Adventures with Marcus: Birthday Chairs

The Birthday Chairs

I tend to be a person who gets ideas in their head at times and can obsess about them until I complete a project. These chairs were like that. I recently got a library book by Ana White. She is a DIY furniture-building guru who I have followed for some time. She had pretty simple plans that she has developed herself. Like me, she started as a complete wood working novice, and she has made a ton of things, and I am super impressed by her.

She has a website if you want to check it out:

Ana White Website

Last fall, when Luke and I made the bed frame, it actually came from directions from her website. She also has a few other items that I am really excited to make.

When I was flipping through the book I really liked the look of the Children's Adirondack Chair, and I could just imagine them in my back yard and Marcus playing with them. In my mind it was a really great visual. He LOVES furniture that is his size. So I wanted to make them—since I have the workbench and all—why not?!!

I picked up all of the supplies for the chairs and realized how ridiculously inexpensive the lumber came to – $8.00 per chair. I was amazed that it took so few materials to make an awesome chair. I read all of the directions thoroughly – although there were a few items that confused me at first. But now I was ready to create – look at the outcome!

I think it looked pretty good. It took me about 3 hours, and to be honest, I made a few mistakes along the way. I am okay with that because I am learning and have never done anything like this before. So I started to obsess a bit, and I thought it would be fun to make 4 chairs instead of just one: two for Marcus (for when friends come over), one for Sophie, and one for Beckett. I could just imagine the three of them hanging out in the chairs together! Now this was a bit more involved, so I created a list of the lumber and the cuts I needed to do this.

Once I created the list I ran to the store and got all of the supplies – as well as some spray paint for each of the chairs. With the spray paint, it brought to total per chair to approx. $10.00 each. Once that was done I was off to work.

It took me approx. 3 hours to completed these chairs—quite the improvement over the 3 hours it took me to complete the first chair. I think they are super cute.