Green & Green Settee Part I

Halloween has come and gone and the pumpkin in resignation awaits his destiny on the compost heap.  In the meantime, I have started working on a commission for a Green & Green settee based on the Blacker House Arm Chair.  I built a reproduction of this arm chair earlier this year.  Given that the Green & Green aesthetic is very appealing here on the west coast, I built the arm chair with the goal of garnering interest in my skill set in that style.

This settee will be used in a Green & Green style house in the entry way.  The settee will have the main elements of the Blacker House Arm Chair but with a single cushioned back rather than the numerous wooden splats.  I'm lucky to have a pretty good upholsterer nearby who has a lot of experience with upholstering quality chairs.  I met with him to answer some questions regarding construction to satisfy his requirements for the upholstery.

Here you can see the draft on paper (almost finished):

One of the important skills I obtained at North Bennet Street School in Boston is drafting.  The draft has a front view, side view, and a plan (or top) view.  There are some important simplifications to this piece compared to the Blacker House arm chair.  Unlike the Blacker House arm chair, I will use rectangular rather than parallelogram legs and posts.  Although the side rails splay out about 100 degrees, the rear posts do not cant.  They are 90 degrees to the rear rail.  This means that the side rails meet the rear posts at a single angle and not at a compound angle.  Another simplification is the crest rail.  The arm chair's crest rail has a dramatic sweep toward the back that makes installing the ebony splines a challenge.  The crest rail on this settee does not sweep back.  I plan on using a router setup for the ebony splines this time.

My goal is to standardize as much as possible the joinery to minimize setups.  Although I'm using a mix of floating and integral tenons, where I use one or the other I attempt to use the same tenon size.  There are some exceptions, of course.

Since this is an established design I will not build a mockup but plunge right into the final product.   Based on my draft, I use carbon paper to create some templates on 1/8th inch thick birch ply.  I plan on using the shaper to shape the crest rail and the rear posts, so those templates will be used to create thicker templates appropriate for the shaper.

Given the drawing, I can now create a stock list.  I have a column for width, thickness, and length, and 2 sections for final and rough milling.  Another thing I do is calculate the board feet.  I use the rough milling section and my templates to help me choose my lumber.

We are using cherry.  The space where this piece will reside is rather dark and so the client wants a lighter wood. We definitely do not want to go too light for this piece, given the ebony accents.   I think Cherry will be a nice choice.  A neighbor has kitchen cabinets made out of cherry with faux ebony accents which looks very nice.  Below are some of the pieces rough milled.

I spent a fair amount of time attempting to get an ideal match between the part and the wood.  For example, the side rails and front rail are from a single piece of cherry, laid out so the grain flows from one side rail into the front rail and into the other side rail.  There are some other important layout considerations for the rear posts.  Since the rear posts sweep back gradually, the grain flow of the rear posts will either flow left or right with the backward sweep of the rear post.  Ideally, one wants the grain to flow up and out.  This is especially important if the rear posts have a cant angle.  Although this piece does not have a cant angle, grain flow is still important for the rear posts.

Although I had calculated the required board feet, the actual board feet purchased was definitely higher to compensate for the sapwood.  I purchased 8/4 and 6/4.  I could have used 5/4 (as the rails will be an inch thick) but the 6/4 selection was better.

Wood is like fine red wine.  Once opened, it needs to breath to acquire its ideal equilibrium with the universe around it.  I'll give it a week then begin final milling.