So one of my neighbors walked over one day when I was working on a project in the garage. “If I buy the wood, hardware and provide the plan, would you want a new project?” That is a recipe for joy!  Someone else’s money for me to try something new.  Ha!

Her design plan came from shanty-2-chic.com and the printable plans provided a color coded wood cut list. Four and a half stars for their building plan sheet. 

Using a self-made cutting rig with the saw, it was easy to quickly work through the cut list.  The adage ‘Measure twice, cut once” loses a little importance when using a locked-down and measured stop block.  The only problem I had with this process was that, because it was so easy, I cut too many of some of the pieces. 

I was looking forward to this kit because I hadn’t work much with pocket holes before and almost every board called for 2 or 3 drilled pocket holes.  Looking back at their website recently, I saw that they are now sponsored by Kreg, the maker of the popular jig. So yeah, there was a lot of time spent drilling those holes. 

Some directions provided very specific measurements while a few placements of pieces were a little too general or left for the builder to figure out. The placement of the wood slats, for example, was left to guess work. I ended up doing some math and cut two wood blocks to use as spacers the help provide consistent spacing. 

I also got to work with a piano hinge on this project.  In order to keep the back  firmly attached to the chair, a piano hinge lets the back raise and lower and not wiggle side to side.  Cutting the long piano hinge just needed a good metal hacksaw to cut between the gaps in the hinge.