Daydream Chair

A chair for daydreaming. Structure made of fiberglass, upholstered with Knoll wool felt. 

white styrofoam 3'' thickness
9 oz satin weave fiberglass 38'' width (20 yards)
50'' width honeycomb shaped coremat (4 yards)
314 Tap plastics epoxy resin (1 gal) +143 hardner (1/2 gal)
Cal-O-Sil glass microbead filler
1'' thickness 12'' width high density foam (8 yards)
Knoll felt, ivory (6 yards)

Clear packaging tape
Mold release spray
Vinyl specking
Bondo
Montana Black acrylic paint
Spray adhesive
Measuring tools
Scrapers
Sander & sand paper
etc.

Step 1: Inspirations

Find inspirations and put them in a mood board.

Step 2: Fiberglass Chair Body

Build a model of the chair in Rhino and export the section drawings. Cut styrofoam sheets according to the section drawings, glue the styrofoam sheets together, and use a hot wire cutter to round up the shape of male mold. Speckle to make the surface smooth.

Apply clear packaging tape and mold release to the mold surface. Cut fiberglass fabrics and coremat ready before starting to mix epoxy resin. Here the layup is composed of 3 layers of fiberglass, 1 layer of coremat, and 3 layers of fiberglass. A layer of peel-ply is added on top to make the top surface smoother.

After cured pull off the fiberglass body off the mold. Sand the surface of the body smooth. Apply bondo if needed.

Step 3: Add Legs

Cut 4 legs using styrofoam and sand them to tapered cylinders. Attach the legs to the fiberglass chair body using glass micobeads mixed with epoxy resin. Add wood feet to the styrofoam legs to provide more support. Lay up fiberglass fabrics (8 layers here) around the legs.

After cured apply bondo and sand down the legs so that the surfaces are smooth and the feet are on the same level. Prime and paint the legs.

Step 4: Upholstery

Sew the felt fabric around triangular foam pieces and then glue them to the fiberglass chair body.

Step 5: Glamour Shots

Done!

Comments

[Cheese Queen]

Any idea how you will clean the felt upholstery when it gets dirty?

[harperannemarie]

Well, if you're going to go with a permanent option, go the whole way. Since you are using a fibreglass frame you could find a way to attach the felt with rivets or something else that is extremely durable, and just pressure wash it when you need to clean it. Use carpet cleaner and a vacuum to suck the water out. Let it dry in the sun.

Or, like Greyyguy says, make it removable.

[wei wei]

Good question! I actually don't know....The white felt gets dirty pretty easily, there should be better upholstery options for this. Let me know if you have any good ideas!

[greyyguy]

Instead of gluing the upholstery to the chair, you could sew it on to some cloth and then either use elastic or a drawstring to hold it on to the chair, kinda like a fitted sheet. Or possibly velcro or snaps. That would still let you remove it for washing.

[wei wei]

Thanks a lot! I agree removable is a better idea.

[mbenner]

LOVE this! Soooo..... how much??? :) I believe you have a very marketable item!

[wei wei]

Well I spent like 1000 bucks on this, no cheap! I bet if it's manufactured it'll cost much less though.

[elswaino]

I'm looking to make a chair using fibreglass using this method and I was wondering what made made this expensive.

[greyyguy]

Do you realize what you have done? Do you?

While this is a very cool looking chair, with these instructions one could make their own adult sized bilibo!

http://www.amazon.com/Moluk-0004-Bilibo-Blue/dp/B0...

Ever since we got those for my kids I have been envious and wanted one. I think I can have one now.

Great Instructable!

[wei wei]

Haha this is great! That'll be my next project. And I'll become a millionaire. ;)

[lindarose92]

Oh I love this, great job!! :)

[Summer Skies]

It looks so comfortable!

[wei wei]

Yes it is comfortable indeed!

[naozhendang]

Love it!

[shazni]

Interesting upholstery :-)