Source
r/DIY•
candyashes

can I design my own armchair or sofa from begining to end even if I don't have a degree in 'Design' or something, or is it just a bad idea and best left to the pros?

I was watching a show called 'design interns' on tv and they were designing armchairs for Lazy Boy. They even had to have their design manufactured by carpenders and upolsters.

Then I though 'hey, wouldn't it be cool to have a chair made to my specs - I could do that, I'm creative, I could design a chair!'

But then I thought 'wait, I don't really know about what makes a good chair - maybe there are things that the pro furniture designers know that I don't? Also how much is this gonna cost me?'

opinions?

Posted Sep 3, 2011, 8:11 PM UTC

24
df1•

Build the frame out of 2 inch PVC, it is more durable and lighter than wood.

1
gmks•

Most people could probably build a reasonable chair with enough effort. You might need to do some prototyping, etc... You might get it not quite right and it might cost you more in the long run since you are not buying materials in bulk and your cost is not spread over 1000s of units.

I'm sure some googling will help, and you can look at how other chairs are built. You probably would do well stripping other chairs for some of the parts, esp. if you want to do a rocking chair or recliner or something. Building it would be harder than designing it, and what will your chair have that other chairs don't?

Getting your custom chair built by someone like Lazy Boy will be expensive as hell.

As for "what do the pros know?" I think alot of people don't really get what professional design really is. Actual designers have to deal with is working in conjunction with engineers and manufacturing and marketing so it's more along the lines of: We need a chair that we can build in factory A, reusing as much of possible of the processes and toolset from model B, to meet marketing segment C, D and E and it needs to fit in box F, and not weigh more than G, using materials that meet regulations and standards H-S and it needs to cost no more than X per Y units and we need it on Tuesday.

There's also the engineering to know weight loads, etc... such as what the stress will be of 10,000 sittings.

So really, the creativity is the art, design/engineering is the science to make a real product out of it with all the various constraints applied.

1
Arms_Akimbo•

There's a place by my house called The Joinery that makes custom furniture.

I started looking for a very specific kind of dining room table and nobody makes one like it. I went into the shop, explained my idea, asked if it was possible and they sketched it up for me on the spot. They gave me a base price of $1,800 -- the final price would depend on what sort of wood I decided to use.

Now I'm saving my money.

If you just want to do the design and not the build look for any custom furniture maker and they can probably do it for you.

1
punkisdread•

doitdoitdoit!

1