A person’s home is made as cozy as possible for him. Therefore, comfortable, beautiful furniture is necessary here. But if the interior is decorated in an individual, original style, many items are optimal to choose here is problematic. Making a rocking chair with your own hands, like many other pieces of furniture, is not difficult if you have an original “idea”, suitable tools, and high-quality materials.
Rocking chair - a convenient, useful item, easily placed in almost any room or even a summer garden. Such furniture is used mainly for recreation of people of different ages.
The main types of rocking chairs:
massage - is used for healing, as it is equipped with massage rollers, vibration elements;
on radius runners - the most frequently used option, as simple as possible to assemble, but with strong swinging, such furniture falls;
on ellipse skids - the product is equipped with chippers that prevent it from tipping over;
with variable curvature - practically any landing height is allowed here, the probability of the object tipping over is low;
multifunctional - this is a three-in-one design with an adjustable backrest, which, if necessary, can be converted into a bed, therefore it is used only in large rooms
glider - an item of increased comfort that has a special footrest, soft armrests, and other elements.
A wicker rattan chair will become an indispensable attribute of a country veranda, a soft, upholstered in leather, leatherette will be located in the office lounge area.
Material selection
Materials for the independent manufacture of furniture are used very different, most often - natural wood, plywood, as they are easy to process. It is more difficult to complete a welded or forged metal structure; to create it, you will need special tools, usually available only in professional workshops. To make the original bent-glued product from thin veneer, you will also need the appropriate equipment - a steam generator, various matrices, patterns, patterns. Sometimes the design is woven of twigs, rattan, plastic options are suitable for children, as their strength is low.
The project of the future chair: drawings, diagrams
In the manufacture of a rocking chair, the main thing is to calculate everything well, make thorough measurements, and perform the most accurate drawings on them. If there are inconsistencies, the balance will be violated, the product will come out skewed, it will tip over to one side.
Usually master classes with ready-made drawings, templates are found on the Internet, but if there are people with a high body weight (over 100 kg) in the family, the piece of furniture will have to be made to withstand them. To do this, up to 15-20% is added to the recommended thickness of the parts. The size of the child seat should correspond to the height of the child, otherwise the design is practically the same - if the seat is low, put a pillow on his seat.
If you wish, you can find or develop your own product, equipped with directional lamps, solar panels, connectors for charging the phone, massage elements, etc. Two-seater "construction" is more like a full-fledged sofa, especially if you throw a blanket over it, lay pillows.
Workshops on the manufacture of rocking chairs
To create a beautiful rocking chair, first a drawing of what was planned is made, on it - a drawing is developed. Next, all the necessary tools, materials are selected, details of the future product are cut out. After the design is assembled, it is finished, dried.
To "test" the chair, it is enough to sit on it for a couple of minutes, swing. If there are problems with the stability of the subject, they are immediately corrected. When the object falls back, the front part is heavier, if on the contrary, the rear overhang is strengthened, combining the runners with an additional crossbar.
From wood
For the manufacture of fully wooden, assembled "without a single nail" product, you need solid wide boards or high-quality furniture board. The material is chosen thick (at least 25-30 mm) - the heavier the person will sit, swing in the chair, the thicker the details are needed.
The design consists of five elements:
two curly sidewalls with a maximum size of 100 by 90 cm, cuts at the height of the seat, located at 35-50 cm from the floor;
rectangular, slightly rounded in the upper part of the back, measuring 80 by 85 cm (in the widest part), with two slots for attaching the sidewalls in protruding places, one wide groove in the lower part for inserting the seat;
seats - its dimensions in the wide front half of 85 cm, here there are two slots for inserting the sides, in the back - 55 cm, depth - 45 cm, with a protrusion for fastening - 60 cm;
the back of the drawer - an oblong part, measuring 85 by 15 cm, having two slots for attachment to the sidewalls.
