Chair Redesign

Taking a broken chair and redesigning it into something new was much harder than I had ever expected. When looking to find a broken chair, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do. But having to sit with this idea for most of the semester, I found that by the end, even though I loved it, it didn’t turn out anywhere near what I had expected it to be. I was far more focused on fixing the chair and making it finished the way I wanted to use it rather than redesigning a chair in a new way.

For the most part, I wanted a chair that would be supportive, comfortable, and heated so I would be able to sit for longer than I was with my desk chair.

I found inspiration from the drivers seat in my car. I have a 2018 Chevy Equinox, and the part that sold me on the car was the two front seats. I wanted heated seats. That was the one thing I wanted in my car and I got it! But why couldn’t my desk seat be like my car seat? So that’s what I made.

It all started with a broken chair. I reached out to Facebook to see if any of my family or friends had any broken chairs to donate to this project. And by surprise, many friends commented saying they had chairs to donate. I ended up picking two identical chairs, broken in the same spot, were perfect for this project. After picking these chairs up, I found some more that could be options. I had about six chairs that were possible options. And after sitting with them, I fell in love with these orange chairs where the back had completely broken off of the seat. The options were limitless.

In order to get my heated chair right I had to find a way to heat it, a way to make it a softer seat, and something to cover the mess that was under. But the biggest question was, how do I connect the back of the chair to the seat?

First was connecting the back of the chair back to the seat of the chair. I ended up using L brackets and 1” x 1” pieces of wood to connect the two pieces back together.

After that was the start of comfort. Finding foam that was comfy enough wasn’t hard. It also happened that the foam was sticky on the other side and was put on the chair seat and back easily.

Next was the heat. That is one thing I was concerned about. I have always heard “don’t sit on heated blankets.” so I had to figure out another way to heat the seat. After searching for some time, I found a heated mattress pad, and it didn’t say you couldn’t not sit on it. So I did!

And finally, after working on this chair for weeks, I didn’t want to look at the unfinished piece of work I made. So I covered it in a light fleece with a neutral pattern on it.

Overall, working on this project, trying not to plan and just going with what works, was frustrating, as I am a planner. I sketch, make a mock-up, and then make, skipping over the first two steps was hard. But working on it from the start and skipping those steps, helped me learn how to just get started.