To continue my life as a true ski bum, for the main class project, I am going forward with the up-cycle theme. For years now, my father and I have talked about turning all of our old skis into a bench or a chair. I see benches like this all over the place in ski towns, and I want one for myself. This will allow me to create a mountain home/ski bum aesthetic on the front porch of my parents house in Winter Park! My prototype model is shown below. Each popsicle stick represents either a front half or back half of a ski.
I am shooting for an aesthetic like the one shown below, but I will need to do some modifications to the design to fulfill the project requirement of being dynamic.
Originally I wanted to hang the chair from the roof joists that cover the front porch of my parents house, allowing it to swing freely in only one direction. After speaking with my parents on what they thought about that idea, my mother decided she wanted the chair to reside by the fire pit out back. This completely eliminated the possibility of a swinging chair because I do not have the funds to build a support frame for something like that, so I am changing the design to be a rocking chair. I will be relying on the flex in skis to give the chair its motion.
The chair will sit on top of some skis like shown above. The lower horizontal pieces will be the skis, and the chair part will attach to the ends, allowing for the chair to bounce\rock back and fourth.
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A ski chair is a really cool idea for a project. I have definitely seen them in a lot of mountain towns, and I think they are definitely a part of the ski resort aesthetic. Hope the final project turned out well!
Cool Popsicle prototype. I like the upcycling aspect that you are doing for this project too. I’m just wondering how much weight the ski can support on the bottom for the rocking feature. You might have to consider a metal cantilever beam if the ski doesn’t hold.
This is really cool, I have always wanted one of these. Is there a place that sells/gives away old unusable skis? Do you plan on painting the skis, or just leaving the individual ski graphics visible? I think that aesthetic is pretty cool. How will you make it dynamic?
Great Idea, I loved your small prototype you made out of popsicle sticks. Making it dynamic might take some brainstorming time but I’m sure you could get creative with it. Excited to see how it turns out!
Great idea of planting the project directly into the ground for a more secure support. The use of old skis will give this chair a great aesthetic
I love that picture you included in this write up of the ski chair with the Colorado flag decoration. That’s kind of the style that I envisioned when you talked about yours. I also think that using popsicle sticks was a good choice for the prototype. They seem like the most similar to skis. How will you make sure the skis can withstand the stress and bending to make the chair rock?
I like how your prototyped turned out. Will you try to make a picture with the skis on the back of the chair like the colorado flag example?
This is a great idea. I’ve seen a lot of cool skis chairs, some that hang, swing, rock, or are stationary. This is a unique idea that will last for a long time if done correctly.
You should pick what aesthetic you’ll go with. Are you going to use old straight skis, or new school twin-tips?
You should choose skis that have matching colors, so that it all matches. Are you going to to 100% ski materials or use wood metal, etc? If you do choose different materials, try to figure out how to make them blend effectively. If someone is looking at your chair from afar, what will it look like?
Great idea! I like how you’re using old skis for the aesthetic. The proto-type is really nice. The rocking chair dynamic is a fantastic idea and adds “comfort and cushion” to the “stiff” aesthetic of skis. Great job.