(PROJECT) Santa Chair

Santa chair, christmas 2015

Build a Santa Chair in under 3 days and $100

A few days before the Murwillumbah christmas services a request was made to make a Santa chair. For anyone who has ever attempted to make a chair, it takes time, and good materials. Not an impossible task to achieve, but definately a challenge

 The brief was that:

• It had to be made using materials that would be cost effective(cheap)
• It had to support a Santa that was over six foot tall plus the possibility of two or more adults and children at the same time
• Needed to be easily transported in a regular car

I had freedom with aesthetic choice on this project which allowed for a bit of creativity

My execution

The chair was made in two section for ease of transport, the back and base could be separated and transported in a regular car.

material/media: 2x  MDF panels,  6x 2 x 4in  2.4m  pine lengths , spray paint,  red doona cover, screws

scale: H170cm x W100cm x D90cm

installation: located at the entrance of the murwillumbah civic center, at the Christmas celebration

What research did I engage with ? 

Due to time limitations I simply searched for visual inspiration, "thankyou google image search". I used the following images as inspiration for the design, borrowing visual elements.

Snow flake design

General shape

The following is a discussion on the planning of your project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming technical problems and determining limitations and constraints

 Day 1

The start of the first day was spent researching images as seen above. 

Once I had decided on a general design and shape of the chair a trip to the local Bunnings hardware store was made to purchase the timber. MDF panels are cheap and strong enough for a project like this. A single large panel (1.2 x 0.9 cm, the maxiumum I could fit in my car) costs around $10 AUD as opposed to the $50+ for plywood. If you can afford it plywood is the better option. Also non-structural pine lengths (2.4m in length) cost around $3 each. Making the general timber costs around the $50 mark for all the timber used in this project.

As the snowflake is the central focus of this chair it was the first part of the chair to be  designed. A bit of maths helps here. To mark out the circles of this design I simply attached a pencil to a piece of string. The design was based of the image above but a few changes were made towards the center to make this one unique. If your making your own draw it on paper first, its harder once you are working at full scale.

 ABOVE: Before I move onto the next step heres a short list of the tools you will need for this project:
Clamps
Set square
Jig saw
Sander
Table saw
Hammers
Protective equipment(eyes ears etc)
Screw driver (recommend electic)
Power drill
Paint roller
Paint tray
Masking tape

Just a quick shoutout to my wife and kids, they bought me an early Christmas present to complete this project, a Ozito table saw.

ABOVE: Now to cutting out the snow flake. You will notice that in this picture the snowflake panel is suspended between two tables. This will give you a firm surface to cut and drill on. Use saw horses for this if you have them(recommended). 

 ABOVE: Now drill at least one hole in every section of the design that you wish to have cut out. This will allow you to easily insert the Jigsaw blade and to be able to cut all of them out without stopping. 
NOTE that this is the most time consuming portion of the project

ABOVE: the finished back of the chair. Now use sandpaper to remove any burrs from the cut edges, there will likely be alot especially if you are using MDF.

Next cut the panels out for the base of the chair. 

sides of chair  two(2) panels  45 x 60 cm

front of chair  one(1) panel     45 x 90 cm

BELOW: the design for the base of the chair was based on the research image. A simple and effective aesthetic element.

 BELOW: these panels were then tacked together to see if the would be large enough. Also not that two timber lengths 170cm in length were added to the snowflake panel. The idea here is to sort out any aesthetic issues and structural issues. 

Day two

Only having a few hours on day 2  the focus was spent on completing the base. You may have noticed that in the panel list from the previous day that there was no back panel. The reason is to keep weight and cost down to a minimum. a single strip of timber is placed along the back and front horizontally to provide maximum strength for the base of the chair. This two lengths of timber sit ontop of four (4) vertically standing timber lengths. Keeping in mind that a solid panel will be sitting ontop of these slats they provide more than enough strength to support two large adults. The arms of the chair are purely aesthetic. They are not weight bearing in the design but could hold 100kg+ if needed.

BELOW: The two chair elements together ready for painting, Note there are end caps on the top of the snowflake panel lengths. These are aesthetic choices which will be painted a different color and can be removed for transport.

The rest of day two was spend painting the chair white. Three coats of acrylic white paint were applied allow 2 hours between each coat. After the third coat masking tape was used to mark out the highlights which were applied using gold spray paint.

Day 3

The masking tape was removed, and any over spray was painted over with white paint. The upholstery (an old red doona) was cut to size, making sure there was plenty to overlap under the arm wrests and seat panel . The seat panel was padded using an old bed pillow. The upholstery was attached to the chair using 2cm upholstery nails that you can get at any hardware store. When doing a project like this you will need to hammer them in, but not too far as you will be putting them in on the under side of the seat.  

The chair was now complete and delivered that day, ready for the Christmas celebration  

Im glad that my youngest daughters first santa photo was taken in a santa chair made by her dad

If you ever get the chance, especially at christmas time, to be able to bless others with your skills. Do it. Seeing the joy in children and putting a smile on someones face makes it all worth it. 

Hope you have a very merry christmas and an prosperous and creative new year.