Make your own: Red-Blue chair

Make it yourself

13 Feb

Gerrit Rietveld’s Red-Blue chair is a stone cold classic. At least it is at Decmatic Towers. In fact, Mr Reitveld is possibly my favourite designer/architect. In addition to the bomb that is the Red-Blue (designed in 1918), he also created the Berlin (1923), the Zigzag (1932) and the Steltman (1963). Hit after hit.

If you followed any of the above links you’ll have realised that many of Rietveld’s furniture designs are still being produced by offical licence holders. The prices are, for most people, prohibitively high.

But fret not, thanks to the simplicity of many of his designs and the handy plans in this book, you too can make your own. Which is what I did a few years back and I’m really happy with the result. Here’s my (unpainted) Red-Blue.

I used the most basic of materials because I saw the exercise as a trial run for a more serious attempt once I’d learned from my mistakes and improved my carpentry skills. But despite that, the result has lasted well and been used regularly. It’s surprisingly comfortable. The trial run turned into the finished article.

I might, at a later date, create a more detailed walkthrough. If that sounds useful, drop a comment below. But for now, here are the frames from an Instagram Story I produced a while back. It should give you an idea of the process.