Adirondack Chair Plans

The most comfortable Adirondack chair you will ever find! This is a special design with a curved back and curved seat that makes it hard to believe you're sitting in a wooden chair. And even with these super comfortable curves, the chair still makes efficient use of materials. 

For my chairs I use 5/4 CVG (clear vertical grain) western red cedar which always creates a beautiful finished product that is rock solid because I'm able to get a 1" finished thickness on the material. The chair is fastened together with 2" stainless steel screws and 2.5" carriage bolts. It takes roughly 30' total of 5/4x8 material for a single chair, but if you're really on your game and making a number of chairs you can get that down to 25' per chair. Final dimensions of the chair are 2'11" tall, 2'10" wide, and 3'2" deep.

Checkout the full build article here

Plans Include:

• PDF document download (doesn't include physical set of plans)
• 4 separate PDFs - Plans, Full size template, Letter size template, and A4 size template
• 61 total pages
• Full materials and hardware list
• Full parts list with dimensioned parts
• Scaling grid included on parts list
• 3d renderings of each part and the full build process and the final chair
• Full instructions list
• Link to build videos and build articles
• Full sized printable 48"x36" template
• Full sized printable template broken down into 24/20 individual letter/A4 size pages for printing on a regular printer

There are 3 options to transfer the digital templates to your work pieces:

1. Print out the full sized 48"x36" template on a plotter (if you don't have access to one, check your local Staples, FedEx, etc) and trace onto your work pieces

2. Print out the 24/20 page letter/A4 size template pages full and use the layout grid to tape the pieces together and then trace them out

3. Use the 1" scaling grid to free hand the shapes of the pieces

FAQs

I'm having a hard time finding CVG grade western red cedar, where do I find it? It obviously depends on where you're located, but I've found the best source around DC by far to be Hicksville Planing Mill in Clear Springs, MD and then Vienna Hardwoods in VA. While I was in New England, my source was Downes & Reader Hardwood in Stoughton. It just takes some calling around to find the right place, especially when looking for clear grade cedar. Start first by googling "hardwood dealers" near you and you'll find a lot of them will have it, but if they don't they will know who does (the lumber world is a small world).

CVG grade western red cedar that you recommend in the plans is really expensive, do you recommend any alternatives? The clear grade cedar has gotten stupid expensive here recently. I'd recommend looking into STK grade western red cedar (select tight knot), I've actually had some trouble finding the premium CVG grade stuff recently and the STK is half or even a third of the price. The CVG definitely visually looks the best, but with STK you can just position the pattern to cut around all of the worst knots. Besides cedar, cypress is a good alternative that is still fairly weather resistant, although it's not as good looking as cedar.

You recommend 1" for the final thickness of the material, can I get away with using only 3/4" thick boards? Making the chairs from 1" nominal (3/4" thick) stock is definitely doable and will probably hold up fine but I much prefer the true 1" thick material for a robust chair that will last forever. 3/4" won't be as strong but should be fine if you can avoid any really bad knots in the material that you choose. I've made some with rough sawn 4/4 that I could plane down and get ~7/8" out of and those were still good but I personally wouldn't go thinner than that. Some slight modifications will need to be made in the design to accommodate thinner material including changing the notch in the main leg so it's only as thick as your material and moving the top back support down slightly to compensate for the difference between it and the top of the back legs where you fasten it in place.

I don't have a plotter or can't get access to one, how do I print your plans? The plans do include a full scale that you can print out if you have access to a 36" wide plotter. Alternatively, I have included this same template broken down into regular 8.5x11 paper size that you tape together to get the full template. Also, if you don't have access to a printer at all, I've included a 1" scale grid on all of the pieces so that you can eyeball the lines onto your wood template using a grid.

I printed out the 8.5x11 template and taped it together, but the dimension don't match what you show on the parts plan, what's going on? When you print out the template make sure that page scaling is set to "none". Typically it defaults to "Fit to Paper" which would create a discrepancy in the dimensions.

Can I get a CNC file, or at least an SVG to use to cut out some templates on my CNC? Yes, the full size template that is included with the plans is a PDF format, but you can pull the SVG data off of this because all of the lines for the parts are SVGs.

How much epoxy and varnish do I need to buy for a chair? For the single chair with the footrest I end up using about 1/2 of the quart kit of penetrating epoxy and almost a full quart of Halcyon, but I lay the varnish on pretty thick doing about 9 coats or so.