Today, a rocking chair is not a forgotten piece of antiquity, but a popular and comfortable element of the interior. It is found not only in dachas and country houses, but also in solid offices and apartments. A rocking chair is expensive furniture, but with the desire and some materials, you can make it yourself from plywood.

Advantages of a homemade plywood rocking chair

The main advantages of plywood are strength and lightness. A rocking chair made of such material is convenient to rearrange. In addition, plywood furniture harmoniously fits into the interior of any room.

The surface of the rocking chair is easily processed in various ways (by sanding, painting, varnishing or special film) - therefore, it will be very easy to decorate it and carry out cosmetic repairs of the item.

The rocking chair made of plywood has a high moisture resistance, which significantly extends its service life. The advantage of such furniture is that it is made of environmentally friendly materials, so it does not require special care.

The wooden elements of the rocking chair fit perfectly into the interior

Design requirements and dimensions

Depending on where the rocking chair will be used (on an open lawn or indoors), plywood of different thicknesses and wood species is selected. If the item will be placed in places with high humidity, oak plywood is used. The main thing is that during the manufacture the material should be relatively dry (humidity from 3 to 10%).

The most comfortable height of a rocking chair without a headrest is about 90 cm, with a headrest - 110-115 cm. An object of this size is suitable for the growth of an average person.

The height of the load-bearing sidewalls to the top of the seat should be about 35 cm, so that the person sitting in the chair can sway with their legs slightly extended.

The seat of the rocking chair will be comfortable if its length and width are 50 cm. Such parameters will ensure a comfortable fit in the chair. You can also make it wider, which will allow you to sit more comfortably and tighten your legs. The optimal backrest angle is 15 degrees or more. It is better to spread the armrests a little apart from the seat of the rocking chair by 13–15 cm.

Pay special attention to the radius of the skids. If it is large, then the chair will constantly fall back, which can lead to a rollover. Because of the runners with a small radius, the object will quickly return to its original position - this will create the effect of a twitching swing, which is also inconvenient. The thickness of the skids is best taken from several pieces of thick plywood glued together.

The use of short or long skids makes a difference. An armchair with long details has a greater depth and amplitude of rocking, at which the position of the seated person changes into a semi-lying position. An object with a short amplitude has a smaller amplitude, so the person remains in a sitting position all the time.

Rocking chairs with long skids are a classic option suitable for everyone.

The design of the rocking chair: 1 - sidewalls; 2 - tsarga; 3 - rack; 4, 6, 7 - crossbars; 5 - backrest slats; 8 - footboard

Necessary materials and tools

To make a rocking chair yourself, you will need to prepare the following:

• Sheets of plywood.
• Wooden beam (length - 53 cm).
• Electric jigsaw or grinder.
• A set of saw blades for wood (saw blade ranging from 50 to 105 mm).
• Hand mill or disc grinder with nozzles of different grits (you can use ordinary sandpaper).
• Measuring tape and pencil.
• Electric drill with wood drills.
• Screws, nuts, washers.
• Sintepon.
• Thick fabric for upholstery.
• Furniture stapler, glue.
• Wood paint, varnish.

For the manufacture of rocking chair parts, it is better to use plywood sheets, the size of which is 1520x900 cm, and the thickness is 4 mm, 10 mm and 15 mm. The side elements require 4 mm thick material. If there are no necessary sheets, then it will be possible during the work to cut out several identical parts from thin plywood and glue them together.

Since plywood has different thicknesses, an appropriate tool is selected for cutting a specific material. Sheets up to 1.5 mm thick are cut with a sharpened knife. Sheets up to 6 mm - with a jigsaw, and thicker ones - with an electric jigsaw or a grinder.

The tool for working with plywood is selected taking into account the thickness of the material

Preparation of plywood and general rules for working with it

First of all, it is necessary to conveniently organize the workspace. When cutting a large plywood sheet, there should be enough space in the room.

To avoid the rapid wear of the parts of the rocking chair, it is necessary to treat the plywood with one of the proposed means:

• fiberglass;
• varnish;
• drying oil;
• paint.

Gluing with fiberglass significantly increases the service life of plywood. If it is not possible to use this coating, you can take ordinary gauze instead. To connect materials, a varnish without polyester and epoxy components in the composition is used.

Drying oil coating will help increase the moisture resistance of plywood

Lacquering allows you to protect plywood from external influences. The treatment with paint, as well as drying oil, which forms a waterproofing layer, will help to increase moisture resistance (the impregnation will be even more effective if it is preheated in a water bath to 60 degrees).

Particular attention should be paid to the end sides of the plywood parts. They require additional insulation and careful processing. To protect them, you must do one of the following:

• putty the ends of plywood;
• treat with deep penetrating primers;
• apply thick paints;
• glue the edges with metal or plastic piping.

When working with plywood, you must adhere to the following rules:

• It is not recommended to cut plywood across its fibers - this will lead to cracking of the edges of the sheet.
• It is better not to drive nails or screws into the plywood sheet, as this will lead to cracking of the surface. To prevent this, you need to pre-drill holes. If, nevertheless, plywood parts are connected with screws, it is necessary to put metal washers on them.
• To give the plywood the desired bend or shape, its surface should be wetted and left in this position for several hours.
• Before gluing plywood parts, their contacting surfaces must be cleaned with sandpaper, then the material must be cleaned of dust and glue should be applied parallel to the plywood fibers. The parts to be glued must be placed under the press.

Instructions to help you make a rocking chair with your own hands

Pattern making and drawing transfer

1. To make a pattern, you need to mark a sheet of paper into identical cells 10x10 mm in size, and then redraw the drawing prepared taking into account all the nuances.
2. After that, it is necessary to draw cells enlarged to the required size on plywood and transfer the images of the details, saving space on the sheet of material.

