Making a chaise lounge

[Arron]

Thanks for that. I'm not really trying to reproduce Victorian dimensions but it's interesting to get a perspective.

The horsehair is interesting stuff, but I've studied some trad upholstery books and the consensus seems to be that horsehair wasn't really used for primary padding on quality pieces. It played a role more like wadding does today - filling and smoothing. The primary stuffing would have been fibre, coir or that stuff derived from seaweed whose name I've forgotten.

Colonial pieces would be different because the dominant ethos was 'you use what you can get'.

On the subject of trad upholstery books, I'm reading one now called 'the essential guide to upholstery' by Dorothy Gates, which just happens to have a step-by-step on doing a daybed (chaise without a backrest) nearly identical in proportion to mine. Hers is a very traditional approach, coil springs, built up on top with fibre, hair and hessian, all top and blind stitched together with the great rolled edges. I'm wondering if I should (or could) do that here. I had intended just z springs with foam and wadding on top. Maybe I should rethink that. Cost is an issue though, and it wasn't really my intention to make this an epic.

[Arron]

Back to the Men's Shed yesterday to cut and shape timber for the backrest.

I used plywood for the backrest. Upholsterers generally prefer to use webbing because it will part to let a stray knee or foot through, rather then break. Nonetheless, I've used 6mm marine ply - it won't break but it has added a lot of weight.

The top rail of the backrest will need to be shaped to a rounded profile. I can't have the noise and mess at home so it will have to wait for next visit to the Men's Shed.

So this is what I've done so far. Those legs (feet) are just cardboard mock ups. I have also extended the length by 110mm, not a job of great finesse.
IMG_1514.jpg

I took some time to go over the whole thing and make it fabric-friendly. This means rounding off corners and sanding rough patches that might otherwise tear or wear away fabric or webbing. It's also a chance to make sure there is timber in all the right spots to attach to. I also needed to provide gaps in strategic places so fabric is not pinched when the modules are put together.

I've also found the perfect thing to fix the top of the backrest to the top of the armrest, where it's inaccessible. These things
IMG_1515.JPG

Otherwise the armrest and backrest are held on simply by 5/16ths bolts into 'T' nuts.

Next is rounding over the backrest rail, and starting on the legs.
Cheers
Arron

[Xanthorrhoeas]

It is looking interesting. I have realised from that photo that the proportions of your chaise and my antique ones are quite different in another way. The antique chaises and double-ended sofas have a base that is much thinner - only approx. 100 mm and then have a loose (though fitted) padded mattress squab on top. That is because they are not sprung seats, the base has webbing straps across it then is covered by plain cloth. But then, they are not renowned for their comfort either, though we find them to be so.

When you upholster the base you might like to consider adding a horizontal line, a bead or some gimp sewn on, about halfway down to give it a lighter, less boxy look?

David

[Arron]

The timber frame is nearly done.

I rounded over the top of the backrest. It's not perfect, but I decided I wanted a handmade profile (with all the imperfections that involves) rather then a machine made or router-driven look.

Then I did the legs - or should they be called feet. As I mentioned above, this was done subtractive. I just built up some massive blocks of laminated pine and glued them to the ends. Like this

IMG_1530.jpg

And then once the glue was dry I used a chainsaw to shape them. Lovely delicate tool for fine woodworking. Finished off with a flap wheel and a ROS. There is still a little bit more fine shaping to go - though I have promised myself I'm not going to get all anal-retentive about making each of the 4 legs the identical.

IMG_1543.jpg

Next is painting. Probably the most challenging bit of the project - getting the look I want.

Arron

[Arron]

Nope, sorry, one more bit to go. The 'faceplate' of the armrest.

I have rough cut it from mahogany. I used mahogany because I wanted a nice carving timber. I had ideas of carving some feature along its length - some scrollwork or acanthus leaf. Then I decided I wanted a more constrained look - Im still not really sure I like carved furniture. So probably just one scroll at the end.

The mahogany will just be painted in with the rest.

IMG_1545.JPG

There is a problem here. Where the mahogany faceplate meets the pine leg - a visible join here will be eye catching and ugly. Ideally, it should be done as one piece, so no join from bottom of leg to top of faceplate. However I want the whole thing to be modular and disassembleable. So there has to be a join. How to minimise it ? Any ideas anyone ? Or should just accept that it has to be there and learn to ignore it.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

I rounded over the top of the backrest. It's not perfect, but I decided I wanted a handmade profile (with all the imperfections that involves) rather then a machine made or router-driven look.
Arron

Traditionally the shaped, rounded timber at the top of the side rest is well padded with cotton wadding or similar, so it didn't need to be perfectly shaped - all the unevennesses are hidden by the wadding.

