Quinten Staples
Design & Design Services
Design & Design Services
Ikea Assar Chair Rework
Furniture ProjectStarted with the metal frame of the Ikea ASSAR chair and created a new reimagined take on the original design.
Process Summary
This project was a piece of senior capstone project in which I created multiple chairs using different processes.
The project started after taking a trip to Construction Junction, a store resells old building materials, furniture and other donated junk to repurposed. In the chair section I came across a set of plywood and steel chairs from Ikea. I noticed the weight of the frame and could tell that it was steel that had been covered with a rubber coating. The steel frame had an interesting form that I felt could be reused in another design. I decided to buy one of these chairs and rework it into something different.
This project was a piece of senior capstone project in which I created multiple chairs using different processes.
The project started after taking a trip to Construction Junction, a store resells old building materials, furniture and other donated junk to repurposed. In the chair section I came across a set of plywood and steel chairs from Ikea. I noticed the weight of the frame and could tell that it was steel that had been covered with a rubber coating. The steel frame had an interesting form that I felt could be reused in another design. I decided to buy one of these chairs and rework it into something different.
The first step was removing the plywood pieces. The chair had a plywood seat and backrest that fastened to the frame directly. After removing the hardware the two pieces came off easily. I documented the spacing of the holes to replicate for my replacement pieces.
I then began to deal with removing the rubberized coating on the steel frame. I initially took a chemical approach and used Citristrip to remove the coating. This only worked partially. After two applications there was still a significant amount of rubber coating.
At this point I decided to just physically remove the remaining rubber. For this I used a pneumatic die grinder with a steel wool brush attachment to grind away the left over coat and get a more even finish.
Following this process the steel frame was much shinier than I wanted. I had just experimented with a metal blackening solution on another project and got a rustic aged steel look that I liked and decided to replicate that process again on this frame.
After finishing the frame I began to work on the replacement backrest and seat. From a previous furniture project I had two boards of hard maple leftover. With the shorter of the two pieces I made the seat. For this I cut the board into 2 inch wide strips, rotated them and re-glued them together to create a 2 inch thick seat.
After gluing and sanding, I made some table saw cuts creating chamfered edges on the back and under the seat. I did not originally plan these cuts but after seeing the seat as I had it, I decided it wasn’t cohesive with the frame.
I attached the seat afterwards using threaded inserts, rubber stoppers , and long screws. I used these rubber stoppers stacked to offset the seat from the frame and give the seat a little bounce and freedom to shift with the person sitting in the chair.
Lastly, I needed to add the backrest back onto the chair. For this I set aside a longer board of hard maple with an interesting chipped or raw edge on one of the corners. I decided to use this piece for the backrest to keep this imperfection and highlight it as a part of the design to emphasize the spirit of re-use and scrappiness that I wanted to explore with this project. I felt that this imperfection offset the boxy sort of brutalist form as naturalistic element amidst mostly all straight lines.
Adding the back of the seat ended up being the most difficult part of the process. The odd angle of the attachment piece of the frame and the lip on the back of the frame made it difficult to determine the angle I needed to cut the board that would be the backrest so that it would fit. To get the correct angles I traced the angle onto a piece of scrapwood, transferred it to the board, set the table saw blade to match the angle drawn onto the board, and cut. I then repeated the same process to make the cut to account for the lip on the frame petruding from the back. I wanted to make a single cut to keep things as clean as possible so I spent time ensuring that I got my measurements correct and I would get the cut correct on my first attempt.
I was able to successfully cut the board to fit the odd angles of the back of the frame and attach it. After ensuring everything was secure with some test sits, I added some finish. For this I used a beeswax oil.
Adding the back of the seat ended up being the most difficult part of the process. The odd angle of the attachment piece of the frame and the lip on the back of the frame made it difficult to determine the angle I needed to cut the board that would be the backrest so that it would fit. To get the correct angles I traced the angle onto a piece of scrapwood, transferred it to the board, set the table saw blade to match the angle drawn onto the board, and cut. I then repeated the same process to make the cut to account for the lip on the frame petruding from the back. I wanted to make a single cut to keep things as clean as possible so I spent time ensuring that I got my measurements correct and I would get the cut correct on my first attempt.
I was able to successfully cut the board to fit the odd angles of the back of the frame and attach it. After ensuring everything was secure with some test sits, I added some finish. For this I used a beeswax oil.
Other Work