Cutting plywood into pieces

1. In accordance with the drawing, use a jigsaw or grinder to cut a sheet of plywood 15 mm thick into parts: side elements, seat supports, racks. You also need to prepare four planks (47x4.5 cm, 54x4.5 cm, 48.5x4.5 cm and 47x4.5 cm), which will be the cross members of the rocking chair design.
2. From a sheet of plywood 10 mm thick, cut 18 strips for the back and 16 for the seat. Their size is 54x3 cm and 50x3 cm. Use 4 mm thick material to make parts for the back and seat.
3. For the footrest of the rocking chair, you will need to take a wooden beam and use an electric drill to drill holes in it for the screws.
4. After all the details are ready, they will need to be cleaned with sandpaper. Especially carefully it is recommended to handle the back, seat and armrests.

Construction assembly

1. First, it is supposed to assemble the back and seat from thin strips 10 mm thick. These strips must be glued to the parts of the back and seat, cut out of 4 mm plywood. This design will allow you to form a curved shape. It is better to connect parts with waterproof PVA glue for carpentry.
2. Further, the crossbars are attached to the base of the back and seat, and after that - the sidewalls and the footboard. When connecting parts with screws, metal washers must be used.
3. After assembling all the parts, the back and seat can be covered with padding polyester and upholstered with fabric, leatherette or leather. For this you need:

• in accordance with the size of the rocking chair, make a pattern;
• apply a thin layer of PVA glue on the seat and back;
• attach a layer of burlap on top (due to its rough surface, the filler will not stray);
• put a synthetic winterizer on the seat and back;
• cover the back and seat with a filler with fabric;
• fix the material using a furniture stapler.

By making a homemade rocking chair, you can save a lot and get a comfortable and high-quality item. Furniture made in compliance with all requirements will delight you with its convenience for many years.

The armchair is primarily ergonomic and functional: it is a piece of furniture for relaxing or creating comfortable conditions for long-term sedentary work. But at the same time, an armchair in the living room or bedroom is prestigious and can be a luxury item, therefore it is aesthetically very significant. If the curtains close the aesthetics of the interior, the armchair provides the key to understanding it. And if the curtains are unpretentious, then it is the chair that brings all the furniture into a single ensemble. Of course, in the case when the interior design is carefully and competently thought out. Finally, a garden or summer chair should fit into the landscape and endure bad weather, wintering in a cold closet, and careless handling.

Making a chair with your own hands is quite within the power of a home master. Amateur carpenters make their own chairs sometimes of a very high level, see fig. However, we will leave the works of high furniture art for later, and we will consider this publication as the initial one and confine ourselves to samples that require the most space in the garage, an ordinary woodworking tool and an average degree of skill in using it to make it. For some, it will cost in general only sewing work. Nevertheless, in the country of armchairs, the border between purely utilitarian and elite specimens is very arbitrary, and some of the things described can be found in the living room. And the experience gained in the course of work will eventually allow us to approach the exclusive.

About padding and covers

Any soft chair, on a rigid basis or frameless (see below), is filled with soft and sufficiently elastic material. Horse hair is now available to a few, whalebone is generally not available to anyone, so amateur chairs are most often stuffed with foam rubber or polystyrene foam (expanded polystyrene) in granules. They have a common property: they are easily electrified and hold static electricity for a long time, which is by no means good for health. Therefore, the sheathing of pillows, mats, etc. of soft furniture units is made necessarily 2-layer: external decorative and internal antistatic. This also makes it easier to care for the decorative trim and replace it if necessary.

The antistatic cover of upholstered furniture is sewn from cotton fabrics according to the same patterns as the decorative one. There are almost no alternatives to cotton as a spark gap: the leakage resistance of a chair with wooden legs, standing on a laminate floor, with an outer lining of very well electrified silk, with an inner cover of cotton, lies in the range of 1.8 - 5.6 MΩ , which provides an almost instantaneous charge drain from the electrophore machine. A synthetic winterizer is somewhat worse: it does not rot, but the outer skin must also be antistatic, made from natural furniture fabrics.

Remarkable in terms of mechanical properties and in itself an antistatic filler for upholstered furniture is polyurethane foam (PPU). But not a building self-foaming sealant / heat insulator, according to mechanics, it is not suitable for furniture, but the so-called. neoprene foamed under special conditions during manufacture. Neoprene is available in granules and sheets; of the latter, by the way, wetsuits are made. The material is expensive, especially sheet, but - the need for invention is cunning. Car seat inserts are made of neoprene. So if you see a jalopy destined for a junkyard, try to get its seats and backs. As metal, they still won’t be counted, and after shredding the inserts, you will get excellent padding for a pair of chairs.

Where do we start?

From rocking chairs. A homemade rocking chair will give the most tangible money savings compared to purchased ones - time. Its manufacture is technologically simple; from stationary equipment, it is enough to have a workbench (possibly also self-made) in some nook - two. And in the country, it will always come in handy, even if the design with the finish from an inexperienced craftsman was played up - three. But you need to make a rocking chair with your own hands only and only according to proven samples, and you can design it yourself only if you have considerable furniture maker experience and / or solid knowledge in this matter.

In the design of rocking chairs, an analogy is seen with the design of sailing ships. There, the center of sail (CP), the location of which depends on the configuration of the surface part (most of all - sailing weapons), the direction and strength of the wind, should always be slightly behind the center of rotation (CV) of the vessel. The location of the CV is determined by the interaction of the underwater part of the vessel with the oncoming water flow.

If the CPU is ahead of the CV, the ship will be prone to yaw on the move and poorly stay on course, and with the tiller / steering wheel abandoned, it will fall off into the wind and stand lag (side) to the wave, which is fraught with disaster. If the CPU is far beyond the CV, the vessel without a rudder will lead to the wind and take a wave on the bow, which is safer, but it will respond sluggishly and slowly to the rudder turns, which also threatens to crash. Therefore, sailboats are designed in such a way that, with any evolution of the vessel (manoeuvres + changes in windage in any possible sailing conditions), the CPU behaves like a cunning fox with a dog: it “taunts” the CV, keeping closer to it from behind, but then runs back a little, as soon as the CV comes close. In this case, the ship will be agile enough, and the uncontrolled one will still lead to the wind.

In a rocking chair, the role of the CG is played by the common center of gravity (CG) of the chair and the person sitting in it, and the role of the CG is played by the line of contact (LC) passing through the points of contact of the support shoes (arcs) of the floor or ground. If the CG is far ahead of the LK, it will be difficult to swing, and when leaving the chair, you can get, sorry, a pendel from him. If the CT is behind the LC, then an “overkill turn” is possible, which is not at all funny: doctors are well aware of cases when people broke their necks by tumbling over their heads from homemade rocking chairs. That is, in order for the rocking chair to be safe, convenient and comfortable, its CG with a rider of any corpulence should always be slightly ahead of the LC.

Note: for reference, the CG of a human body of normal build is located on the border of the lower back and sacrum on the inside of the spinal column. With movements and in different postures, its position changes little - over millions of years of evolution, a kinematic system has been developed that allows us not to fall sideways with outstretched hands.

rocking chair designs

In view of the above, the first rocking chairs appeared relatively late, not earlier than the middle of the 18th century. By that time, science had given technology methods for calculating complex mechanical systems in dynamics and the first steam engines were puffing. As for rocking chairs, their classical construction scheme is arches elongated backwards with a radius of curvature smoothly decreasing from front to back, pos. 1 in fig. In such a system, the farther the seated one pumps back, the farther the LC will move back from the CG and it will be more and more difficult to pump out up to the stopper - the rear ends of the arcs become straight. This is the so-called. reverse progressive support. It is often referred to simply as progressive because a really progressive one will throw the rider back at the slightest push and therefore is not used. For reasons of ergonomics, progressive arcs are not always convenient (if someone steps on the heel of the arc, the rider will pull), so at the same time they came up with the idea of ​​​​moving the footrest of the rocking chair forward, which shifts the general CG there, pos. 2, but such chairs are suitable only for people whose physique they are designed for.

The best way to create a rocking chair that is comfortable for anyone is to put arcs on the springs, pos. 3. At first, the springs were made of wood, teak or dogwood (there is no replacement). Now rocking springs are made of carbon fiber (carbon, kevlar) or special steels. Rocking chairs on springs, in addition, sway for a long time and smoothly from a small push, lulling the rider in the most gentle way.

The most simple structurally and completely safe rocking ladders, pos. 4. In them, the stringers serve simultaneously as arcs, and the large length of their generatrices guarantees against capsizing. But single rocking ladders are chairs for individual use. If someone else sits in this one, with the CG at least slightly shifted from the calculated one, it will either be hard for him to swing, or he will find himself lying with his knees in the sky. Therefore, according to the scheme of the stairs, as a rule, a paired garden chair or rocking chair is made. In this case, the overall CG of the riders is less likely to leave the computational area, and the large bearing area of ​​the arcs ensures rocking when the rocking chair is installed directly on the ground. The device and dimensions of a steam garden rocking chair are shown in fig. Seat upholstery - slats 30x50; valleys - board 100x30.

Product samples

On the trail. rice. - drawings of a classic rocking chair, relatively simple and not very material-intensive, but suitable for both the country house and the living room. Seat and back cushions in the latter case are made with a thickness of 5-7 cm using the technology described below.

The next option is a garden rocking chair made of boards, see fig. Widened arcs are designed for installation on the ground. When creating the design, the fact was taken into account that on a lawn or gravel from one push you still won’t sway for a long time. This made it possible to carry the CG more forward from the LC due to the removal of the seat, and to use simple radius arcs. In addition, the resulting stability margin made it possible to make the backrest adjustable in tilt.

Rocking chair in fig. above, structurally already close to the rocking chair, in which the fixation of the rider's CG relative to the LC is provided by his very posture; simply - a rather deep failure of the dearest parts and, accordingly, a low-lying common CG. Drawings of a pair of rocking chairs are given on the next. rice. On the left - it looks more elegant, but material-intensive: for each of the shaped sidewalls, you need a whole sheet of plywood 20 mm thick. On the right - simpler and more economical. 60mm wide 4-ply poles: 2 medium poles are cut in one piece with the corresponding sidewall pieces from 15mm plywood, and trims cut separately are added to them. All this together makes the structure very durable, and the additional displacement of its own CG down due to heavy arcs and is quite resistant to overturning.

More to the country and not only

The rocking chair is not to everyone's liking; most vacationers prefer to sunbathe in regular sun loungers, if only because they can be folded up on the top trunk. In such a case, in Fig. drawings of a deck chair for a summer residence, a picnic or a beach. The difference from typical samples is the backrest adjustment system that does not require shaped metal, which, however, requires the execution of part 1, as well as round crossbars, from fairly hard wood.

On the trail. rice. - interesting design. This wooden chair in the original version will go to the dacha, but it is easy to modify it into a quite prestigious apartment:

Note: seat and back cushions with a thickness of about 10 cm are sewn, as for the frameless chair described below.

