Thoughts On the House
My mind races some times, most days, tracing a thought, a passage of thinking about the house interior coming along with finished rooms being made ready for me to design the pieces for. A chair, a table, a new rocker design. These things float in and out in the room space I picture in my brain. I have had mixed feelings about the first pieces and then too the first piece we make. This early period in 2020 presents me with that rare opportunity to enter an empty room and thoughtfully consider what I might want to make for it first. It’s not so much thinking about what might go here or there so much as considering what is missing in the emptiness. A coffee table is nice to have somewhere, a wall piece to present an art piece or two, perhaps an end table, a sofa table or something for entertainment sound. Standing in an empty room, there’s a different type of refreshment about it. I know, that’s a strange word to use, but, then, is it really? It’s not unlike my open sketch pad with my pencil poised over a new page of a beautiful unmarked sheet of paper. The open space challenges me, but it’s more a sympathetic challenge, not a competitive one. The place feels like it is opening up to me to place that first line to a design as yet unformed but poised and ready for the pencil to commit my thoughts to paper. I have been here before and many times. I’ve trained my mind to look first at the design from first one perspective and then from another, left, right, centre and above too. I move it around the page of my mind and then look down from above more and then from the back. The curve here seems right but then I change it with a pencil stroke and there it is, the unknown radius that so fits the distance and the height. This is how my mind works to unlock a design that might have been there for years but as yet is untapped.
My first thought on entering my empty room is not so much a table but somewhere first to sit. It stems from being contemplative. My mind is in making and not buying. Eventually, I will likely buy a soft armchair, perhaps a couch, or do I make something and it’s there what my intent begins to become solid on the page. Negative space begins to yield, to absorb and it’s there that I see that positive shape emerge in the form of a chair. Shape comes slowly, not all at styling once and often over many days. Before entering the room I stand in the doorway to stare and look. My thoughts embrace the idea of a chair as the first piece in the house. Not something static but something more floating. Is a rocking chair appropriate for the initial undertaking? Back and forth my thoughts go and I see then that a rocking chair is indeed something anyone can truly relax into. Specifically, it has become something I have come to accept after coming from a culture where I never experienced living with a rocking chair around. It is definitely something I can relax with.
Chairs are of course usually one the more complex pieces of furniture pieces even experienced furniture makers avoid. Even the square and blocky can be awkward, time heavy and when you add in some curved components, a scalloped seat and such like that, the complexities just keep expanding. But I want this challenge early on in the houseful. This is what I plan to design and make for my first piece in the living room. What my challenge then is to distill it down to make it doable for all.
I have some different woods but have yet to decide what the wood will be. I have some mesquite I want to use somewhere in the house but no 2″ stock which I really need. I will be back in Texas in a few months so that might work for me to find some pieces to bring back with me. Alternatively, I thought too to laminate some for the thicker sections. That can be done creatively so that too might be the answer!
Rocking chairs are always stand-alone pieces though I once went to a home where they had six rockers, all different, all hand made, and all very comfortable. This was an American home and it is more likely you will find the welcome of a rocker than anywhere else in the world. Though we tend to see rocking chairs as more a relaxing chair, many such chairs were indeed working chairs, often without arms on Southern and Southwest porches where men and women worked their crafts of weaving baskets and other craftwork. On a rocker, you can micro-adjust your position for different tasks and then, reaching to the porch floor for more weavers to work into the ribs, you had a readily available supply to work with. Rocking chairs find a home in American nurseries too. A comely place to sit and nurse the baby to sleep, read a book or just sip your tea. I have used my design of a craftsman-style rocking chair for three decades so far. It is indeed very comfortable with the leather seat and the wide arms. I love it. Rockers are at home in living rooms, large kitchens, bedrooms and especially dens if you have a larger house. In the UK we do not have wrap-around porches to add to the living space, unfortunately. Mostly it’s not necessary as we don’t need to move outdoors to escape the heat and humidity as in the USA before airconditioning came in.
