Steve Coulter

My friend and mentor, Lonnie Bird, had a very similar chair he designed and built that he used in his own personal study. There were multiple photographs of that chair in his book, “Period Furniture Details.” It was also featured in articles in Fine Woodworking magazine. After Lonnie became ill he provided two other students and myself plans for the chair. His intension was for us to build the chairs in our home shops but, he would be available by email to help us out with problems we encountered.

Unfortunately, Lonnie passed before I got started on the project. I had made two previous period side chairs and, therefore, had few problems with the chair’s construction with the exception of the arm joinery which was frankly a little intimidating. So, I arranged to spend a couple of days at Jason Bennett’s, Lonnie’s long time assistant. With Jason’s help the arm joinery came together nicely. Although this project stretched my meager carving skills a bit, it was a lot of fun.