And if without carpentry?

Although shavings and sawdust are not dirt at all, woodworking is quite a garbage business. At the same time, modern materials and cutting methods make it possible to create printed garments that hold their shape under load without a frame. This is perhaps the main reason that frameless upholstered furniture is gaining more and more popularity among amateur craftsmen and craftswomen. The most common are embroidered chairs, because. the whole essence of a home chair is in soft elasticity and functionally, he does not need a frame.

The sewn chair device is shown in fig. The purpose of the double cover, the choice of fabric and filler is mentioned above; here we only note that putting a zipper (zipper) on the inner case is completely useless. Both covers are sewn inside out and the last seam of the inner, after filling the filler, is sewn up with a scar outward. It's easier, cheaper and more reliable, but the scar is still not visible. Before sewing the last seam or installing a fastener, the cover is turned inside out.

The last (detachable) seam of the outer cover should be from 0.8-1 m long, because through it, you will have to put the outer cover on the inner one that has taken shape. If the filler is one-piece (foam rubber, neoprene block), 2 half-length zippers are placed on the detachable seam, fastening towards, otherwise the inner bag will get stuck in an asymmetrical section.

In the case of replacing the zipper with lacing, the allowances along the edges of the detachable seam, before turning the cover, are folded, ironed, a dense, strong braid is put into the lapel and the wings of the lapel are quilted. Then, holes for the cord are punched with a hole punch in increments of 4-6 cm and framed with eyelets. In extreme cases, the holes are cut with petals, a ring of wire or durable plastic is applied, the petals are bent through it and PVA is glued; then the grommet is tightly overcast with a harsh thread (see the figure on the left) and glued again. Several types of armchairs fit into this general scheme of device and tailoring.

Note: processing allowances are everywhere within 15-30 mm.

Pillows

Who, as a child, did not lie on a pillow placed upright? The simplest embroidered chair and there is a large pillow. But it is suitable only for fun, but it is not suitable for relaxation: either there is no back, or something sticks out between the legs. It also folds easily and falls to one side. Therefore, the pillow chair is sewn only in appearance similar to a pillow under the head, but in fact it is quite ergonomic and stable.

The easiest way is to pattern a cushion chair according to pos. and on the left in Fig. It has only 2 parts with a bend, and even then a simple radius one. Filler - foam rubber. But such a “pillow” looks angular and does not really look like a real one. To get a chair more elegant and more like a real crumpled pillow, pos. b, you need to reduce the bottom, narrow the back, and cut off the rest of the parts obliquely by 5 cm, as shown in fig. In this case, the filler is foam or neoprene.

Ottoman

Structurally and in terms of material consumption, a cushion chair looks like a pouffe chair, like a trace. rice. It is more difficult to tailor it, but pouffe chairs have an important advantage: they are suitable as a play and recreational child seat “from zero to school”. But not working, a chair for feeding and other functional children's furniture! Accustomed to falling apart on the soft, the child is at great risk of spoiling his posture!

Puff chairs are most often sewn according to a pattern of 3 parts: shell (annular sidewall), seat, bottom. But in operation it turns out that the only vertical seam (or zipper) soon diverges or breaks. Therefore, it is best to sew a 5-piece pouffe chair with an insert in front, as shown in fig. The liner works similarly to the stitching of socks for work or military boots. It does not look good on evening shoes, but the armchair insert can be made decorative, and there will be no extra seams on the side.

Bag and pear

From a pouffe chair not far to a bean bag chair with a higher back. The simplest bean bag chair can be sewn from 3 parts, as on the left in fig. The front vertical seam due to the support of the rider on the back is less loaded and quite reliable.

A simple bean bag chair has drawbacks: the filler, especially foam plastic, tends to crawl, and the back does not give full support. From the heart in such an armchair you will not fall apart, the back will go to a break. Free from these ailments, the pear chair, on the right in fig. The option of cutting the bottom (bottom) No. 2 allows you to save about 0.5 m of fabric 1.44 m wide, because details according to option No. 2 when marking the cut can be squeezed between the wedges. The zipper is in any case located along the diameter of the bottom.

Ball

A great option for a sports child or adult is a ball chair, see fig. It is not so difficult to cut the fabric for him, if you do not use the sizes from the network, most often incorrect and not attached to anything, but the radius of the generatrix of the circle and the central angle of the polygon. On fig. they are given for a chair-ball with a diameter of 80 cm; for a diameter of 60 cm it will be 165 and 128 mm, respectively, at the same angles.

Sewing a ball chair has some features:

• Because detachable seam is short, the cover will have to be sewn single from antistatic fabric.
• So that during sewing an error does not accumulate, which will negate all the work, the polygon patterns are carefully checked, applying the sides to each other. All sides of both templates must be the same length to the nearest 0.5 mm; for an 80 cm ball - 100 mm. Unusual for cutting work, right? But when sewing, the error accumulates. For 20 6-gons + 12 5-gons, the discrepancy can reach 0.5x32 = 16 mm, and then you can’t reduce the corners with any tightening.
• The filler is poured into the case through a pipe rolled from cardboard with a diameter of 60 mm or more. You can use a piece of plastic.
• If the ball is laced, the split seam is made with a valve, as in old leather soccer balls, so that the filler does not spill out.

Note: the volume of the filler for the described cushion chairs and the 80 cm ball is about 250 liters, and for the bag and pear about 350 liters. The internal volume is completely filled up, then washed out.