Let’s think rocking chair as a more contemporary complementary piece as popular as it was to the US Southern Living culture but differently presented as a comfort chair for all. On the one hand, yes, it’s a stand-alone piece but then too one equally complementary to the comfort of a nice, living, lived-in room.
I would definitely love to build a rocker or chair someday. However, this brings up the journey of making for the house and chronicling the builds. If you start with a rocker, then this whole thing is for advanced woodworkers. Flipped around and starting with something easy, this house build out could include beginners and gradually progress to harder projects. Whereas a beginner woodworker could start on the first project and gradually build skill up to the last project. Just a thought.
I really wouldn’t worry much, Steve. There will be a strong mix of pieces covering the whole range for all skill levels. There is also a wealth of projects on woodworkingmasterclasses.com and our commonwoodworking.com site to encourage beginners and the experienced woodworker too. In there you will find the basic foundation course I developed over three decades so a good place to work through as much as you can.
Remember too that thousands of my students worked through this basic foundation course on common woodworking, which is just six 8-10 hour days, and then built the Craftsman-style rocking chair. They were mostly raw beginners and some had never picked up a hand tool before then.
Fair enough. I have done all of the courses on the treasure trove that is Common Woodworking. I have to give a huge shout out to Izzy for always answering questions. She helped me several times. I have also made a few projects from Woodworking Masterclasses. I guess the thing I am not sure of is the logical steps to take to gradually improve without making expensive firewood. Maybe I do have the skills now to make a rocker, thanks to you, however Maybe I am just too intimidated. The cost of nice wood makes me second guess trying something on that scale
Hello, Steve. You have to do something to achieve something. You’ve made some projects from Woodworking Masterclasses. So you know you can! Do it! And enjoy your succes when you finish the rocking chair.
I’m nothing special but with sharp tools and the tips and techniques from Woodworking Masterclasses I’ve succeeded to my full satisfaction each and every time I’ve made something out of wood. So I guess you’ll be able to do that as well.
Do I never make a little mistake here or there? Oh, yes, certainly. But if I don’t show to anybody where I went wrong, nobody will notice. Well, of course skilled woodworking experts would see, because they know what to look for – and because they too have made their own mistakes before they got so good as they are now. Even Mr. Sellers experiences little incidents now and then, but that doesn’t stop him. He just knows (and shows his audience) how to fix it. And in the end of the last video in a given project series he presents to the amazed world the nicest looking wooden object. I would encourage you to try, get the best possible out of it and enjoy your final result. That’s basically what it’s all about.
Remember former US President Obama’s election campaign “Yes, we can”? Well, he couldn’t know if it would be a succes. But he tried. You try too…
I am with ajens, just do it. If you are fearful of making some expensive firewood, do a mock up with some inexpensive wood. Do not let intimidation scare you off from doing something. You showed wherewithal completing all the common wooding classes. If get stuck there is a very help forum at woodworking master classes. The people on the forums there are very nice and helpful. I have no doubt that you can do it, if you set your mind too it.
Your design techniques are interesting. But your work is magnificent! I love what you do here. Thank you!
Growing up in the American South rocking chairs were an essential part of the community. Neighbors sat together communicating, sharing and working on the porch, shelling peas, knitting, repairing clothes, raising children all while fighting the heat. It is certainly time to bring this back to my family and neighbors. Thanks Paul for some welcome memories and a chance to share them with my family.
Here’s one for the grandkids. Lily and Wesley Holland were my neighbours. Wesley was a cedar cutter all his life and cut the cedars all the way through the Willow City Lopp in Texas where I lived. When Wesley was in his late 90s I asked him when he switched from an ax to a chainsaw. (This would be in 1993 or thereabouts.) Wesley said, “I guess it would be about ten years ago now.” You see he had used an ax for cutting for nigh on 70 years. He then went on, “Now Lilly, she never would use a chainsaw so she jest cut with her ax.”
Now that is a true story and it was perfectly normal for both to go cut cedar and mesquite to feed their family.
Reminds me of the Canadian Frenchman, a lumberjack from the late 1800s, who told my buddy’s great grandpa, “whenever I the hornbeam cut, it jars me brains!” Guess he was using an ax!
