StudyCorner

Design & Craft

Chairs

How great chairs are designed and made — from mingei and Danish modern to the green-wood revival — taught half through appreciation and design thinking, half through real shop work, ending in plan-verified builds, two capstone chairs, and original measured projects in a practical plan room.

Made for Anyone who wants to understand chairs deeply and learn to build them: the Japanese and Scandinavian design traditions, the joinery and techniques behind them, and hands-on projects from complete beginner shop plans to two capstone chairs.

Start with lesson one See the curriculum

Your progress

0 / 33 lessons · 0%

The full route

Curriculum

Lessons build in sequence, but you can revisit any topic whenever you need it.

  1. 01

    Course 1

    Chairs

    The full arc in one course — how chairs work, the makers and movements worth knowing, design thinking and "chair math," joinery and technique, and a graded sequence of builds plus a cited plan-and-resource library.

    33 lessons
    01 How a Chair Works 4 lessons
    1. 01 The Two (and a Half) Families of Chairs
    2. 02 The Geometry of Sitting
    3. 03 Wood for Chairs
    4. 04 What Makes a Chair Good
    02 Makers & Movements 6 lessons
    1. 01 Mingei and Modern Japan
    2. 02 The Japanese-American Synthesis
    3. 03 Danish Modern
    4. 04 The Wider North
    5. 05 Continental Currents
    6. 06 American Studio Furniture (and Eames, Briefly)
    03 Design Thinking, Drawing & Chair Math 6 lessons
    1. 01 How Chair Designers Work
    2. 02 Reading and Making Plans
    3. 03 The Geometry of Chairs
    4. 04 The Physics of Chairs
    5. 05 Proportion and Form Language
    6. 06 Designing Your Own Variation
    04 Joinery & Techniques 6 lessons
    1. 01 The Mortise-and-Tenon Family
    2. 02 The Chairmaker's Joint
    3. 03 Japanese Joinery and Hand Tools
    4. 04 Bending Wood
    5. 05 Turning for Chairs
    6. 06 Woven Seats and Finishes
    05 The Builds 7 lessons
    1. 01 The Designer's Invitation (Mari's Sedia 1 or Rietveld's Crate Chair)
    2. 02 Stick Chair Warm-Up (*Build a Chair from Bulls%$t*)
    3. 03 Bent Lamination: The Butterfly Homage
    4. 04 Building an Icon (Choose Your Track)
    5. 05 Rustic Stretch
    6. 06 Capstone A: The Democratic Side Chair
    7. 07 Capstone B: The Post-and-Rung Ladderback
    06 The Plan Room 4 lessons
    1. 01 The Chairmaker's Resource Atlas
    2. 02 Complete Plan: The Four-Square Stool
    3. 03 Complete Plan: The Three-Point Backstool
    4. 04 Museum to Mockup: An Honest Inspiration Plan