Like real

Here in fig. - a frameless chair with foam filler, imitating a cabinet chair. Armrests, if needed, are sewn like a backrest. The entire product can serve as a module from which a sofa, chair-bed, etc. is assembled. The basis is foam rubber slabs of grade (density) 40-45, 10 cm thick, glued together with PVA in pairs up to a thickness of 20 cm, pos. 1. The seat and foot zippers are at the back, and the back/armrests are at the bottom. They are necessarily paired, pos. 2, because it is very difficult to push foam rubber in any case into a deep cavity through an asymmetrical detachable seam.

Note: in the same way, but from foam rubber of a smaller thickness, the seat and back cushions of some of the chairs described above and below are made.

Tongues for sewing chair elements with a width of about 10 cm (pos. 3) do not provide a full guarantee against sideways displacement with a warp, therefore, pairs of buttons, pos. 4. The backrest/armrests are sewn filled before filling the seat, and the seat with the backing is sewn thereafter.

So that the lower (when folded) decorative trim does not get dirty and does not rub against the floor, it is advisable to lay the chair on a plywood or plank pallet with low (approx. 5 cm) legs. It unfolds through the bottom, pos. 5. In this case, it turns out a good temporary, say, in the country, a crib for a child. And if you save a little on foam rubber and lengthen the legs due to the gained height, you will get a good deck chair on the veranda, pos. 6. So that, again, the lower (unfolded) edge of the footrest does not wear out, it is sheathed, grabbing the corner, with technical fabric. When folded, the skin will be at the back between the pillows and will hardly be visible.

More kids...

Children love to feel like adults. If this feeling is given to them for a period of sufficiently long painstaking studies (needlework, preparing lessons), then perseverance will develop. For this, in Fig. - a child seat, economical, durable and quite comfortable. For the reasons indicated above (the child's skeleton is not yet completely ossified), only the armrests are allowed to be soft in it; in this case, they are made of sheathed foam rubber up to 30 mm thick. It is not necessary to thicken, as well as to expand the seat with a back or make them curved, scoliosis may develop. And the body is numb - let it lie on a pouffe, pear or ball for half an hour. The key to correct posture is mobility and periodic change of postures.

The history of children's rocking horses is curious. Judging by the excavation data, they appeared as soon as a certain primitive innovator saddled a horse for the first time. Initially, their function was purely utilitarian: the initial training of the future equestrian warrior. However, it is useful for a child to feel like a rider even today, the vestibular apparatus and balance motor skills are developing well. What's with the chairs? But look at how easy and inexpensive it is to make a baby rocking chair-horse, see the video:

Video: do-it-yourself baby rocking chair-horse

In addition to the development of the vestibular system and a sense of balance, the little equestrian will enjoy swaying in a position that excludes deformations of the musculoskeletal system.

... and to the cottage

A rocking chair, a deck chair and a country chair in general are good on a veranda or paved area. On the ground in a rocking chair you can’t really swing, and the legs are slowly sinking in a well-groomed lawn, at the same time spoiling it. So, if there is a suitable tree, a garden lounge chair makes perfect sense to hang. This will deprive him of mobility, but will give complete peace, comfort and unity with nature. There are 3 technical solutions: a swing chair, a cradle chair and a hammock chair.

Swing

How a wooden hanging swing chair is arranged is shown in fig. The indicated width (130 cm) is the limit, for a double chair, for a single chair it can be reduced. For reliability and simplification of the suspension, it is better to cut the initial (root) ends of the suspension cable with thimbles, throw them on the bosses of the armrests (pos. 1), and pass the running ends through the rear suspension rings (pos. 2), throw them over the suspension carrier beam (bough tree, for example), insert into the front rings and only then fix with locking knots, as shown in fig. Soft cushions can be placed on the seat and back, sewn as described above.

Cradle

The swing chair requires a horizontal or near-horizontal support beam, as suspended at 2 points. If there is none, you can hang a cradle chair on almost any tree, see fig. Its basis is a hoop with a diameter of 1.1-1.5 m made of steel or a propylene water pipe. The latter is bent to such a diameter without heating; then the joint must be fixed with a round insert made of hard wood, fixed with self-tapping screws. As - shown in the figure, as well as the location of the suspension cables. The upper suspension unit is the same as the hammock chairs, see below. It is better to make the seat not textile, but wicker, but this is already a topic about weaving hammocks.

Hammock chair

The hammock chair is a hybrid of parts of a hammock, the upper suspension of the cradle, an additional beam and a pair of semi-rigid pillows, sewn together with a book in the manner described above, see fig. on right. Elements leading from the hammock are woven / knitted in similar ways. The features inherent in this particular chair are in the seat with the back:

From scraps

The country chair shown in the figure is remarkable not only for its rather original appearance. It is made of pieces of furniture array 28 mm thick unraveled into square bars. Well, it's a pity to use expensive high-quality material for firewood or some kind of plug-patches. The boards of the seat and back are plywood, soft pillows (see above) 7-10 cm thick are laid on them.

Adirondacks

The Adirondacks is a sparsely populated, rather picturesque, mountainous and wooded area on the border of the USA and Canada. Its inhabitants have a reputation for wayward stubbornness and have long invented their own armchair for admiring their native land. The interest of the general public in the Adirondacks and its chairs was awakened after the painting “Adirondack Autumn” by Rockwell Kent in 1951, see fig.; the artist worked a lot in those parts. After the death of R. Kent in 1971, one of the heirs either sold or donated the Adirondack Autumn to the USSR Art Fund. They did not place it in the central depositories: they did not forget that R. Kent once fought in the Vietnam War, they transferred it to the Odessa Museum of Western and Oriental Art, where the author of these lines had a chance to see her in the early 80s.

