Nomadic Furniture Book, DIY Cardboard Chair

Nomadic Furniture by Hennessey and Papanek is a fantastic book. I’ve had it so long I can’t remember where I got it. I also have volume 2, and I believe I got that from Alibris. The first book came out in 1973, so it’s got that crunchy style DIY flavor, right down to the hand-written text in ALL CAPS, even the page numbers are hand-written.

From the cover: “How to build and where to buy lightweight furniture that folds, inflates, knocks down, or is disposable and can be recycled. — With many easy to follow illustrations.” I think that sums it up pretty well. Obviously, the shopping sources are pretty stale. But many of the ideas are timeless, a few even have the potential to be stylish. Maybe the most timeless, and practical, information included is in the section “On Human Measurement.” The authors list some ergonomic starting points for chairs, tables and more. Click any of three thumbnails that follow for much larger images.

If you’re itching to make your own nomadic DIY furniture check out this cardboard chair. If you’re feeling really creative maybe you can try to make it out of sheet metal, or a flexible plastic. That probably wouldn’t be consistent with the recycling and nomadic ethos of this book, but it might be badass. Click it to big it.

Let me know in the comments if you like this stuff and I’ll post more projects from these two books.

Tracy Sigler — Chair of Log and Plywood

This is the first piece of furniture I ever made. I think I was about 20 years old, and it was a Christmas gift to my parents. I had found a large, rather straight log on their property and I knew I had to make something from it. At first I wanted to use it to make some sort modern totem pole, but that would require a lot of time and skill. I didn’t have much of either. I was determined to use that log though, and I was also looking forward to using a chainsaw for something other than yard work. So, I came up with this idea for a chair. I can’t remember why, but I wanted to design it to use knock down construction. (Probably due to years of Lego building.) I’m not sure if that made it easier or more difficult to build. There are some tricky miters for the various slots because the back and seat are not at a right angle, but for the most this is pretty primitive woodworking.

All the parts including: three log legs; plywood back, seat and arms; 2×4 cross braces.

Assembly is quick and easy.

One strange handmade chair ready for lounging.

Rebar, Stainless Steel, Fan Chair

This one’s for you, Gary Taylor. Thanks again, for lunch.

I believe this is the first piece of metal furniture or sculpture I ever made. I made it when my brother and I had a record store in the late 1980s. We had a large space and a small inventory. So, occasionally we would have events like art shows or even spoken word gigs. That got me thinking I should make some stuff, in whatever medium. I ended up leaving some of my pieces in the store; this chair was one of them.

One of our regular customers, Peter Pittman, saw it and eventually displayed it in a hair salon, of all places, that his wife owned and operated. I think they would also have “exhibits” there. Anyhow, someone(?) saw it there and it ended up in a place called Breit Functional Crafts in Norfolk, VA, where someone else(?) saw it and it ended up in an exhibit at the Reynolds Minor Gallery in Richmond, VA. Funny enough, a woman from Virginia Beach saw it there and decided to buy it. I can’t remember the exact number, but I do remember I priced it high enough that no one, I thought, would buy it. Then the gallery doubled that number, and someone actually did! Oh well, I think it’s kinda corny now, but back then I hated to see it go.

The frame is made of rebar with most of the slag buffed off with a wire wheel. The seat and arms are 11 gauge stainless steel. The most interesting part, the back, is an ancient Dayton floor fan that we had laying around the store. It had a small frame that held it in position, and it took a few minutes to get up to speed. For some reason I thought it would obviously make a comfortable chair back. I meticulously cleaned it and even had the bullet-shaped motor housing re-chromed. The only pictures I have are from a contact sheet of shots a friend (Pam Taylor) took. She probably gave me the negatives but who knows where they are.

Thanks Peter! Wherever you are now…

Big Wheel Chair

I made this at least ten years ago, maybe 15. I had those four heavy duty casters laying around for a while just begging to be put on a piece of furniture. Each wheel is rated to hold 1500 lbs, and there are grease fittings on the axles and the caster bearings. I paid something like $5 each for them at a salvage store. New they cost a few hundred dollars each. I’m heavy duty, but these rollers are way heavy duty. The chair is of course silly, but still funny to me. Stainless steel 11 gauge seat and back, gun blued cold rolled half inch steel bar, and quarter inch steel plate make this rig quite heavy. At least it’s on wheels!