In the course of work, suitable versions of parts are developed or downloaded from the Internet, transferred to the boards. Then all the elements are cut out, ground, it is advisable to chamfer a few mm along the edge so that there are no sharp corners. The product is assembled, checked for stability, disassembled, each part is varnished, dried, assembled again, if desired - decorated with carved patterns, but preferably before varnishing.
From metal
The frame itself is made metal here, while the seat should be soft or wooden, for convenience and comfort. You can’t do without bent parts here, you will also need a welding machine to connect individual elements to each other. First, a seat frame with several crossbars is made, after which a seat is welded to it, "runners", fixed at three points. Wooden lamellas or the finished soft part in a wooden frame are screwed onto the back and seats.
Similar, but lighter options are made of aluminum, steel profile pipes.
From plywood
Plywood construction consists of two sidewalls, three transverse tsars, several tens of lamellas of a back and sitting. The average dimensions are 150 by 110 by 72 cm. This product does not have armrests, which greatly simplifies the manufacturing process.
Of the tools you will need:
jigsaw, wood files;
Sander;
pencil, square, ruler;
metal roulette;
brushes;
screwdriver;
putty knife.
The drawing is transferred to paper, a pattern is cut out, along which the contours are applied to thick plywood (at least 30 mm) and sawed with a jigsaw. Both sides are made completely identical, do not have sharp corners. Tsars are made of timber, as are the details of the seat and back. The dimensions of the three crossbars are 12 by 12 by 75 cm, the slats are 5 by 2.5 by 75 cm. The latter will need 35-37 pieces, depending on how far apart they are from each other.
Further, all the details are carefully sanded; small chamfers are removed from them. The ends must be processed twice. After the assembly is carried out, the frame is pulled together, and the seats are fastened. To do this, you need Euroscrews, self-tapping screws - each lamella is mounted in four places.
At the end of the work, the recesses formed on the self-tapping screws are primed with a primer on the wood and polished. If necessary, tint with stain. If the product is planned to be operated on the street, it is impregnated with anti-rot compositions and varnished.
Baby rocking chair
A baby rocking chair is more of a toy, not a place to relax. It is made of plywood and should not be excessively heavy so that the baby himself could rearrange it. The subject consists of a back, two sidewalls, a seat, and in the front part a horse’s head is attached with a small crossbeam from above to be able to hold, and from below - to rest with legs. The seat is upholstered with a soft cloth, foam, wooden parts are painted by hand.
From an ordinary old chair, an armchair
The most budgetary option for creating a rocking chair is to remake an old chair in it, a not too heavy chair. There are three possible varieties:
with runners - to carry out the product, two wide plywood runners are simply attached to the chair, fastening them with two slats in front and behind;
glider - the base here rests firmly on the floor, but under the seat there is a pendulum mechanism;
spring version - it is difficult to make such an object at home, the base is motionless, inside there is a leg with a spring, due to which the rocking occurs.
Restoring an old easy chair that has served for many years will save money without parting with your favorite piece of furniture.
Wicker rattan or willow
Often designs for sitting are woven of willow, rattan, pine roots and even newspaper tubes. The latter are made as thick as possible, impregnated with PVA glue, painted, but the finished item is used only for children, as it is not too durable. Natural materials also require prior preparation.
The “classical” rocking chair is woven from willow vines - it comes out light, openwork, optimally suited for the garden, ethnic, eco-interiors. The frame itself is made of twigs or vines, three to four cm thick, the braid is made of very thin. Separate joints are made of hemp, leather belts. The finished product is painted, varnished.
How to restore
If you have an old, dilapidated rocking chair, it is not necessary to throw it away. Except for the most "difficult" cases, any design will be able to be repaired with your own hands. The repair itself consists of assessing the general condition of the item, replacing completely worn parts with similar but new ones, replacing the stuffing, hauling with a suitable fabric.
Metal rockers break much less often, due to the initially high strength. But if necessary, welding of individual parts is done, if they suddenly break off from each other, replacing wooden, soft surfaces for sitting. Plastic items are not recoverable, and in braided from a vine it is not difficult to replace part of the braid.