Rockwell Kent, Adirondack Autumn

Unfortunately, in reproductions, Kent's paintings fade irreparably: no print is able to convey the subtle riot of colors that the artist was able to create on the canvas. Now Rockwell Kent is known to the masses more for b / w illustrations for "Moby Dick"; "Adirondack Autumn" is found on the net only in the form of crappy scans with moiré. But the Adirondack chairs were more fortunate, they are popular to the point that their name has become a household name, up to the Adirondack chairs or just the Adirondacks.

Structurally, the Adirondack chairs, I must say, are very successful: simple, cheap, technologically advanced. The back-supporting crossbar gives them excellent strength and rigidity, while the large bearing surface of the rear legs, which carry the bulk of the work load, ensures low ground pressure. Aesthetically, Adirondack chairs fit perfectly into the wild, and their wide armrests can serve as tables. The inhabitants of the Adirondacks, by the way, enjoy the glory of unsurpassed masters of home brewing. Clifford Simak admitted that he copied his Alle-Op in the Goblin Sanctuary from an Adironaccian. For the reasons listed above, Adirondack-type chairs are made in a variety of modifications, see fig.

Garden chairs type "Adirondack"

Drawings of the chair "Adirondack" from plywood

There are enough drawings of Adirondack chairs in the global network. Here we present a relatively little-known variant made of 20 mm plywood. Its distinguishing feature is only 2 curvilinear parts (armrests) with simple radius bends. Foam cushions 5-10 cm thick are placed on the seat and back if desired.

What is undesirable

Enough simple homemade chairs, as you can see, there are many. But there are designs for which it is better not to take on with all the desire and skill. This is, firstly, an office chair. The requirements for its ergonomics are fundamentally different from those for home rest: it should create comfort, not relaxing, but supporting performance for a long time. Technologically, this is achieved by using complex-shaped parts made of high-quality materials. And their production, in turn, requires industrial conditions with equipment for pressing and stamping, for plastic molding, TIG / MIG welding, etc. In addition, when buying a piece at retail, a gas lift can cost more than a finished chair; gas lifts are already made by machine-building enterprises with equipment for precision metalworking.

Note: a computer chair differs from an office chair in essence only by its name, and everything said above applies to it in full.

Secondly, cardboard chairs. Corrugated inner corrugated packaging board material is remarkable in many respects and finds the widest application. But not for chairs. In principle, it is not so difficult to build a cardboard chair, see the figure, and its overall strength will be very high. But - alas! - even cardboard reinforced in any way is easily crushed from the end and the seat of the chair will sag very soon. And a push with anything hard, even with a vacuum cleaner, will leave an irremovable dent.

Finally, about the unusual

However, cardboard is very useful in making chairs. For example, for modeling unique chairs, pos. 1 in fig. Sheets of cardboard are glued to the thickness of the selected plywood or board, cut into blanks and a model is assembled from them, which, of course, cannot be sat on. After fitting, the model is disassembled and a set of templates for cutting the base material is obtained. True, although it is not difficult to fill the gaps in the skeleton with foam plastic or foam, but in order to fit such a chair with soft and decorative fabric, you need to be a cutter and seamstress-ace.

Armchairs made of felt or overcoat cloth, pos. 2, lined with foam cubes (seat supported by hidden plywood insert), pos. 3, or water pipes, pos. 4, already require more ingenuity than high skill. Felt and tubular, of course, cost a pretty penny. But a chair made of cubes can be done even by far from adult masters and craftswomen. And a hand-made armchair for mom for her birthday - it really doesn’t get any cooler.

In general, chairs, even without reaching complex representative ones, give scope for creative self-expression like few other pieces of furniture and, in general, homemade products. So, since the chairs are gone - create, invent, try!

On the Internet and in various stores, there are many models of various chairs of this type - their color, material and style are different and successfully combined in such a way that everyone can choose for themselves a successful model that will satisfy him in all respects.

It is not difficult to create a rocking chair made of wood with your own hands. It takes effort and skill to ensure that your homemade rocking chair will delight your entire family in a corner designed for relaxation.

The list of necessary materials and tools for a rocking chair cannot be limited due to the fact that the choice of frame, substrate options and some other little things are different. But there is a mandatory list of necessary tools:

• a hammer;
• screws and screwdriver;
• pencil for marking and brushes for painting;
• jigsaw and files (in case of using a wooden frame);
• level (a right angle option with a long ruler and a built-in level would be a good option - these can be found in specialized stores).

Step by step instructions for creating

Option one - a standard wooden rocking chair

The wooden frame is the most common in the creation of such projects - it is reliable, practical and easy to process.

When creating a rocking chair with your own hands, drawings are an important element for the subsequent development of the project.

Rocking chair made of wood is durable, environmentally friendly and attractive

In the case of using wood as the main material, you can find many options for templates and drawings with detailed explanations and calculations.

To create such a chair, you need to use a jigsaw and a grinder to cut out the details for the chair.

In the future, you can simply lay a blanket on the chair, or attach sewn pillows - this will add originality and uniqueness to your rocking chair.

The second option is the atmosphere of nature

Using a tree as a frame, you can also use small branches as "upholstery". They can be collected in the forest in April or October.

After completing all the details of the tree and fastening them together, you need to carefully place all the collected branches in the empty space.

You can connect and strengthen such a system with glue or liquid nails.

It is important to remember that it is necessary to fill all the space allotted for the branches - if there are large gaps in the structure, it may break.

The third option is an eternal classic

The running material in the creation of rocking chairs is plywood.

