DIY hammock chair

Recommendation points

• What will we make the chair from
• With or without frame
• The simplest version of canvas
• We make a rim with our own hands
• How to weave a net of ropes
• Assembly and suspension of the chair

Most garden furniture is not original. While equipping the recreation area, we strive to create a unique flavor and are looking for more and more original ideas. One of the best options for a summer terrace is a hanging hammock chair: comfortable, unusual, very simple, and you can make it yourself.

What will we make the chair from

We will consider two types of hanging chairs that you can actually make yourself. The first is performed on a solid woven base, but finding the right material is not an easy task. You will need a dense and durable, but at the same time breathable fabric: billiard cloth, canvas, kevlar and the like, in the worst case – tarpaulin from an old tent.

The second version of the chair is a mesh hammock on a circular frame. This option is more difficult to manufacture, but the result is definitely worth the time spent. It is made of thin ropes, and the ropes will not work – you just need a weave of several strands and preferably in an even amount. If the chair will be suspended in the open air, it is advisable to prefer synthetic materials. You will also need a piece of half-inch metal-plastic tubing or plumbing polypropylene if you have a hair dryer at your disposal..

Do not forget about small accessories: fasteners, rings and carabiners, which will be used to assemble the chair into a single whole and for its suspension. Also, a PET tape from a loose bottle can be a good help: due to the property of shrinking when heated, it provides high-quality fastening of parts and has a completely acceptable appearance.

With or without frame

Until you try, you will not understand what suits you best. Both versions of the chair are presented exclusively to the amateur, they are both comfortable and the question of choice depends to a greater extent on the decorative design of the summer area, although there are some features.

The wicker chair adjusts the shape better to the person sitting, and in general it looks more presentable. The likelihood that over time the seams will disperse or the ropes will burst on it is almost zero. The frame ring also serves as a kind of armrest, but there can be difficulties with it: if the hoop is not secured sufficiently firmly, it can disperse over time. True, this will not lead to a fall, and the chair will remain quite maintainable.

A fabric hammock chair is slightly more practical. If necessary, it can be unfastened and placed freely in the washing machine. In addition, for the manufacture of the basis of such a chair, they will undertake in almost any sewing studio for a very reasonable price, you just have to assemble the product and hang it.

The simplest version of canvas

You can offer two options for making a hanging chair based on dense fabric. In both cases, you will need a cut at least one meter wide and up to one and a half meters long. The essence of manufacturing is simple: tuck the edges of the cut to the lower (seamy) side and make some kind of loops along the contour, into which the suspension ropes will be passed.

First, mark the shape of the hammock with a washable pencil. This is nothing more than a symmetrical trapezoid: a narrow base of about 45-50 cm will play the role of a backrest, and a wide one – about 80 cm – will serve as the lower part of the seat. From the side of the back and seat, the turn-up is purely symbolic, about 50 mm, a dense thick rope is launched into it, which will slightly tighten the edges and give the seat the shape of a bowl.

To get a straight trapezoid, just bend the fabric in half and cut off the edge of the fabric at an angle as shown in the picture

And here the paths diverge: in order to make suspension loops, the edges can either be stitched in a certain way, or riveted with eyelets. With the last option, everything is obvious: choose rings according to the size of the ropes on which you will hang the chair, and then rivet them using a tapered groove, a bolt with a semicircular head or a steel ball – whatever comes to hand.

You will need a powerful sewing machine to sew the buttonholes. The cuffs should be cut into strips of 6–8 cm with the same gap between them, and then stitched along the perimeter and crosswise. To make the chair look and be more durable, cut small “tongues” in the recesses formed, wrap them up and overlock the edges with nylon thread in the color of the fabric.

To keep the chair well in shape, as you pass the ropes into loops or rings, tie simple knots on them. The remaining ends are either braided into slings or tied together at a height of 2-2.5 m above the seat.

We make a rim with our own hands

The diameter of the ring for the frame should be about 60-70 cm, respectively, you will need a piece of pipe 190-220 cm long.

