Maine Chair Build

Furniture built just for the client. Starting from a simple wood log, milled to perfection and crafted into a perfectly jointed and very comfortable chair.

Project notes

What this project shows

For the Maine chairs, I wanted the finished pieces to feel comfortable and handmade without looking rough. The project started before the shop work, with finding fallen trees, milling them into planks, and planing the wood down until it was usable.

The hardest part was making the pieces repeatable. One chair can hide small mistakes, but five chairs make every angle, curve, and joint obvious. I had to keep cutting, sanding, routing, plugging screw holes, and checking that each chair matched the others.

I liked this project because it turned raw wood into something people could actually sit in and use. Adding the table at the end made it feel like a complete set rather than just a group of chairs.

Build sequence

Start to finish

7 photos in numeric project order

Maine Chair Build progress photo 1 — Step 1
After creating the schematics for the chairs I wanted to build, I began milling all the wood I planned to use. To mill the wood, I went into the woods, found fallen trees, put them on the mill, and cut them into the two-inch planks I wanted. After that, I needed the boards to be the exact width I wanted, so I planed them down with a power planer until they were just right.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 2 — Step 2
Once I was done gathering all the wood I needed, I went to my shop and gathered all my tools.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 3 — Step 3
After doing more calculations, I realized I still needed some additional wood. I planed down more boards and was finally ready to cut, sand, and assemble all of my pieces.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 4 — Step 4
The process was tedious. It started with drawing all the pieces I needed onto the wood, then cutting them out with a jigsaw, table saw, or miter saw. This photo was taken mid-progress.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 5 — Step 5
After completing and cutting out all the pieces, it was time to sand down every single piece until they were completely smooth.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 6 — Step 6
I then assembled the first chair carefully, plugging every screw hole and wood-gluing every piece along the way to make it completely seamless. I routed and sanded every corner to make it as smooth as possible.

Maine Chair Build progress photo 7 — Step 7
Finally, I completed all five chairs and added a table for the client as an extra piece. They came out perfectly smooth, with great curves and strong joints.