During the restoration process, it is not difficult to completely change the style of the subject, turning the old "grandmother's" chair into a modernist, high-tech, minimalist piece that is not a shame to put even in the youth relaxation room.
Necessary materials, tools
Since rocking chairs are usually made of various lumber, you will need tools for woodwork.These include an electric jigsaw, a drill, a screwdriver, a hammer, a ruler, a tape measure, a screwdriver, brushes for varnishes and paints, a grinding machine or sandpaper of various grain sizes, spatulas. Of the materials you will need stains, transparent varnish, pieces of plywood, timber, boards, screws, PVA glue or other furniture, foam rubber (synthetic winterizer, other stuffing materials), thick fabric (velor, tapestry, chenille, jacquard, leather, etc.)
Procedure
First, an external examination of the subject is made - can it be repaired at all. If the armchair has not yet crumbled into dust, has not decayed and has not been eaten by bugs, then everything will work out. Most often, the armrests require repair, and the seat, skids, backrest are completely replaced. The chair is completely disassembled using a screwdriver. If there are completely “incompetent” parts, instead of them, others are cut out with a jigsaw, in shape indistinguishable from old ones.
When the frame is completely intact, the runners are not erased, only the coating needs to be updated. To begin with, the construction, with the help of special nozzles on the drill, eliminates the old paintwork, putty places where there are cracks, chips. The details sanded to wood are covered with stain, dried for four to six hours, one or two layers of furniture varnish are applied. Each layer of the latter is dried for at least 20 hours.
Places where the old fasteners were located are usually putty, if possible, placing new fasteners as far as possible from the old ones so that the workpiece does not crack.
Replacing the seat, backrest
The way to replace parts for seating depends on their design, material of manufacture. Wooden parts are unscrewed, partially replaced, tinted, varnished. With soft seats, backs a little more difficult - they completely remove the lining, by removing all nails, staples, while you should try not to damage the frame. If the frame or plywood is cracked, to which the “filling” covering its textiles is attached, they are also replaced with new ones.
When the packing is still “in order”, it is left; otherwise, it is completely replaced with a new one. Suitable parts are cut out from the size of foam rubber, the corners of which are carefully cut to make it more beautiful. The packing is fixed along the edge with brackets from a construction stapler. Next, you need to cut the fabric - usually a rectangle is cut from it, the corners of which, corresponding to the corresponding corners of the furniture, are neatly folded, secured with a thread with a needle. All edges must be tucked at least one cm so that they do not crumble, secure with a stapler on the wrong side of the product.
Furniture fabric is stretched so that wrinkles do not form, but if irregularities arose already during the operation of the restored product, they are easily removed by slightly pulling the material inside out.
Conclusion
To make a new home-made swinging armchair or to fix the old one at home, anyone who has minimal carpentry skills can do it, although even such skills are not necessary for wicker models. Some lovers know how to collect such furnishings at minimal cost from improvised materials, parts of the old decor.
A person’s home is made as cozy as possible for him. Therefore, comfortable, beautiful furniture is necessary here. But if the interior is decorated in an individual, original style, many items are optimal to choose here is problematic. Making a rocking chair with your own hands, like many other pieces of furniture, is not difficult if you have an original “idea”, suitable tools, and high-quality materials.
Content
Varieties of rocking chairs
Rocking chair - a convenient, useful item, easily placed in almost any room or even a summer garden. Such furniture is used mainly for recreation of people of different ages.
The main types of rocking chairs:
A wicker rattan chair will become an indispensable attribute of a country veranda, a soft, upholstered in leather, leatherette will be located in the office lounge area.
Material selection
Materials for the independent manufacture of furniture are used very different, most often - natural wood, plywood, as they are easy to process. It is more difficult to complete a welded or forged metal structure; to create it, you will need special tools, usually available only in professional workshops. To make the original bent-glued product from thin veneer, you will also need the appropriate equipment - a steam generator, various matrices, patterns, patterns. Sometimes the design is woven of twigs, rattan, plastic options are suitable for children, as their strength is low.
