Morris Chair Complete

It looks like I completed the finish on this Morris Chair back in June 2007, and purchased the vinyl for the cushions a month or two later. Then we waited about a year and a half to move on to the next step - actually finishing the cushions.

I'd planned to do this myself as it the magazine and video make it look really easy. When we asked a knowledgeable sewing person about it she said it would be a little more difficult than we thought. Since I've got lots of other things on my plate without having to learn upholstery, we decided to pay someone to finish this project off.

Back in January we dropped off the vinyl off at a upholstery repair shop and they put together the three cushions for us a reasonable price in about two weeks. I left the stool with them and they put the cushion in the stool, but for the chair I only gave them the frame for the cushion.

That turned out to be a mistake. The added thickness of the cotton batting and the vinyl meant the chair cushion would not fit. Argh. Rather than returning and getting them to fix my mistake, I pulled the material back off one end of the frame and then ran the frame through the tablesaw to cut off 1/4". It took a few tries but I got it to work.

The end result is a very nice chair. The cat loves to sleep on it, and I get to try it out once in awhile.

Morris Chair Finishing Finished

Second and third coats of wipe-on poly are done. I added some metal sliders to the bottom of the chair from Lee Valley - 06W01.02 and the chair is complete except for the cushions.

This week I've got a few more leather options to check-out before we give in and go with a leatherette or suede.

It'll be nice to complete this project, though we don't yet have a place for it in the house...

Minwax Wipe-on Poly

My current recipe for finishing projects is to start with two coats of Minwax Provincial stain, allow one week to cure then move on to a wipe-on poly.

The wipe-on poly is applied with a lint free cotton cloth, allowed to dry for at least 4 hours, then sanded lightly with 220 grit sandpaper. After sanding I wipe the project down with another cotton rag moistened with a bit of paint thinner to pick up all the dust, then apply one or two more coats of the poly.

This weekend I only had time to get one coat of poly on, followed by sanding. I'll clean up the project and get a few more coats on during the week.

We did get out to look for material for the cushions. We didn't have success finding a local leather supplier but found another lead that I'll check out this week. The most usable fabric we found was a leatherette material that had a tan marbleized finish. $10/yd is very cheap and we could easily change it out if we found later that we didn't like the colour (need about 4 yards). Ideally we are looking for a dark brown leather. The one dealer said he could order in leather but we could only get it by the 'hide' and a hide costs $600.

Morris Chair Staining

My least favourite part of the Morris Chair project is half completed.


On the weekend I put two coats of Minwax Provincial oil based stain on the chair and stool. I took me two hours using brush and t-shirt rags to apply the stain, then I let it dry overnight before lightly sanding with 220 grit and then applying the second coat the next day.


I'll let the stain dry for the next week and then start applying Minwax Satin wipe-on Polyurethane next weekend. Sometime this week we are going to try and get out and look for some leather for the seat and stool cushions.

Morris Chair Pegs

The back of the Morris Chair pivots on a pair of wooden pegs to allow the back to be adjustable. Another pair of pegs that are stuck into holes in the armrests set the position of the chair back. These pegs would be very simple to turn on a lathe. Since I don't have a lathe I make them up using different sizes (1", 5/8") of dowel and the drill press.

First I clamp down a scrap 2x4 to the drill press table and drill a 1" diameter hole about 1" deep into the 2x4. Without moving the 2x4, I insert a 2" section of the 1" dowel, then drill a 5/8" hole 1" deep into the 1" dowel. Using the hole in the 2x4 to hold the dowel in place ensures that the 5/8" hole will be centered in the 1" dowel.

The 5/8" dowel needs to be sanded down a little to fit into the 5/8" hole in the dowel and the matching 5/8" holes that are on the chair. (I should probably have invested in a 21/32" drill bit). So I load the 5/8" dowel pieces into the drill press, turn it on and use some 80 grit paper to sand them a little thinner. Checking and recheck to ensure the proper fit, then some further sanding to 120 to smooth them out. Since that sanding is against the grain, I removed the dowel from the drill press and sanded with the grain to clean it up.

The 5/8" dowel are then glued into the 1" dowel, and you can see the result above. The peg can now be chucked into the drill press to round over the edges.

Again I use 80 grit to round over the edges, the clean it up with 120. Removing the peg from the drill press I sand with the grain using 120 and 220 grit.

On the chair, the only visible part of the peg is the large diameter dowel. Below you can see the final product on the chair.

Back in town

I was out in Nova Scotia for a week but have returned home and am ready to get back to woodworking. Rosemary really liked her Mother's Day gift (1st Scrollsaw Project) and has taken it to work with her. I didn't get a chance to finish it up with a couple of coats of polyurethane, but I'll get her to bring it home the next time I have another project to finsh and get it done.

This weekend I am going to try and get two coats of stain on my Morris Chair project. This is actually the second Morris Chair that I've built. The first was given away as a gift (sans cushions) while this one will be ours. I don't seem to have a picture of the current one, but here is a picture of the previous chair I built, before finishing. The new one is complete except for a little bit of final sanding. I'm planning on 2 coats of Minwax Provincial stain and 2-3 coats of Minwax Wipe-on Poly.

Once the staining is complete we'll get to work on the leather cushions. We are going to try and get out to a local leather shop this weekend to pick out the leather, then I'll use my new pneumatic stapler to put together the seat and stool cushion. The back cushion I will have to outsource to one of my sewing friends as we do not have a sewing machine.

Here's a picture of the last chair I completed, with some temporary cushions for the picture. The new one should come out the same colour, the leather colour will be chosen by Rosemary.