If polypropylene pipe is selected:

1. Heat it with a hairdryer to 70–80 ° C, then bend it with your gloved hands. Start from the edges towards the center, then work in the opposite direction. The less effort you make, the more correct the shape of the ring will be..
2. Prepare a wooden chopik about 10 cm long and a millimeter in diameter larger than the inner tube. Heat one end of the pipe with a hairdryer, insert the connector, let the plastic cool, then heat the other end and close the ring.
3. To be sure, drill a pipe 2–3 cm from the joint on each side and secure the joint with two neat cabinet ties. If the decorative aspect is not so important, connect both ends with a plastic sleeve.

If a reinforced plastic tube is used:

1. Bend the ring without heating and very carefully so as not to fracture.
2. When the pipe is bent, fill it thoroughly with dry sand using steel wire as a ramrod. The filler is needed so that the soft thin-walled tube does not get caught under load by the loops.
3. Fasten the ends of the pipe in the same way as for the polypropylene pipe.

How to weave a net of ropes

The seat of the chair is a round mesh with a diameter of 40–45 cm, woven from a multi-strand rope. The shape and structure is very similar to the embroidery hoop. First, a rim is made:

1. Take a piece of rope with a thickness of 1 cm and a length of three seat diameters (about 4.5 m) plus double the length of the lines, that is, about 4 m more.
2. Fold a ring in the middle of the rope and temporarily wrap the overlap with thread.
3. Wrap the ends in a circle in different directions. When you are back at the mark, tie a single knot around the rope rim. There will be a back on this side.

To fill the bottom with a net, cut thin (up to 10 mm) ropes into pieces equal to double the length of the lines with a margin of 0.5 m.First, from one of the sides of the seat (conditionally) pass 8-10 ropes between the turns of the rim at equal intervals, wind them around two of the three random strands and tie with a simple knot. The end left behind the rim should be equal to the length of the line, and the one that will go to the net is slightly longer.

We do the same with the front of the seat, but here the cords should be 40-50 cm longer than those on the sides. And you need to skip them with both ends according to the same principle as a tennis racket is braided. That is, the outer two longitudinal ropes are threaded into the same places of the rim, into which the transverse ropes closest to it are passed. The number of longitudinal ropes is half as much, but since they are folded in half, the grid spacing is the same as on the sides. In practice, it is convenient to first draw a rim and a net with the desired pitch on a Whatman paper, and then mark with colored laces or electrical tape the places into which the ropes will be braided.

Now it remains to braid the seat. Spread it out on the floor so that the intersections of the ropes form a net. Start at the cross row closest to the front edge. At the intersection, pierce one of the ropes with a pencil, separating its strands, and pass a transverse rope through the hole. In the next row, change direction and then stick to the checkerboard order. When you have reached the opposite side of the rim, tie two strands with a simple knot and release the free end out.

Assembly and suspension of the chair

In the original weaving pattern, the longitudinal ropes of the seat do not just fold in half, in this place they twine the hoop in tight turns, and thus the front of the chair is fastened. This is quite difficult, so you can use an additional rope here and just wrap it tightly around the front 25-30 mm long section or wind it with PET tape.

Now it’s time to remember the two thick ropes released from the rim. Mark on them with a thread of 50-60 cm and at this point tie a loop loop: fold the rope in three, circle it around the plastic hoop, and then pass the free end into the lower loop, and then into the upper loop. The thread marks the place where the knot just begins, while the ropes need to be spread apart at a distance of about 40 cm.

To spread the slings to the sides for a one-point attachment of the chair, a block of suitable length will help, in which holes are made along the edges

The side and rear ends extending from the seat are attached to the hoop in the same way, but here you can get by with a single loop loop. When all the edges are tied to the frame, we collect them on the sides or on three sides (one at the back) into equal bundles, forming suspension lines. On them, you can simply tie common knots-eight, loosening the ends with a fringe or crimp with a thimble. When hanging the chair, it is not recommended to use standard screw hooks (unbendable). It is better to fasten with a through pin or a pair of thick pins through a steel plate.

It is best to use ready-made hammock mount kits