Believe it or not, designing a chair that's actually comfortable is one of the most difficult projects a woodworker can take on. Building one from an established plan is relatively easy, but starting from scratch is very much a venture into the unknown.
Chairs today are largely taken for granted, but there is a ton of trial and error in every design to make them comfortable to sit in for anything more than a few minutes.
I consider this design a success and more than that, a learning experience. Yes, even when you have been designing and building things for nearly 50 years, there are still lessons to learn.
Things I would / will change: the foam for the backrest cushions should be softer. Also I would like to reupholster the chair with leather and take my time doing that. The upholstery aspect of the project was the one part I had the least experience with, so I consider doing the chair with vinyl as a practice run.
Things I got right / perfect: the overall size, seating angles and the armrest height and size are bang-on. The springiness when you sit in the chair is also perfect - just enough give. The recline of the backrest is also flawless. It's stiff enough to support my back when sitting upright and compliant enough to slouch back in a more relaxed pose.
The Baltic birch plates for each cushion can be painted black, and that was my original plan. But then I thought the contrast between the plates and the black vinyl would be a more interesting look. Surely if i did a better job on the upholstery that would have been the case.
The one thing missing is a footrest and I'll be working on that soon.
Was the project worth it? Yes and no. If all you want is a comfortable recliner, it's much more economical to just buy one. But for those of us who live to make things, I see this as bucket list project, regardless of how much it cost or how long it took to do.
A problem I have with making project videos on YouTube is that the project needs to be finished. In my real life, none of my projects are ever actually finished - not truly finished, because I may (and often will) change or modify or improve something I wasn't happy with when I built it in the first place. So you need to look at this chair as something that works and I'm using it, but I ain't done yet.
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