Not being able to sit in an ordinary chair for over a month finally pushed me over the edge with a project that I had been contemplating for several years now – a kneeling chair. I could simply buy one; they are not that expensive. But I wanted to make one, to be sure that it is comfortable.  In order to achieve that goal, I decided to first make a prototype from firewood. And I started by following this YouTube tutorial:

I made some changes to the process – firstly, I glued all pieces together before cutting the angles at the end.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Then I proceeded more or less as the video shows, until I ended up with a functional chair.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

I cut the foam from an old bed mattress, and instead of wooden pegs, I used M8 carriage bolts. When testing it, I could sit on it comfortably and work on the PC, but I found the distance-setting brace annoying. The teeth cut in the softwood were not very strong, and one broke off before I even started. And whenever I needed to pick it up or move it in any way, it would dislodge and flop around. So I changed it to one with drilled holes. That means I cannot re-adjust the angle and height quickly and easily – I have to remove that one screw at the bottom to do it – but I do not think I will need to change it very often and/or quickly – I will find one setting that works the best and then I will want the chair to stay at that setting even when I move it.

It worked reasonably well, so I finished the prototype into a fully usable, albeit not very pretty, piece of furniture.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Making the upholstery was a bugger; I am not very good with stitching. But with some help and advice from my mother, I managed to do most of the work myself. I will only use this indoors for a short time now, before I make a better and prettier final version. Subsequently, I want to use this one in the workshop and outdoors, so I charred all the wood with a blowtorch, and I soaked it in linseed oil. From a distance, it does not look so bad.

As far as comfort goes, the point of this is to ease the strain on the lower back by keeping the hip joints at a higher than 90° angle. It has no back support, so it forces the body’s core muscles to be in tension, similar to sitting on an exercise ball, but without its instability, thus it is not as exhausting, even when sitting for a longer period.

I won’t be sitting on it exclusively, but I think it should be a good addition to my office chair.