Imagine this; you just finished getting your turns in on the mountain and are planning on walking back to your ski in chalet-which wasn’t as ski in as you anticipated. Loosening your boots and throwing your skis over your shoulder you decide to stop buy the resorts outdoor bar and grill before making the long trek back to your chalet and your friends welcome the pit stop. Not wanting to eat a full meal-you have dinner plans later, your crew decides to cozy around a fire, warm and cold libations in hand and watch the sun slowly slide into the cracks of the mountain you just spent a full day of carving and turning on, and yet all you can think about is how comfortable the chair you are sitting on. What’s that? its an adirondack style chair made out of old skis? What a marriage of style, craftmanship, and upcycling!
The aesthetic I have decided for my upcycling project is the high-end ski après lifestyle. It only takes a quick google to realize that buying a hand crafted ski chair isn’t cheap, and yet all the ski resorts tend to have them littered around. As a kid I always thought they were very cool and after a while of collecting skied out skis, I finally had enough to turn into a chair. This is a great example of this aesthetic as it uses older style skis, which the aesthetic loves to use to bring back the nostalgia of old style skiing, and allows the user to sit in a piece of history.
The chairs themselves are also some of the more pretty design as far chairs go, even though I imagine my chair will not be as beautiful as some others. The adirondak style of chair seems slightly daunting especially since it requires some free hand cutting and my plan is to only use a chop saw, drill, and some wood screws. I do really enjoy the bright colors of the skis used on these chairs and when I make mine I plan to use the more interesting colors of each ski in the final product.
As I stated before adirondak style ski chairs are relatively complex in their pieces and as a result they end up looking very beautiful due the non organic lines of the wood cut outs. I dont have the capacity to mimic this beauty and so my plan is to simplify the design and make a chair that is more upright and less leaned in the back, hopefully this will help to reduce the stress put on the ski back, since they will be held in with only a couple wood screws.
In closing, I am planning to mimic a ski chair seen at ski resorts in order to pay homage to the ski-apres aesthetic of old and somewhat current. I am excited to work with brightly colored skis and get my hands building again, since my last project has been a while back.
Links
https://www.swanngalleries.com/vintage-ski-posters-sale-2373
https://woodworkingprojectsplan2019.blogspot.com/2018/11/adirondack-chair-plans-made-with-skis.html
www.coloradoskichairs.com/shop/vintage-ski-adirondack-chair/
www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/18/apres-ski/
www.rei.com/blog/snowsports/diy-build-adirondack-chair-skis
4 Comments. Leave new
I always see those vintage skiing posters in many peoples houses I visit and I think you’re spot on with how to capture that overall aesthetic. Thank you for putting why I like those posters into words because I never really understood it until now. It seems like you’re taking on a pretty challenging project but don’t let that deter you! You mention how this aesthetic captures the nostalgia of old school skiing, what do you think conveys that feeling? Is it the colors, the skies? A little bit of everything?
Thanks for the comment Ben. I think for the most part the skis themselves will convey this aesthetic since they have a specific shape and color to them, the chair is just a cool way to justify their existence.
Hey Josh!
I love this idea as an aesthetic. I think this is such a cool project, and definitely familiar and reminiscent to anyone who lives and loves that culture in Colorado. I think that its super cool that you’ve been saving skis since you were a child– did you have this idea in mind since then? Or did you just know that you wanted to keep them for another reason? I can’t wait to see the final result! Great job with the photos in this post as well– I find the European prints to be super nostalgic, do you have any plans to integrate that style into the final product (colors, shapes, materials, etc.)?
Thanks for the comment Jillian, Ever since I saw a chair like this as a kid I had wanted to make a chair so it just worked out that I was able to finally have enough skis for this project. As it currently sits I don’t see a way to incorporate those prints into the final product but I may have to think about it some more.