I love those legs - very elegant indeed. Looking good!

David

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Nope, sorry, one more bit to go. The 'faceplate' of the armrest.

There is a problem here. Where the mahogany faceplate meets the pine leg - a visible join here will be eye catching and ugly. Ideally, it should be done as one piece, so no join from bottom of leg to top of faceplate. However I want the whole thing to be modular and disassembleable. So there has to be a join. How to minimise it ? Any ideas anyone ? Or should just accept that it has to be there and learn to ignore it.

It is IMHO, a shame to paint Mahogany - have you considered polishing only that piece as a show timber? Some antique furniture was fully upholstered except for some show panels on the arms. Those are more highly prized than the ones with no show timber.

Here are two historical examples of where the back joins the base for some ideas. One (1820's) covers the join with a moulding. The other (1840's) rounds over the boards at the join. Both make a feature of the join rather than try to hide it.
1840's Chaise back to base join.jpg 1840's
1820's Chaise back to base join.jpg 1820's

[Arron]

With the timberwork done, I've progressed the finish of the exposed timber.

I've decided not to add any carving. Its a shame really, I learnt to carve with the view of being able to embellish furniture that I make, but the same thing happens every time I get to this stage - I bail out of carving it at the last moment. The problem is that I dont want the look of traditional ornamental carving. I'm not trying to add antique elements to something made in the here and now. I'd like to be able to design carved elements which arise from a modern idiom but ultimately I'm just not a strong enough designer to do something we would be happy with.

So I'll just paint the exposed timber. I'm thinking green chalk paint with dark wax finish.

For now, I just need to prime the timber. I strongly advise not finishing the timber till the very last opportunity as the upholstery process requires fairly rough handling and its hard not to damage the finish. I'll do the final painting before the final upholstery fabric.

The exposed timber took a good deal of frigging because (using pine, because its free) I have had a bad case of the early wood/late wood thing.

So with grey primer on all the exposed timber, its time to do all the foundation layers of the upholstery.

I started with the bed.

I wrapped the timber in hessian. Basically this is just a tough and hard wearing material to stop the outer layers rubbing against the frame.

I used green hessian because it was cheap. No-one wants to buy lime green hessian so it was on special at $4 per metre at Spotlite. It wont be seen.

I ordered 9 guage zigzag springs from Home Upholstery ($60 approx for 20 metre roll), and 24 spring clips ($12). The spacing is 130mm. Cut the springs to length, bend the ends back towards the spring in a vice so they dont pop out of the clips, fit all 12 springs. Nail the clips home.

upholstery2.jpg

Ideally, the clips should be held on by narrow crowned staples. I dont have such things so I just use nails. I skew the nails in such that two resist outward force and one resists inward force.

Major takeaway - bend the cut ends of the springs in such a way that they dont point up when the spring is fitted, and round the cut ends over on a grinder before you fit them. I didnt think of that, so you can see the sharp little ends I ended up with. Very hard to fix in situ.

upholstery3.jpg

You want the springs to bow upwards, cresting about 30-50mm above the level of the clips is apparently ideal.

I would have preferred flatter, as boxy is the look I'm going for, but I could not have stretched them any flatter.

The tension on the springs is immense. It took 2 people to fit a spring. Takeaway - perhaps start by making a spring tensioner.

Once the springs were fitted I had to add two more braces as the bed was deforming.

Oddly, the sides of the bed were pulled inwards by the springs - not pushed outward as you might expect.

Then some very strong twine (250kg breaking strain) is fixed on and looped around the springs to force them to act as one unit, to a degree. Its better to use paper coated wire and special clips. I skipped those because I'm trying to do this for a reasonable cost but there seems to be so many things to buy that it gets out of hand.

The blue fabric wrapped around the springs at each end of the bed is simply to stop the first and last spring from moving too far away from the frame when one sits down. I dont see the need for it, but Google suggests it should be done.

Then some hessian over the whole lot. This is mainly to stop the foam being cut up on the springs. More green.

And the finished bed.

upholstery4.jpg

Got to be happy with that.