Its funny in today’s world we rarely talk to or see our neighbors. However here in California a few years back we had a power outage one warm night. Everyone was outside, kids playing with flashlights and glowsticks. We walked the neighborhood and said hi to people we had never seen before. We made a pitcher of lemonade and sat on the rocking chairs out on the porch and sipped lemonade. We all thought “this is the life”. We saw other people out on their porches sitting in rocking chairs and other chairs all enjoying the fresh air. Funny how it takes a power outage to see what we have lost with all of our alleged “progress”.
So true. I lived in South Africa for a few years, and got used to frequent power cuts. I used to secretly look forward to them. Playing boardgames by candlelight with the kids, enjoying a glass of wine with no screens to distract, communicating as a family, singing songs. Why is it we need power cuts to talk to each other nowadays!
Paul, you have heard this hundreds if not thousands of times but I will say it again. Your Craftsman style rocker is lovely. Making one is on my to do list.
To avoid a link i will describe a song that gives a mental image of a day in the life of a rocking chair. My niece and nephew find the name Tony very Hugh-Morris.
Tony Rice — Church St Blues.
“And i got myself a rocking chair to see if i can lose… These thin dime, hard time, hell on church st blues”
Hi Paul,
really looking forward to the new rocker design! I’ve build your craftsmen style rocker two years ago and gave it to my brother and his wife as a wedding gift, it’s the proudest I’ve ever been of something I’ve build!
But here’s a question for you as well: looking around YouTube for different ways people approach rockers there seems to be a lot of them following the Sam Maloof style with bend back rests. What are your thoughts on curved VS straight back rests? I’m always unsure if people use the curves just to make it look more sculptured and fancy or if it really gives greater comfort. It sure seems like you’ve built and sat on one or two rockers in your life, so I’d love your insights on this topic.
As always, thank you for everything you and the team are doing for us!
Cheers, Simon
Love to see you build one of the earlier 1995 design rocking chairs! Maybe even a credenza at some point, similar to the design for the one you built for the White House.
Either masterpiece would be a great journey to follow along with you.
I got an error message, did my comment on Hawaiian Rockers and my rocker for 2, Comfort in Motion get through?
I like the first rocker, precisely because it does look heavy, and could bear Nero Wolfe’s one-seventh of a ton, a quality I could use myself. The making of all three, it seems to me, are a permanent contribution, but there is something else that is also. I’m beginning to think this blogging will one day find its place in the library of journaling insight into the creative process alongside photographer Edward Weston’s Daybooks.
We still have the one that our mom used to feed us in and rock us to sleep. Very fond memories.
I want to make this rocker. Both my wife and I a big (fat is likely the better term) individuals. Do you have any thoughts on how,to adjust seat width to accommodate bigger individuals?
I sofa or armchair with wooden structure and upholstered cusions (somewhat like the Danish or mid century designs) may be an interesting project and something a little different.
Mr Sellers I really enjoyed your video on upholstering your dining chair and it may be an interesting angle to add that in some more.
Not trying to tell you how to do your thing, just a thought that came to me as I read your post.
I intend on making something like that at some point either way. Have sat on one that was very comfortable at a book store once and love the idea of combining woodworking with upholstery a bit more.
Thank you for all the brilliant content you make available. It is truly unique
There is already nearly everything one might need on the masterclasses:
tables
chairs
stools
sitting bench
cabinets
chest of drawer
blanket chest
baby cot
bookshelves
coat rack
desk
and so on.
(with multiple variations)
Of course one has to modify dimensions as needed.
One thing missing is a bed but a simple bed doesn’t need any other technique than what one could learn with the other projects.
Some people can adapt existing design, some need precise plans and cutting lists.
In any case in each new video there is some new trick to learn.
And one has to listen attentively because sometimes it is just mentioned without being demonstrated.
Sylvain
I definitely like the carved rocker!any of the others catch my eye as well.
First a proper workbench but my beehives call me to work with the warm weather.
This retired life is the busiest I’ve ever been!
With the risk of banality, this post on chairs gets my top recommendation.