Infinity: the Multi-framed Chair Made From Upcycled Scrap Wood

If you craft a lot of things out of wood, do you have so much scrap wood left over that you don't know what to do with it? If this sounds familiar, don't get rid of it. Instead, I am going to teach you how to create a chair made from YOUR leftover scrap wood. Without further ado, lets get started.

For this project, we will need various supplies, listed down below.

1. Any type of Saw
2. Bar Clamps
3. Drill/screwdriver (Optional)
4. Kreg Jig (Optional, only if you choose to screw it together)
5. Measuring Tape/Ruler
6. Paper
7. Pencil
8. Screws (Optional)
9. Scrap wood/regular wood
10. Sandpaper
11. Sander
12. Wood glue
13. Wood Wax (Optional)

Before we can build a chair, we must research on what type of chair we would like to build. I chose a multi-framed chair, and chose to make it out of scrap wood that I had left over from my other projects. (You can either choose to use old scrap wood, or buy new wood for this project.)

Before we can first start building our chair, we will first need to design what it will look like. This is called a rough sketch. Make sure to include the measurements of the chair so you know the dimensions of it so you know them when building. Be sure to include both the side view and the front view so you can visualize the lengths and widths of both angles when looking at it. Once that is done, we can move onto the next step, preparing the wood.

After we've drawn our rough sketch, we can start the first step of building, preparing the wood. First, lay all the wood you will use onto the ground. Next, organize into these categories: the legs, the base, and the frames. Last, sand the wood with an electric sander, or manually sand it with a sheet of sandpaper until it is smooth and not rough anymore, and I recommend starting with a 120, then to a 220, and lastly to a 240 sandpaper (higher number=finer sandpaper). After that, the wood is all prepared, and you can move onto the next step, creating the legs.

Since we have everything prepared, we can finally start building our project. Without the legs, no chair would be able to stand. So, that's why we're making them now. First, get your wood that you separated into the group for the "legs". Next, cut off any uneven ends on the wood like mine. Lastly, make any changes to the wood if needed, for example, if the wood is higher than the measurement you wrote down on the rough sketch, cut it. When you've done everything for the legs, we can leave the wood for later and move onto the next step, creating the seat.

Since you now have the legs of the seat, you will need a place to sit, and that's where the seat comes in. First, get the wood that you separated into the "seat" group. Next, we can continue by cutting any uneven edges off of the wood like the wood I used. Last, when the wood is all even you can then connect all of the pieces together with either wood glue or by screwing it. Gluing it will be easier, but might not be as sturdy as if you were to screw it together. If you are gluing it, apply a good amount of glue to the sides of each piece of wood, then, clamp them together with bar clamps and then let it sit to dry. Now that the seat is all prepared and ready, we can move onto the next step, attaching the seat to the legs.

To attach the seat, we can either choose to use wood glue or screws. To glue it, first, apply a good amount of wood glue to one of the legs. Next, stick the leg onto the bottom of the seat. Last, if there is any excess glue showing, scrape it off before it dries with either a rag or wet paper towel. Repeat this step for as many legs you need to attach to the chair. If you want to use screws, which I didn't do, use a Kreg Jig and pockets holes and screws to attach it to the seat, or find a tutorial online on how to do it if you are inexperienced. Once you have attached the seat to the legs, we can move onto the next step, creating the first and innermost frame.

Without the frame, or backrest, on a chair, you will have nowhere to put your back, and will therefore be sitting uncomfortably. That is why we are going to make the first frame of our chair. What I first did is I cut my wood into strips of how wide I wanted them to be, or around 4 centimeters, then I cut them into smaller pieces of however long I needed them and for this specific frame was two inches for each piece, and I recommend you do this too (Make sure to do this all on the wood that you separated into the group for the frames.) To make it so that the pieces are easily connectable for the frame, I made 2 pieces with 1 end slanted, and 1 piece with 2 ends slanted at a 45 degree angle. (You will see this is a pattern between frames.) After you have your pieces, it should look something like the image above. After that, apply some wood glue onto the slanted parts of the wood and leave it to dry for a little, and don't forget to wipe off the excess glue when you glue it! After that, we can move onto making the second frame. (Tip: If your frame just looks like a solid square, you can optionally cut out a little bit of the inside to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.)

Since the first frame is really small and barely takes up any space on the seat, we need to make more frames for the seat. That's why we are going to make the second frame for our chair. Since we already have strips of the wood cut into the length and width of our liking, we need to cut it into pieces of how big we want this frame to be. Since this is the second smallest frame, I made it 4 inches tall on the sides, and for the longer piece in the middle, I made it 6 inches long. These measurements may vary on how big you want the backrest on your chair to be. Just like the first one, make 2 pieces with 1 end slanted and 1 piece with 2 ends slanted, all slants should also be at a 45 degree angle. After you have your pieces, we can start to assemble the frame. To do that, apply some glue to the slants on each piece of wood, just like the image above, and connect the pieces together. After that, we can leave it to dry and move onto making the third frame.

Now that the backrest is getting a little bigger, we can start to finish it. That's why we are making the third frame. To do that, grab one of your strips of wood and mark out how long you want your pieces of wood to be, and for me, I made the 2 side ones 6 inches long, and made the middle piece 8 inches long, and these measurements might be different, depending on how big you want your backrest to be. Since we need the pieces to connect, measure out a 45 degree angle on each piece of wood, and make the piece for the middle have 2 45 degree angles. Next, apply a good amount of glue to the angles on each piece of wood, and stick it together to make the shape. After that, we can leave it to dry and move onto the next step, creating the 4th and final frame.

The back is almost complete! To finish it, we can make the fourth and final frame. To start, grab your strip of wood, and cut it into pieces. I made the side strips 8 inches tall, and the middle one 10 inches tall, and keep in mind, these measurements may be different based on the measurements of your chair. Next, measure out a 45 degree angle on one side of each of the side ones, and both sides of the middle one. After you have all of the wood ready to be glued together, we can start to glue it. Apply some wood glue to the slants on the side pieces, and connect the pieces together to form the frame. After that, we can leave it to dry, and move onto the next optional step, waxing the wood, or if you don't want to wax the wood, you can move onto attaching the frames to the chair.

To make the wood look better, we can do an optional step called waxing to make the wood look nice. To do this, grab your old wood wax or buy more if you need too. Next, apply a good amount of wax to a rag or old item of clothing and then rub the wax onto the wood, and make sure to spread it around evenly on all of the surfaces of the wood. (I accidentally did this before attaching the legs to the chair, so ignore that the wood is not on the chair.) Once you have spread it onto the wood, leave it to dry, and we can move onto the next step, attaching the frames to the seat. (Tip: If you need more than 4 frames for the back of your chair, just make more by following the same steps for as many as you need, and just gradually increasing the size for each side piece and middle piece of the frame.)

Now that we have all of our frames waxed and sanded, we can then glue them onto the chair. To do this, first grab your chair and flip it sideways. Next, put a small amount of glue onto the bottom of any frame, and stick it onto the chair, and do this in the order from the largest frame to the smallest frame. Repeat this for as many frames that you have, until your chair looks something like the image above. After that, you can leave it to dry, either overnight, or for a few hours. Once it is dry, you have officially finished all of the steps and made yourself a new chair out of scrap wood!

In this project, we learned how to make a chair using scrap wood. This project also teaches us that you can turn scrap wood, something that you were planning to get rid of, into something great if you put in the time. I hope that you had just as much fun as I did making this chair, and I'll see you next time!