I think I will cut some wedges of foam on the bandsaw and use them to build up the ends a bit, I dont like the way the first and last spring is pulled down below the level of the others.

This is what it looks like underneath. Simple is good.

upholstery5.jpg

cheers
Arron

[Arron]

Sorry for the photos being upside down in the last post. Mystery.

I have shopped for some foam. The best solution was just to order a very large sheet of 50mm foam from Home Upholstery for about $100. Two layers will give me the 100mm covering for the springs on the bed. The balance of the sheet will be used for covering the armrest. It works out about 1/4 to 1/3 the price of buying cut-to-size foam at Clark Rubber.

The remainder of the surfaces get covered in 'peeled foam', which is just 12mm soft foam.

I did the armrest too.

Not much to show here. Webbing stretched straight across. This is premium seat webbing, which is probably overkill, but I had it already.

upholstery7.jpg

And more of the lime green hessian. This is mainly to stop the webbing cutting into the foam.

upholstery8.jpg

It looks like these photos will be upside down too. Not really much to see so I'll leave them that way (not that I have a choice anyway).

cheers
Arron

[Arron]

A little more progress.

IMG_1627.jpg

The fabric edge alongside the feet will require concealed finishing so I used 'sharktrim'.

IMG_1628.jpg

Now it's ready for the foam. I have on hand 50 mm soft-medium seat foam, 25mm medium back foam, 25mm soft foam and 10mm peeled foam. Some of the foam needs to be cut into tapered strips to build up the edges, so I'll need to make a bandsaw jig for that.

Another lesson learnt: Most of the webbing used on the armrest is premium seat webbing. However I ran out where it curves over the top and needed two more pieces so I used some soft back webbing. I was just trying to avoid the delay and cost of buying another roll. Dumb shortcut. Stretching the hessian over makes these distort under tension in an ugly way. I can build it up with foam I guess. It wouldn't of mattered if I had started at the top and ran out towards the bottom. Planning needed - work from most critical to least.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

It's looking good - very elegant. I know they are under-layers and wont be seen but I actually like the green and grey! Very 'interior designer'.

David

[Arron]

Yep, I was starting to like the green too.

Anyway, the foam is on so it's all hidden now.

IMG_1656.jpg

Lesson learnt: glueing foam using pva. Previously I've used those pathetic spray can glues, or contact glues in a can. Unless you're in a hurry, plain old pva is good - I always think of it as a wood glue but for foam to wood, foam to foam or foam to natural fibre fabric it's cheap, reliable and flexible enough for most things.

You might need to get a specialised foam glue if you want something really flexible and strong though, like the top surface of something you sit on.

You might also notice I have added a simple carving to the arm. I tried leaving it unembellished but it was too plain. Also we've decided to paint the exposed timber in Porters chalk emulsion and black wax, and the wax needs some nooks and crannies to settle into. Now I wish I'd added some tiny ornamental carving to the feet - mainly just to retain some wax.

Other then that, the design looks ok. I probably should have beefed the feet up a bit more, to better balance them with the body. Actually, I think what happened is I chopped away a bit much timber trying to get a smooth finish.

It does look boxy but remember people will be viewing it standing above, or nearly so.

On to the painting.

Cheers
Arron

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Better and Better. Is that an applied carving to the arm or am I seeing the reverse of life? You could apply some carving to the legs, though I like the simplicity of them.

David

[Arron]

Carving is just stuck on.
Cheers
Arron

[Arron]

I painted the exposed timber yesterday, using Porters chalk emulsion. Then rubbed Porters Dark Wax in and buffed it up. Not really sure I like the effect - but I've decided to ignore that and hope it comes good at the end (somehow).

Then I started doing the fabric. I'm using this white stretchy stuff, largely because it's free and I don't have to drive anywhere to get it.

I started on the backrest. I figured a good shortcut was to do it auto-trimmer style i.e. cut out some plywood, bend the fabric over the plywood and glue down, then glue the whole thing into final resting place. I guess that's the same way most people apply lining to boxes, though what works for a box turns out to be much harder when scaled up to furniture size. This is the effect. A bit rough so I may have to redo it - I'll wait to see if there are any leftovers first.
IMG_1661.jpg
IMG_1659.jpg

Actually, this bit faces to the rear so it will be low priority in terms of replacing it.

I think the brown/grey and white go together well.

Tomorrow Im off to the Men's Shed to get all of the rest of the fabric cut out and basted up ready for sewing.

Cheers
Arron