Size matters

I had a question about the size of this from a blog reader. He asked if it was big enough to sit on (yes!) and asked if it might work well as bedside tables (also yes). I've taken a few pictures to show the size of it in relation to myself. I'm 5'9" (175 CM), and this might help to visualize how big the chair is.

Here it is as a possible bedside table. I think it would be an excellent height (seat is at 16"- 40 CM)

White mini Steltman

Finished a 1/4 scale Steltman chair in white. It will make the perfect home for my iPhone.

Mini me

I have some extra wood from building the chair, and decided to make a few scale replicas. These are built to 1:4 scale size, and stand about 7" tall. I think I'll make them in cherry color, natural, and white. Not sure what the cost will be at the moment, but it shouldn't be too bad. Let me know if you are interested in one.

The first baby steltman

Rietvelds' grandson Egbert holding a scale Steltman

That's all she wrote

I'm happy to announce the chair is (mostly) complete! I put on a couple of coats of Watco Danish Oil, and let it dry all day. You have to keep wiping the oil off, as it seeps out over a few hours before it's dry enough to sit on. Over the next few weeks I will apply a few more coats of the oil, and do a wet sanding with 400 then 600 grit sandpaper, for a nicer, deeper finish. The finish looks beautiful- a nice satin appearance, and it really shows off the characteristics of the wood.


Whenever I build a project I have an appreciation of just how much work goes into the original. This chair sells for approx. $4,000 US / 2840 EURO. That seems like a lot, and it is, but after building this chair I understand it. I spent about $250 / 177 EURO on the wood and milling, and another $25 or so on the oil, dowels, and sandpaper. The cost of the chair comes in the labor. My estimate is around 40 hours of work on this. All the filing, sanding, finishing, takes a long time, and can be very tiring.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this project to the novice woodworker. The investment in materials is not inexpensive, and you cannot afford to make a mistake. That means every angle has to be exact, and every measurement correct. It would also be good if you had experience working with dowel points and felt confident to do some heavy duty routing to make the mortise & tenon joints. I got lucky building this, as there were no measurement errors, and nothing went terribly wrong. Some of the angles are a hair off, but other than that it came out nice.

I hope you enjoyed watching, and drop me an e-mail if you have any questions!

Oiling up

The final sanding is done, down to 220 grit, and every edge and corner has been checked, I'm going to use Watco Danish Oil (natural color) as the stain / sealer. Watco makes a product that's super easy to use, and it's hard to make a mistake with it. It seals the wood, provides a nice satin finish, and is very durable. Here are the before photos, in a couple of days I will take new photos showing how it came out.

Here's the before images

Albert Einstein explains the theory of the Steltman Chair.

The biggest loser

So while waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before applying the stain, I took the chair and weighed it. Anyone wanna guess.....

37 lbs., 16.78 Kilograms!

Pretty heavy. I could easily defend myself with it, if I could lift it that high. Very dense, very solid.