Cut out two boomerang-shaped sides from a sheet of plywood

It is necessary to cut a number of narrow long strips of plywood and nail them to the two base parts on which the chair will roll.

Regarding the distance between the "stripes", it is customary to use the rule of the golden mean - the elements should not be close to each other, but a large gap between each element is undesirable.

Do not spare the screws or other material with which you nail the plywood to the base - on each side it must be nailed in two places, for a total of four attachment points.

The shape of the plywood swing chair can vary, the decor depends on your imagination.

The fourth option is a part of the soul

Asking the question of how to make a rocking chair with your own hands, a person wants to make a unique, unique project.

You can make the parts on which the chair will swing from wood, the support system from a metal frame. The seat itself is made of wool - knitted.

The scheme and technique of embroidery can be different, the main thing is to accurately measure the space for embroidery, leave loops for attaching to the frame.

Such an armchair will look organic both at home and on the street - you will really put your soul into it.

These are just a few of the many chair models that exist. I would like to note that under the seat there may be, for example, a place for your animal. You can add a rocking chair made with your own hands with any elements - it all depends on the imagination and priorities of the person.

A rocking chair is the most comfortable piece of furniture that is designed for home relaxation. Such a product is expensive, and not everyone can afford to buy it. In order not to spend money on the purchase of a product, you can design and make a rocking chair with your own hands. A beautiful and original self-assembly product will become a central decoration in your home interior.

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How to design correctly

There are several types of rocking chairs that suit different needs and habits of users. The first models that appeared in everyday life were equipped with simple arcs and skis. Do-it-yourself rocking chairs can be made according to the finished drawing. But you need to know that these drawings were created for an individual person and may not suit others. First of all, the product should be comfortable and meet your own needs.

If the family consists of 3-4 people, then the design of the chair is designed for the heaviest and tallest member of the family.

What you need to know when designing a product:

1. In the manufacture of the chair, it is required to take into account that the center of gravity of the rocking chair must be correctly located in relation to the center of the rocking circle. Then the product will be comfortable and stable.
2. A rocking chair made of wood will not move if these two points converge at one.
3. The product will be unstable if the center of gravity moves higher in relation to the center of the circle.

How to choose material and design

The material for the chair is chosen depending on the interior of the room in which it will stand, and financial capabilities. Design and choice of material:

• Wicker products have a beautiful appearance and are the most popular models. They are expensive, because they are woven by hand from rattan and cane. Models made from Indonesian rattan are very durable and of good quality. These are elegant, comfortable and environmentally friendly products. Thanks to good depreciation, they are able to withstand any weight. They are often installed on balconies and loggias of a country house.
• The frame for rocking chairs is made of a profile pipe, metal or wood. Plywood is often used. The metal frame is combined with natural materials such as rattan. These products are highly durable and can withstand a lot of weight. To make them comfortable to sit on, the back and seat are made of plastic pipes.
• The most budgetary are products made from wood. They are less durable, but have a beautiful appearance. A classic armchair made of wood with your own hands will look incomparable in a living room with a fireplace.

The comfort and smoothness of the rocking of the chair depends on the runners (skis). They can be made in two ways:

• According to the drawing, 2 blanks are cut out of plywood and polished. The thickness of the plywood must be at least 15 mm. Skis must be installed in the grooves symmetrically with respect to each other. To do this, grooves are made in the legs of the product. Their depth should be from 7 to 10 cm. In the place where the legs of the chair and skis adjoin each other, through holes are cut through. A wooden spike is inserted into them, having previously lubricated the holes with glue.
• For the manufacture of skis, 2 square bars 1 m long and 45 mm thick are used. It cuts the grooves into which the legs of the chair will be inserted. To give the runners the necessary shape, the bars are soaked in hot water. When they soften, the material will become elastic and slightly arched. When the skis are dry, they are installed on the legs. The parts are fixed with glue, so all joints are pre-lubricated with a substance.

What do you do with old furniture?

A rocking chair is always associated with a quiet, calm evening dedicated only to relaxation.

Of course, you can use it at any time of the day, but you can’t relax in the way that rhythmic and rocking movements allow, nowhere else.

That is why this piece of furniture today can be found not only in the garden, but also in respectable offices. Moreover, many companies equip rest rooms with them.

The rocking chair allows you to relax not only the body, but also the brain.

Scientists have long proven that rhythmic repetitive movements, such as walking or rocking, help to calm down, concentrate, and put things in order.

The most complex tasks in such an environment are much easier to solve.

If you know, in the country, then a high-quality, fresh lawn will always be the subject of your pride and admiration of your guests. Details in the article.

Sunny and varied astilba: planting and care in the open field, depending on the plant variety. What is behind the different types of astilba?

Ideal choice for a summer residence

An obligatory detail of any resting place on the site. The most popular models are made of wicker, artificial and natural rattan and forged.

Their advantages:

• beautiful appearance;
• strength;
• resistance to moisture and ultraviolet;
• durability.

Of course, it is in the garden that the rocking chair is most appropriate. It can be installed in a gazebo, on or an open veranda. Models made of natural materials harmoniously fit into any landscape design.

On modern estates, garden swings on runners made of metal and textile look beautiful and bright. For areas with log cabins or timber buildings, wicker or solid wood furniture is more suitable.

If the design of the cottage is dominated by buildings and decorative elements made of stone, you should pay attention to artistic forging or cold bending.

Unusual design solutions can be a bright accent in the landscape. These are rocking chairs for two, or a kind of beds that can easily replace the usual sun loungers.

Variety of options

The history of the rocking chair has a little more than two centuries. And this wonderful idea belongs to a talented person, inventor and politician - Benjamin Franklin.

