Max Lamb’s ‘DIY Baby Chair’

Our latest project with Max Lamb revisits our first collaboration with the designer in issue #2 of Apartamento magazine, reviving his original DIY Chair almost two decades later. Issue #37 opens with a set of easy steps for assembling your very own DIY Baby Chair, a mini version of the original and a new addition to the cast of characters in Max’s Forest. A comic by Dimitri Broquard of FLAG guides you through at-home assembly, complete with helpful tips from Max himself. 

Here, Max and his son offer step-by-step instructions for creating your DIY Baby Chair. ‘I would like as many people as possible to have a go at building their own DIY Chair’, Max says in issue #37. ‘The point is, the DIY Chair is a piece of furniture that you can construct yourself, sit on, and be proud of’.

Max Lamb’s DIY Baby Chair is designed for kids, but adults should supervise assembly.

1. Tool list: tri-square, ruler, sharp pencil, fine tooth tenon or panel saw, sandpaper (180 grit is perfect), cordless drill, 3mm drill bit, countersink, cross-head screwdriver, and 124 screws (4 x 35mm).

3. Place the tri-square against the edge of the wood in line with the pencil mark and scribe the line across the width of the wood.

5. Sand the edges clean to remove splinters. 

7. Position two pieces of wood (34cm) at right angles with the wide edge on top of the narrow edge, and use the widest face of a spare piece of wood as a measuring guide.

9. Screw the two pieces of wood together. If possible, set the clutch of your drill so that it automatically stops when the screws are tight.

11. Drill, countersink, and screw the third piece of wood using two screws, as in steps 8 and 9. Repeat adding two more screws through the face of the vertical piece of wood to form a perfect right-angled corner held together with 6 screws.

13. Keeping the frame upside-down lay an additional 12 lengths of wood (34cm) stacked side-by-side up against the front rail. Six of them will be seat slats, the other six are acting as spacers. Hold them together tightly and drill two holes through the side rails at each end of every other slat. Try to drill the holes through the centre of the slat below. Once drilled, countersunk, and screwed together you can remove the spacers.

15. Stand the frame upright and you should have a total of 7 seat slats across the top surface of the frame. This is the seat of your DIY Baby Chair.

17. Using eight screws, join the four pieces of wood together into a square frame. Remember to check they are at right angles. This frame will be used to support the four chair legs.

19. Sixteen screws should be used to attach the support frame—two screws though every wide edge of the wood—four per corner.

21. Turn the chair frame onto its side. Place a piece of wood towards the front of the chair parallel with the leg but pointing in the opposite direction. It is roughly centred on the front seat slat. See picture for exact position.

23. These two pieces of wood form the vertical supports for your armrests.

25. Add two more slats for the backrest, using two spare pieces of wood on their thin edge as spacers.

27. To make the armrests flip the backrest upside down and add the last two pieces of wood to the underside of the bottom backrest slat and on the outside of the verticals. Join using four screws—two screws through the wide edge of the vertical piece into the side of the armrest, and two screws through wide underside edge of the armrest into the underside of the bottom backrest slat.

29. To join the two assemblies together, take the back and armrest section and slide the two vertical pieces of wood through the large gap in between the last seat slat and the rear legs. Tilt the backrest backwards as far as it will go within the gap and slide it up or down until the front ends of the armrests are in contact with the vertical armrest supports.

31. Using your final four screws join the two vertical pieces of wood of the backrest to the inside of the chair frame.

33. Your DIY Baby Chair is now ready for sitting on!