DIY Furniture

Mission Style Sofa Bed by Amish Originals

After an episode of "Couch breaking while birthday party going on", the wife and I started talking about furniture a lot. We spent almost a thousand dollars on that couch. Certainly not top of the line, but it should never have failed to be a couch. This thing broke from people sitting on it. Sure, people flop on furniture from time to time, but a couch should never fail to be a couch. It should endure infinite sitting. So I looked at where the break happened, and I took a peek at how this thing was built and what it was made of. And do you know what I found in there?

Cardboard. And OSB. And the cheapest foam you can find. This is a mass produced couch, made in some Vietnamese factory. It probably cost the company we bought it from about 150$. The cardboard was structural. You get that? web paid nearly a grand for cardboard furniture. It doesn't matter what else you use, if one of the structural components is cardboard, it is going to fail. This particular couch failed at the end joints, because a couple of nails were used where mortise and tenon joints should have been. We gave brief.. very brief.. consideration to the idea of putting a new couch on credit.  But then I started thinking a bout the couch we had when I was a kid.

Mission style, made of pine 4x4 and 2x6 lumber. Minimal tooling was used, and the wood grain was on display. The cushions came right off, allowing you to vacuum or sweep it out. Then it was just a rag coated with some lemon scented spray wax, and any mess was taken care of. My dad bought that stuff because even though it wasn't fancy, it would survive for years, in spite of his children. The joints were all proper and sound, and it was comfortable enough to sleep on. It was a very simple, sturdy and effective couch. 

Now, I'm somewhat handy with tools. I've made plenty of things before. And for the thousand dollars the furniture store wants for a couch, I can buy enough supplies, tools included, to build five or six.

So that's what we're going to do. Starting with... research.

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