The other day while browsing one of my favourite websites (Apartment Therapy), a particular post got my attention, a post on an unusual “garbage find”.

Someone found an Eames chair left out on the curb on garbage day! I can’t believe it, imagine. Alright, I admit, the idea of collecting other people’s “trash” isn’t too appealing but to be fair, it’s an awesome chair and it’s not like it’s actual smelly garbage or anything… just a chair that was probably considered excess (and in poor shape).

Ok, back to the point.

While looking at a picture of this “mess” (the chair was in bad shape and in pieces) it suddenly struck my how simple the construction of this thing really was. I got to thinking: “I bet I could build one… if only I could bend the plywood”… well bending plywood is not exactly a daily thing for me (neither is building furniture) but I’m gonna give it a shot anyway.

I went to the local lumber yard and bought a very thin 6mm (1/4 inch) thickness plywood sheet which I will attempt to turn into a quasi Eames chair for my little girl (she will be 1 year old on Nov 30th!). If it succeeds I’m pretty sure she’ll be the only one with a mini-Eames.

Bending plywood (as far as I could figure out) is done in 1 of 3 ways:

1. steam the plywood and squash it in a mold once it becomes plyable
2. soak the plywood overnight and squash it… blah blah blah
3. build it up layer by layer using veneer sheets, in a mold, to the desired shape

I don’t have a workshop or patience to hunt down adequate (cheap, soft) veneer sheets to build it up layer by layer… I also don’t want to build a steam chamber for a single (or few) projects… because I don’t have a workshop. MY WORKSHOP is my attic. I’m lucky enough to have a bit of attic space above my apartment (which I hope to renovate into a 2nd floor some day) where I can make a mess!

Anyway, to keep this post to a reasonable length… I’ll stop now. I’m going to take pictures regardless of the outcome, I hope you will see a beautiful little chair but I have a feeling you will see a lot of soggy plywood instead. Keep your fingers crossed.

PS: If this actually works, maybe we can think of other plywood furniture to do in mini-specs.

PPS: I hope to start on this soon but it might be a little while since we have to organize Petra’s first birthday

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 14th, 2006 at 10:01 pm and is filed under do-it-yourself (DIY), modern furniture. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.