Jonah Willcox-Healey (BFA ID ’13) recently completed the below project, aptly titled, “Matchstick Chair and Desk.” The two pieces of furniture are hand crafted from walnut, hard maple, baltic birch plywood, with accents of industrial felt, rubber, and metal hardware.
The Matchstick chair and desk began from initial research from visiting local high schools and understanding the user group that was to be addressed.
Both the high school students and teachers helped with initial research by discussing what was both working and not working with their current furniture. From this I began to focus on two aspects one being playful inviting forms and the other being comfortability with the ability to be easy to use.
The desk was designed as a small teachers desk for classrooms where multiple teachers would use the same space each day. Included in the desk is a cable organizer along with two desk drawers that are large enough to hold tabloid size paper.
The chair and desk were designed to have the replaceable main components, the legs of the desk and chair, seat cushion, connectors, and rubber end caps are able to be replaced when one wants to update them or if they become broken.
The chair which is made from a bent lamination of birch and oak has a slight angle in the seat for added comfort and is surfaced with felt. The felt has been sewn to the seat for another level of playfulness, but also to create the ability of having a replaceable seat cushion when needed.
The desk top has an angle of three degrees to provide a surface that is easier on the wrist for typing on the computer. Felt was used to line the drawers, creating a surface that reduced the movement of items inside while opening.
The modular aspect that helps to link the chair and desk together is the walnut connector piece, which joins the legs to either the chair seat of desk top. The legs and end caps are also made to be standard sizes to aid in easy replaceable parts if needed.
More images of the project can be viewed on his blog.