But, in Europe, it gained fame and distribution only in the middle of the XIX century. Today, skid models are popular. It is these rocking chairs that can be found on the pages of the classics describing the life of the aristocracy and in modern gardens.

Relatively recently, a completely new design has appeared. Sliding rocking chairs without skids. They are ideal for interiors with delicate floors.

The materials from which such furniture can be made are striking in variety:

1. It can be solid types of wood Such armchairs attract with their massiveness and reliability, while the variety of forms and design solutions is limitless here. It is among the models made of wood that you can find both golden classics and avant-garde.
2. Rattan and vine- a traditional material for the manufacture of rocking chairs. Their distinguishing feature is lightness and delicacy. Today, wicker furniture can also be made from artificial material. It is practically no different from models made of willow or vine or rattan, but at the same time it is not afraid of moisture.
3. Metal- the material is plastic, but heavy. Forged furniture always looks luxurious. But, the weight of such products is significant. That is why even in the garden it is better to use them only on stone or concrete platforms. Metal skids will sink into the ground and damage the turf of the lawn, they also leave noticeable marks on wooden boards.
4. Gaining popularity today plastic models. They are characterized by durability, resistance to any vagaries of the weather and a bright and modern design. Equally important is the fact that models made of this material are the most affordable.

Smooth hands and desire

You can make a rocking chair with your own hands. This will require, first of all, desire and a little time.

Most popular materials for the self-production of such furniture are wood, plywood and metal. What exactly to choose, each home master decides for himself. It depends on the availability of material and the ability to work with it.

A photo selection with ready-made rocking chairs that you can make yourself:

We use wood and plywood

This is probably the easiest and most affordable option. To work, you will need tools that almost every home master has.

In the photo, a drawing of a rocking chair made of plywood

You can watch how to make a rocking chair with your own hands from wood and plywood using only an ax, a planer and a saw in the video presented, but such work requires a lot of woodworking experience. This video is the first part of a series of tutorials. In any case, this is a high-quality and real experience from the master, who can really show how to make this piece of furniture yourself.

If you are not used to using only hand tools, then for work you need to prepare:

• jigsaw;
• screwdriver;
• self-tapping screws and drills of different diameters;
• sandpaper of different grain sizes for processing finished parts.

The easiest way to make a rocking chair out of wood with your own hands - use an old but durable chair. Its legs are shortened, and the resulting structure is mounted on hardwood skids.

To give it a new and non-standard appearance, you can braid it with leather or plastic ribbons or sew an unusual cover.

More interesting models are easiest to make at home from plywood with a thickness of at least 15 mm. The general idea is pretty simple. Sidewalls are cut out of sheets according to a pre-calculated pattern. For example, it could be like this:

Cut out the sides

The edges of plywood are carefully processed. Two parts are interconnected by three bars 30x50x600mm.

The upper part is laid out with thin boards or planks of plywood with dimensions of 10x50x600 mm (the length can be longer if it is necessary for the planks to protrude beyond the edge of the sidewalls), which are attached to the end with self-tapping screws.

To avoid cracking and delamination of plywood, it is recommended to pre-drill it at the fastening points with a small diameter drill.

It is also worth making recesses in the facing strips so that the hats of the hardware are recessed.

If desired, they can be hidden with special plugs to match the wood or puttied.

After assembly, the tree can be tinted and varnished or painted in any color.

Metal armchair

Metal is a difficult material to process. And if there are no skills in forging or equipment for making bent elements, then only simple models of chairs are available for making with your own hands, but they can be no less interesting.

First of all, a metal frame is made from a corner, pipe or profile.

After that, all parts are coated with an anti-corrosion compound. Hammer paints look very nice. What will be the decorative finish - depends on the desire and imagination of the master.

For example, the seat may simply be made of wooden planks. Or the model can be soft. Why the seat can be braided with an ordinary luggage belt.

Sew pillows for the back and seat and hide everything with a common removable cover. Also, a metal frame is simply enough to braid with a willow vine. To do this, you will need the very basic knowledge of weaving from a vine, which can be found on the Internet.

Your hand is the master

Although only two simple options are presented in detail, they can be implemented in different ways. Based on the above recommendations, you can assemble a wooden rocking chair of this kind.

In the first video, we see drawings for making a rocking chair with our own hands:

On the second tips and assembly instructions:

As you can see, in this master class, a simpler shape of the sidewalls was used, but special attention was paid to the design. Such an armchair will look luxurious not only in the garden, but also in the office.

Experiment is the engine of evolution

By experimenting with the basis of the frame, other models can be made according to a similar principle. For example, with armrests.

If desired, it can be a whole furniture group for two people. This model not only looks very original, but also allows you to relax in a pleasant company.

Armchair for two persons

Moreover, it is enough to dream up a little and the usual rocking chair turns into a comfortable couch with an awning. You can rest on it in any heat. And if you equip it with a mosquito net canopy, then you can sleep in the fresh air on summer nights.

No less interesting and unusual are the ideas of home craftsmen for models on a metal frame. They can be openwork and almost weightless.

Or simple, concise and modern.

To make such a model, you will need welding and a pipe bender. Its design is extremely simple. And the seats can be both wicker and sewn from dense material.

You can also make a rocking chair in a classic style from metal pipes.

Rocking chair in classic style

No less interesting is the patchwork style model, in which a metal ring is taken as the basis for the seat. This chair is perfect for a country style cottage.

Rocking chair in country style

Making a rocking chair with your own hands is not just the creation of an exclusive thing, but the opportunity to make such furniture that will be convenient for you and fit the design of your site. This is a great chance to show imagination and creativity.