And now for something completely different!
I ran across a picture of the Gerrit Rietveld Red-Blue chair last year, and I was mesmerized. I love this chair. Rietveld was a Dutch architect/furniture designer in the early 20th century. (A photo of the chair, below, shows the distinctive paint scheme Rietveld used on his chair.)
So I drafted some plans for an outdoor chair based on Reitveld’s design and built several prototypes, settling on the one you see to the left.
Something this rectilinear is not for everybody; maybe it’s even an acquired taste, I don’t know. But there’s no denying it’s distinctive.
I made a few necessary modifications to Rietveld’s design so that it can live outside: I divided both the seat and the back into four slats to accommodate wood movement. I added a rail to the lower part of the rear frame to strengthen it, and I moved the arms out a little. I also laminated the parts that make up the frame (more about that below).
I’m calling it the 917 series because Rietveld designed and built the Red-Blue chair about 1917 (and my anniversary is September 17th, a great day!). I’ve also designed a legrest, several side tables and some plant stands using the basic rectilinear pattern of Rietveld’s chair. See the No. 1 and No 3 bonsai stands for examples.
One of the reasons I built the chair was to find out just how sturdy and comfortable it is. You might be wondering the same thing.
Rietveld used dowels to join the parts of his chair; I use stainless steel screws and Titebond III waterproof glue. I wanted to get as close as possible to his original in terms of the slender dimensions of the parts so I ended up laminating the parts that make up the frame (i.e. glueing two strips of wood together to make a single part) which actually strengthens the piece. There’s less chance that a part will twist or warp because the glue joint actually resists movement. In fact, the glue joint itself is stronger than the wood.
The chair also features what I call the three-plane joint for lack of a better phrase. It’s just the intersection of three parts in three different planes that are connected with glue and screws. A simple, strong joint.
As for comfort: I was surprised to find that the chair wasn’t simply an exercise in geometry and minimalism. It’s comfortable too. I actually use the prototype in our den as a reading chair. It’s good without cushions for about 30 minutes. With cushions, it’s even better (not real sure here because I rarely sit an hour in anything). I built the legrest because I’m over 6′ tall and I can stretch out my legs nicely with the legrest in place.
The chair will probably work best on a hard surface like concrete, stone or a wood deck. The thin legs would sink into soft turf. (No problem on sun-baked red clay like we have around here.) Give it a home in a sheltered area and get creative with outrageous paint schemes. The chair is the perfect canvas for that sort of thing.
Details about size and price for the chair and legrest are available here.
