The world of adults is huge for small children - including furniture. Children need furniture in their size to feel more comfortable. In children's chairs, they can rest their feet on the floor and lean comfortably, just like adults do. Because of the correct proportion, the small chair promote good posture. In addition, playing and relaxing is even more fun when the chair has children's motifs.

In the next couple of steps I will try to present how to make a wooden kids chair. If you want to surprise your child and enjoy yourself too, you can build a Wooden chair for your child or maybe make a wonderful gift.

The chair is basically made of pine, with small elements of beech and plum wood.

Step 1: Design

For the design of the chair I use 3D CAD program (Rhinoceros).

The dimensions of the chair should be adjusted according to the size of the child. According to DIN EN 1729 standard, for the child approx. 100 cm high, the chair should be 28 cm high.

After the design in 3D, I can generate G-Code files for the CNC milling machine and cut suitable parts.

Step 2: Choosing the Material

The chair is made of pine, the pine can be very knotty, so the wood must be chosen carefully.

I bought a 400 x 2000 mm board (Edge Gluing Board) in a local hardware store. The selection of the board is made so that only clean parts (without knots) are used. It is difficult, but also very important, because only in this way the chair can be done well.

You can also use smaller boards e.g. 400x1000 or 400x600 mm, and build the chair from these. But the parts of the chair should always be without knots.

Step 3: Cutting the Main Parts

The parts for the chair are cut with a DIY CNC milling machine.

G-Code files are required for the CNC machine, I used the DXF2GCode program to create the GCode files, it is free of charge and you can generate a GCode from DXF CAD files. A DXF file is firstly created for each Part, and then the appropriate GCode is generated.

We need 4 main parts: 2 x Legs, 1 x Seat and 1 x Splat. The two legs are not same, there are left and right sides, they are actually mirrored.

Step 4: Cutting the Construction Parts

As we saw in the first step, apart from the main parts, below the seat there are 4 small parts for the support of the chair. These parts are cut from a construction wood (38x57 mm and 18x57mm). The wooden grooves are also made using the CNC machine. So the frame under the seat can be easily assembled.

Step 5: Sanding and Assembling

When all the elements are ready, they have to be sanded first, then they can be assembled. For sanding I use random orbital sanders, with sanding paper 120. Because of this random sanding action, the tool does not leave swirl marks, and is not sensitive to the direction of the wood grain.

Firstly, we need to assembly the legs, the support structure and the seat. For this I use wood glue and wooden handle screw clamp.

In this step the chair must be mounted simultaneously and on a flat plate (e.g. on a table). So we can be sure that the chair will lay stable on the floor (without a swing).

Step 6: Face of Bear - Splat

The Face of the Bear is made with small elements of beech and plum wood. I chose plum wood because it is much darker than pine, the contrast is high and visible. For this step is used Intarsia technique.

Intarsia is a woodworking technique that uses various shapes, sizes, and species of wood fitted together to create a mosaic-like picture with an illusion of depth.

The face of the bear (the nose, the eyes and the ears) are milled to a depth of 5mm using a CNC milling machine.

First of all I cut the matching parts from MDF for the test, after adjustment I cut the matching parts from the plum wood and glued them into prepared holes. When the parts are glued, the surface should be sanded with an orbital sander, first with sandpaper 80, then with 120.

At the end the surface must be smooth, without difference between the parts.

Step 7: Assembling the Splat

This part must be screwed tight. The child sometimes pushes very hard with the back. The child's safety is very important, so the chair must be strong and stable. Therefore this connection is glued and additionally screwed with 5 (M6x70mm) screws.

After assembly, the chair looks stable. If you knock on the chair, it should sound like a one piece of wood. This is a guarantee that the assembly is done correctly.

Step 8: Painting

For the painting I use transparent acrylic lacquer. The advantage of acrylic lacquer is its exceptionally fast drying time. The color should be also suitable for children's toys, according to standard EN 71-3.

For a nice lacquer effect I repeated the painting 4 times with a suitable brush for the acrylic lacquer.

Step 9: Protective Caps

Sometimes the child uses the chair like a toy, then the chair is often tilted on the floor. Therefore on the back I have installed two protective buttons. You can buy the buttons in a local hardware store.

Step 10: All Done, Enjoy!

The chair has been finished !!!

Your child can enjoy and have more fun with the chair. But it is also a happy moment for you too, your project has been realized and you can also enjoy great results.

This project takes approximately 20-30 hours of effective time. In my hobby workshop I spent about 1 month (I only work when I have free time) to complete the project.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or comments.

I wish you much success and a lot of fun during the project realization !!!