I built a new dining room table earlier this year and posted about it. The table is 10 feet long, 42 inches wide, with a cherry top and a structure of framing lumber stained black with ink (covered with poly). But it needed chairs. I did not feel like making them right away, I built a dresser next then came back to the chairs in early May. Just finished them this week.
I used an old Woodsmith plan I made before for myself and my daughter with a ladder back. But I went with the vertical slats for these dining room chairs. A major decision was what to make the 6 back slats out of. I mocked up all cherry and all black. My kids and most of the others I asked liked the black. So I built 8 with black slats. I used poplar because it is easier to work with and I did not want to color cherry that way. I wanted something different for the two end chairs. Arms is traditional but I would have had to figure that out and I was ready to be done at that point. So I put two cherry slats in the center. I think it looks fine but I am not sure it looks better than all black. But it is different.
The joints for the curved top rail is traditional mortise and tenon. I did not want to try and cut a domino mortise in a curved top rail. But the other mortise and tenon joints are all domino loose tenon joints. The back slats are held in by 12mm domino mortises. Much quicker. Tenons are all cherry, made from scrap. All but the little lower side rail are 8mm thick and over an inch wide. The mortises were made by two plunges of my domino XL in the wide setting.
I used an old Woodsmith plan I made before for myself and my daughter with a ladder back. But I went with the vertical slats for these dining room chairs. A major decision was what to make the 6 back slats out of. I mocked up all cherry and all black. My kids and most of the others I asked liked the black. So I built 8 with black slats. I used poplar because it is easier to work with and I did not want to color cherry that way. I wanted something different for the two end chairs. Arms is traditional but I would have had to figure that out and I was ready to be done at that point. So I put two cherry slats in the center. I think it looks fine but I am not sure it looks better than all black. But it is different.
The joints for the curved top rail is traditional mortise and tenon. I did not want to try and cut a domino mortise in a curved top rail. But the other mortise and tenon joints are all domino loose tenon joints. The back slats are held in by 12mm domino mortises. Much quicker. Tenons are all cherry, made from scrap. All but the little lower side rail are 8mm thick and over an inch wide. The mortises were made by two plunges of my domino XL in the wide setting.