Potato Barrel Chair

July 7, 2025

The Potato Barrel Pallet chair is nearly complete! Currently also known as the “almost-there-chair”.

I started making this chair about a year ago. I’m using the same Lee Valley Kitchissippi chair plans as last time. Only this time, nearly all the wood and screws are upcycled and salvaged!

It’s been a slow burn background project. Pallets from a neighbour collected and stored, and later deconstructed. An old potato barrel plier-ed apart. An offcut from a neighbour’s chainsaw mill here, a little jar of salvaged screws there.

It’s been a practice of chipping away, and sturdy belief in incremental progress. Working on it in bits and bites, as life allows. One sexy Sunday afternoon spent sorting fasteners. Another one wrestling with a crowbar and my patience. But the pile of raw materials ready to use grows. And I find corners of time to cut an upright back piece or trim a seat slat. Until one evening I suddenly and blissfully realize I have nearly all the parts for a chair flatpacked in a big cardboard box – and the long awaited assembly day is here!

I only need one more piece of wood to fully compete it. And in due time, it’ll present itself. (Heeeeeere lumber lumber lumber….) But until then, I will sit comfortably and with deep contentment in my potato barrel opus, with a cup of tea and a great sense of satisfaction. (Just remember to put the cup of tea down to your right side… 😉)

Have a great week folks! I hope we all keep finding the five minutes and ten minutes and half hours that add up to something bigger. 💚