straight from the renovation, and seating fabric pulled from old curtains instead of buying anything new. Working next to the carpenter meant I wasn't guessing at joinery, I was learning it in real time, which ended up shaping how I approached every project after this one. I documented the whole build in photos and put together a dossier detailed enough that someone else could follow it, basically an open-source recipe for the chair.