Furniture Design

The Deckchair

A deckchair made with spare teak and old curtain fabric.

My contribution: Design and construction alongside a carpenter.
The output: A finished chair and an illustrated construction dossier.

Category: Furniture Design
Year: Spring 2025
Duration: 3 weeks
Made with: Hand Tools, Mortise & Tenon Joinery, Wood Lathe, Upholstery
Document: Construction Dossier (opens in a new tab)

Where it sat

Research — yes
Concept — no
Product Design — yes
Branding — no
Development — yes
MVP — no

What came out

Research — yes
UX/UI — no
Design System — no
Prototype — yes
Website — no
Application — no

Who it was for

Productivity — no
Education — no
Community — no
Brand Experience — no
Creative Expression — yes
Social Impact — no

Overview

About the project

I built this chair around the start of my first year. Our house was being renovated, there was spare teak, and the carpenter on site had time to work with me. We used old curtain fabric for the seat.

The challenge

The problem

I wanted to make a usable deckchair without spending much on new materials. The available wood and fabric gave me a starting point, but I still needed to work out the frame, reclining position and construction.

Design decisions

Building with what was already available

There was spare teak at home during a renovation and a carpenter working on site. I built the chair with him, reused old curtains for the seat and learned the joinery as we worked.

01 / Material on hand

Spare teak

The teak came from our home renovation.

02 / A second use

Curtain fabric

Old curtains became the seat fabric.

03 / Practical knowledge

Real joinery

The carpenter helped me build the frame with mortise-and-tenon joints.

What shaped the chair

Using the spare materials

I worked with the teak and curtains we had instead of buying new materials.

Planning the reclining position

The dossier records the ergonomic considerations behind the chair’s proportions.

Recording the build

I put the drawings and photographs into a dossier so someone else could follow the construction.

Source & context

The construction dossier includes drawings, material choices and build photographs. Its load calculations should be read as estimates, not certified physical tests.

Read the original project document ↗

The approach

What I did

I learned mortise-and-tenon joinery from the carpenter as we built the frame, adding screws where needed. I photographed the construction and assembled a dossier with drawings and material notes so someone else could follow the build.