The finished but unfinished armchair

I did a big push this week toward finishing the armchair, but the final sanding and finish are going to wait until spring, because Danish oil is volatile and not something that I want to work with indoors. The chair is not perfect, but it is done.  In theory, it can be pulled apart into four sections, but two of the bolts are in too tightly for me to pull them.

Costs:  I used about $20 worth of my husband's wood, bought two boxes of drywall screws for $7 (of which I have many left over for other projects), and will spend $12-$15 for a can of Danish oil later on. I did use many of the mistake screws, where three-inch screws would have been too long. Not that I am above sawing off or filing down a too-long screw once in a while. About half of the wood in the chair is salvaged from the previous armchair and from our scrap pile. I still need two more small pieces to finish the arms at the back. I was thinking of reusing the flat springs from the old chair, but didn't have hardware on hand for attaching them securely, so I put 1x2 slats across instead.

The cushion and cover are from the old chair. I cut down the cushion with scissors and a steak knife, and then refit the cover using slipcovering methods: put the cover on inside out, pin it to fit, mark the lines that need to be sewn, then remove the cover and sew them. This particular cover was essentially a slipcover made from old upholstery fabric anyway, so no cording or anything to worry about. I will replace it when better fabric becomes available, and it is getting washed on my very next laundry day.

The chair is more square than it looks in the picture; the skew in the seat support evened out under the weight of the back, as I thought it might.  I might make a pillow for the back, but it is comfortable enough without it. I do get the feeling of sliding off if I slouch, though. The children alternate between using it as a royal throne, and a base on which to build couch cushion houses. It is sturdy enough to stand up to them standing all over it.