The project of the future chair: drawings, diagrams
In the manufacture of a rocking chair, the main thing is to calculate everything well, make thorough measurements, and perform the most accurate drawings on them. If there are inconsistencies, the balance will be violated, the product will come out skewed, it will tip over to one side.
Usually master classes with ready-made drawings, templates are found on the Internet, but if there are people with a high body weight (over 100 kg) in the family, the piece of furniture will have to be made to withstand them. To do this, up to 15-20% is added to the recommended thickness of the parts. The size of the child seat should correspond to the height of the child, otherwise the design is practically the same - if the seat is low, put a pillow on his seat.
If you wish, you can find or develop your own product, equipped with directional lamps, solar panels, connectors for charging the phone, massage elements, etc. Two-seater "construction" is more like a full-fledged sofa, especially if you throw a blanket over it, lay pillows.
Workshops on the manufacture of rocking chairs
To create a beautiful rocking chair, first a drawing of what was planned is made, on it - a drawing is developed. Next, all the necessary tools, materials are selected, details of the future product are cut out. After the design is assembled, it is finished, dried.
To "test" the chair, it is enough to sit on it for a couple of minutes, swing. If there are problems with the stability of the subject, they are immediately corrected. When the object falls back, the front part is heavier, if on the contrary, the rear overhang is strengthened, combining the runners with an additional crossbar.
From wood
For the manufacture of fully wooden, assembled "without a single nail" product, you need solid wide boards or high-quality furniture board. The material is chosen thick (at least 25-30 mm) - the heavier the person will sit, swing in the chair, the thicker the details are needed.
The design consists of five elements:
In the course of work, suitable versions of parts are developed or downloaded from the Internet, transferred to the boards. Then all the elements are cut out, ground, it is advisable to chamfer a few mm along the edge so that there are no sharp corners. The product is assembled, checked for stability, disassembled, each part is varnished, dried, assembled again, if desired - decorated with carved patterns, but preferably before varnishing.
From metal
The frame itself is made metal here, while the seat should be soft or wooden, for convenience and comfort. You can’t do without bent parts here, you will also need a welding machine to connect individual elements to each other. First, a seat frame with several crossbars is made, after which a seat is welded to it, "runners", fixed at three points. Wooden lamellas or the finished soft part in a wooden frame are screwed onto the back and seats.
From plywood
Plywood construction consists of two sidewalls, three transverse tsars, several tens of lamellas of a back and sitting. The average dimensions are 150 by 110 by 72 cm. This product does not have armrests, which greatly simplifies the manufacturing process.
Of the tools you will need:
The drawing is transferred to paper, a pattern is cut out, along which the contours are applied to thick plywood (at least 30 mm) and sawed with a jigsaw. Both sides are made completely identical, do not have sharp corners. Tsars are made of timber, as are the details of the seat and back. The dimensions of the three crossbars are 12 by 12 by 75 cm, the slats are 5 by 2.5 by 75 cm. The latter will need 35-37 pieces, depending on how far apart they are from each other.
Further, all the details are carefully sanded; small chamfers are removed from them. The ends must be processed twice. After the assembly is carried out, the frame is pulled together, and the seats are fastened. To do this, you need Euroscrews, self-tapping screws - each lamella is mounted in four places.
At the end of the work, the recesses formed on the self-tapping screws are primed with a primer on the wood and polished. If necessary, tint with stain. If the product is planned to be operated on the street, it is impregnated with anti-rot compositions and varnished.
Baby rocking chair
A baby rocking chair is more of a toy, not a place to relax. It is made of plywood and should not be excessively heavy so that the baby himself could rearrange it. The subject consists of a back, two sidewalls, a seat, and in the front part a horse’s head is attached with a small crossbeam from above to be able to hold, and from below - to rest with legs. The seat is upholstered with a soft cloth, foam, wooden parts are painted by hand.
