Staked Stool Project

Staked Furniture

I assume you are here because you're interested in the staked furniture I'm exploring or maybe just to see whatever it is I made. In any case, enjoy.

While I got my start producing furniture by making stuff to use at SCA events, I've grown interested in historical furniture in general. Turns out there were lots of interesting things made between the Renaissance and the advent of industrial furniture making (about 1850 in England and America).

Lately, I've read a lot about late 17th and 18th Century vernacular furniture. This is the stuff the common people made and used. So many think the 18th Century is all mahogany high boys and cabriole feet. Sure, it was for the well to do. That early 1%. For the rest of the folks, it was a little more mundane.

High style chairs are built off the rear legs (styles) and most chairs these days still are made this way. If the rear of the chair extends from the floor all the way to the top, this is what I am talking about. That rear frame is the structural heart of the chair. You hang a seat frame off that and connect a couple of legs to that.

Staked furniture is different. The heart of the piece is a plank. The legs are mortised into the seat and the back/arms (if any) are also mortised into the seat, but separately from the legs. Examples of this style are Windsor chairs and their tough country cousins, the Welsh stick chair.

Staked furniture isn't limited to seating and it wasn't a "new" invention. A lot of medieval furniture is staked. Basically, all stools that depend on the seat for structure, many of the tables, including trestle tables are staked as well.