High Chair
This project came to me as a result of my wife visiting our goddaughter who had just given birth to a baby girl, Luciana. Luci, soon enough, would need a high chair to eat at the table with the rest of the family. This project started out simply enough and as they often do, became more involved as it progressed.
I ordered a high chair plan from Furniture Designs, Inc. The plans were well done - straight forward complete plans with pictures and instructions. The instructions called for dowel pins and screws for assembly and the legs looked to me to be a little thin in one dimension. So I made some adjustments but kept all the measurements the same and constructed the high chair using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques.
I used sliding dovetails with mortice and tendon joinery to assemble the high chair. Other than the two bolts I used to convert the high chair to a youth chair that dropped the foot rest for when Luci gets bigger, there are no screws nor nails used in the construction.
The frame is made from Port Orford cedar, the seat and back are old growth vertical grain Douglas fir, the foot rest and tray are made of mahogany, and I used some maple and cherry wood for the tray stop mechanism.
As the chair was getting close to completion I thought it might be nice to carve Luci's name in the back. Luci's mother also wanted a carved and painted flower in the back as well. When the high chair was finished, I shipped it to our goddaughter via Greyhound, and Luci seems to be quite happy sitting in it for family meals.
40" x 20" x 20"
Port Orford Cedar, Fir, Mahogany, Maple, Cherry, Paint
NFS
This piece is no longer available, however a similar but unique piece can be commissioned. Contact the artist.