From an ordinary old chair, an armchair
The most budgetary option for creating a rocking chair is to remake an old chair in it, a not too heavy chair. There are three possible varieties:
Restoring an old easy chair that has served for many years will save money without parting with your favorite piece of furniture.
Wicker rattan or willow
Often designs for sitting are woven of willow, rattan, pine roots and even newspaper tubes. The latter are made as thick as possible, impregnated with PVA glue, painted, but the finished item is used only for children, as it is not too durable. Natural materials also require prior preparation.
The “classical” rocking chair is woven from willow vines - it comes out light, openwork, optimally suited for the garden, ethnic, eco-interiors. The frame itself is made of twigs or vines, three to four cm thick, the braid is made of very thin. Separate joints are made of hemp, leather belts. The finished product is painted, varnished.
How to restore
If you have an old, dilapidated rocking chair, it is not necessary to throw it away. Except for the most "difficult" cases, any design will be able to be repaired with your own hands. The repair itself consists of assessing the general condition of the item, replacing completely worn parts with similar but new ones, replacing the stuffing, hauling with a suitable fabric.
Metal rockers break much less often, due to the initially high strength. But if necessary, welding of individual parts is done, if they suddenly break off from each other, replacing wooden, soft surfaces for sitting. Plastic items are not recoverable, and in braided from a vine it is not difficult to replace part of the braid.
Necessary materials, tools
Since rocking chairs are usually made of various lumber, you will need tools for woodwork.These include an electric jigsaw, a drill, a screwdriver, a hammer, a ruler, a tape measure, a screwdriver, brushes for varnishes and paints, a grinding machine or sandpaper of various grain sizes, spatulas. Of the materials you will need stains, transparent varnish, pieces of plywood, timber, boards, screws, PVA glue or other furniture, foam rubber (synthetic winterizer, other stuffing materials), thick fabric (velor, tapestry, chenille, jacquard, leather, etc.)
Procedure
First, an external examination of the subject is made - can it be repaired at all. If the armchair has not yet crumbled into dust, has not decayed and has not been eaten by bugs, then everything will work out. Most often, the armrests require repair, and the seat, skids, backrest are completely replaced. The chair is completely disassembled using a screwdriver. If there are completely “incompetent” parts, instead of them, others are cut out with a jigsaw, in shape indistinguishable from old ones.
When the frame is completely intact, the runners are not erased, only the coating needs to be updated. To begin with, the construction, with the help of special nozzles on the drill, eliminates the old paintwork, putty places where there are cracks, chips. The details sanded to wood are covered with stain, dried for four to six hours, one or two layers of furniture varnish are applied. Each layer of the latter is dried for at least 20 hours.
Replacing the seat, backrest
The way to replace parts for seating depends on their design, material of manufacture. Wooden parts are unscrewed, partially replaced, tinted, varnished. With soft seats, backs a little more difficult - they completely remove the lining, by removing all nails, staples, while you should try not to damage the frame. If the frame or plywood is cracked, to which the “filling” covering its textiles is attached, they are also replaced with new ones.
When the packing is still “in order”, it is left; otherwise, it is completely replaced with a new one. Suitable parts are cut out from the size of foam rubber, the corners of which are carefully cut to make it more beautiful. The packing is fixed along the edge with brackets from a construction stapler. Next, you need to cut the fabric - usually a rectangle is cut from it, the corners of which, corresponding to the corresponding corners of the furniture, are neatly folded, secured with a thread with a needle. All edges must be tucked at least one cm so that they do not crumble, secure with a stapler on the wrong side of the product.
Conclusion
To make a new home-made swinging armchair or to fix the old one at home, anyone who has minimal carpentry skills can do it, although even such skills are not necessary for wicker models. Some lovers know how to collect such furnishings at minimal cost from improvised materials, parts of the old decor.