The chair begins...

I'm a fan of Gerrit Rietveld, and admire his simple geometric furniture. Twenty years ago I built his Red Blue chair, although mine was finished in natural maple. Now I'm going to try my hand at building his Steltman Chair.

The Steltman chair was designed by Rietveld for the Steltman Jewelry store located in the Hague. Made in both left-handed and a right-handed version, the chairs for the jeweler Steltman were mirror images of each other and originally covered in white leather. After Rietvelds death, the chair was reproduced in a simple wood design. It is available today from the Rietveld-by-Reitveld company Click Here, run by his family, to produce quality furniture reproductions from his original designs. The Steltman chair costs approximately $2450.00 USD.

I will be using plans from this book:

Available from Amazon: Click here

Here is a picture of the original chair, covered in an off white leather:

Here is how I hope my finished chair looks:

Here are two oak versions with painted finishes: