WoodworkingSolo buildDrawing 19 of 47

Bench

I built this bench with a walnut and maple frame, and I wove the rope seat on by hand. Keeping the frame square is a bigger problem than holding the weight.

StatusBuilt, in use
WoodsWalnut, with maple end frames
SeatRope, woven on by hand
Not recordedDimensions, joinery, finish

Sheet 02 of 06/Sitting

Made to be sat on

A box only has to look right. A bench also has to hold someone's weight when they sit on it.

Two identical end frames in pale unfinished hard maple standing on a shop floor, each a pair of tapered legs joined by a top rail, with rail stock lying in front of them — *PL 02*The end frames in bare maple. Hard maple carries the racking load, and the walnut veneer goes on afterwards so the bench still looks like it's all one wood.

The completed bench frame with no seat on it, finished dark walnut, showing the two long top rails, the lower side stretchers and the cross tie between them — *PL 03*The frame before any rope went on, showing everything the seat hides later: walnut rails, lower stretchers, a centre cross tie, and legs splayed out at the foot.

Sheet 03 of 06/Racking

Racking

The thing that ruins a bench is racking. Every time someone sits on one end, the frame leans sideways a little more.

Close low view of one corner of the bench, showing a leg meeting the lower stretcher and the seat rail, with woven rope wrapping over the rail above — *PL 04*Where the leg meets the rail. The joint is a mortise and tenon reinforced with a screw, and the warp cord turns under the rail just above it.

The finished bench seen from standing height at an angle, showing the full length of the woven seat, the splayed legs and the lower stretcher between them — *PL 05*The frame from standing height. Its geometry does the work, with splayed legs and a stretcher tying them together.

Macro photograph of the woven seat, showing individual cords wrapping over the wooden rail on the left and interlacing into a diagonal twill pattern to the right — *PL 06*The weave up close. The four millimetre macrame rope wraps around the rail and then weaves back across itself in a twill.

The finished bench seen from a raised three quarter angle further back, its dark walnut frame and cream woven rope seat standing on a blue mat on a wood floor, with a grey sofa and a counter behind it — *PL 11*The finished bench from further back, in the room I built it for. You can see the lower stretcher running under the seat between the splayed legs.

Sheet 04 of 06/The weave

The rope seat

Rope has no stiffness of its own, so the seat only works in tension. Sitting on it pulls the two rails toward each other instead of pushing them down.

Looking straight down the length of the bench at the finished rope seat, a continuous cream coloured weave running from one end to the other — *PL 07*The seat from above. I wove every pass by hand in the Danish cord style, along the full length of the bench.

A handheld video walking around the finished bench, moving from a three quarter view down along the length of the woven seat — *PL 08*A handheld walk around the finished bench. It's the only way to see how the frame and the seat look from every side.

A short handheld video panning across the woven rope seat of the bench — *PL 09*A pass along the seat, close enough to see the twill run the whole length of the weave.

Sheet 05 of 06/Floors

Uneven floors

A bench built perfectly square will still rock on a real floor because real floors aren't flat, and when it rocks, the frame racks too.

The bench photographed square from the side at a low angle, so the seat rails, the four splayed legs and the full length lower stretcher all read as one structure

Sheet 06 of 06/Next time

What I'd do differently

Next time I'd draw it first and write down the load case, even if it's only one sentence.

PL 10The bench from the side, on the floor. From here you can see the whole frame in one view: the rails, the splayed legs, and the stretcher that ties the two ends together.