I have always wanted Adirondack chairs along the lake. So we took the challenge and built an Adirondack chair for each family member and now I have free printable Adirondack Chair Plans for you!
It’s not that difficult either and in a few hours, you’ll have your own Adirondack chair to sit on! It’s a perfect project for those of you who love DIY!
You’ll also want to learn How To Build A Cornhole Game for more backyard fun and discover some great tips on How to get your backyard party ready!
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Our Experience Following the Adirondack Chair Plans
These rustic outdoor chairs not only enhanced our backyard, but building them also provided a fun family activity. Together we created a great space for us to relax as a family for years to come!
The Adirondack design is a perfect style for sturdy outdoor furniture, and they go together quite easily with a basic material list. This DIY Adirondack chair is a great way to get the whole family building, with a comfortable seat as their reward! The instructions for the Adirondack chair plans are simple to follow. Even our young daughter was able to help out and participate in the building of her own chair!
How To Build Adirondack Chairs
First, download the Adirondack chair plans at the link below. The template is actual size so you will have to have it printed on 24″ by 36″ paper at a local copy shop. Many copy shops will allow you to email the file to be printed.
Then all you have to do is trace around the pieces, no measuring! Super easy! Follow along with our step-by-step instructions and photos below, and you’ll see how easily these classic chairs come together.
Download the Free Adirondack Template, gather the supplies and you are ready to build.
Adirondack Chair Supplies
Here is your shopping list for these easy to build chairs. The parts list for our free plans include:
- 60 -1 1/2″ deck screws
- 10 – 2″ X 1/4″ carriage bolts along with flat nuts and washers
- 2 – 12 ft 1 X 6 pressure treated lumber (on one cut the middle back of the chair, upper back support, one seat, and two arms) (on the second cut two legs, the first seat piece/bottom support for back, and two seat pieces)
- 1 – 8 ft 1 x 4 treated lumber (cut both support for arms, the front cross piece of chair, and two legs)
- 1 – 10 ft 1 x 4 treated lumber (cut all four of the remaining back of the chair)
- power tools (drill, hand sander) and a chop saw and band saw
- level
- socket set
- printable plans
Step by Step How To Build Adirondack Chairs
Download and lay out all the templates out before cutting, They will be your cut list. Carefully place templates to get the most pieces from one board. Trace, cut and sand.
Bolt legs together with 2-inch carriage bolts.
Once the legs are assembled, screw the front cross piece between the front legs.
Next, screw the bottom support to the back legs.
Now screw arm supports to the side of each front leg. For the entire chair, drill pilot holes to keep the wood from splitting.
Screw on the arms of the chair onto the front legs.
Again, drill pilot holes and then bolt on the back seat support piece.
Screw the middle back piece on the chair. Make sure both arms and the vertical back piece are level before attaching.
Screw on the next two back pieces. You want the slats to be spaced evenly, making sure to keep arms level.
Evenly screw on the remaining back pieces.
Finally, screw on seat slats.
And there you have it – an amazing and comfortable Adirondack chair! We considered painting the chairs, but in the end, we decided the natural wood look was too beautiful to change. This rustic lounge chair is truly the perfect piece of furniture for your patio, porch, deck or yard.
Adirondack Chairs: A Brief Background
The traditional Adirondack chair design first made the scene in the early 1900s. The designer, Thomas Lee, wanted a comfortable chair for his cottage on Lake Champlain near the Adirondack mountain range in upstate New York. This iconic piece of outdoor furniture may have grown in popularity amongst the east coast cottages, but it is now a must have piece of patio furniture for summer enjoyment coast to coast!
The comfortable design summons you to sit down and rest. The wide armrests and the slanted back with a gentle recline help the weight of your day disappear. The design is so comfortable that even cushions are not needed.
You can line these chairs up and face the lake to watch the sunset or create a friendly space for friends and neighbors on the patio. Circle the chairs up around the fire-pit and enjoy an evening cocktail or a warm s’more, laugh, and tell some stories. The Adirondack chair style is perfect for any outdoor space that you want to feel comfortable and inviting!
Adirondack chair plan tips
I encourage you to give this outdoor seating project a try. Gather up the supplies and round up the family. You could order the chairs online and pay the hefty shipping fees, but you would miss out on a great opportunity for the family to not only create memories but also create a fun place where you relax and enjoy each other’s company!
Building these from scratch is the perfect DIY woodworking project for beginners, and they are very affordable to make at home. After putting a few of these together for your own lawn, porch or garden, you may find yourself building more for friends and relatives – or even selling some on the side! Everybody loves settling into the deep scoop of these chairs, sitting around a fire and letting the evening go by.
Looking for more tips on how to build Adirondack chairs? Consider the following ideas:
- Paint or stain these chairs for a unique touch. Varying colors of painted Adirondack chairs look so nice together!
- If you already have some outdoor furniture like rocking chairs, patio furniture, or swings, Adirondack chairs are easily coordinated with some weather resistant throw pillows. The eclectic, mix-and-match look is all the rage!
- You may want to coat them with a weather resistant sealant if they will be exposed to the elements on your deck or in the backyard.
- Use cedar instead of pine for even more beautiful results.
- Do you have pallets laying around? If you have sturdy pallet planks in good condition, try recycling the wood!
The easiest thing to do is print off the actual size template at your local copy shop for the Adirondack Chair Plans here.
Adirondack Chair Templates (print and trace around these)
If you want dimensions instead, we have done our best to recreate them for you. Click the link below.
Adirondack Chair Dimensions
Disclosure, Lowe’s provided me with a gift card for supplies.
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I enjoy reading through a post that can make people think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
Is it just me or did you leave out a few of the seat pieces from your material cut list. Under materials, you say the following:
“2 – 12 ft 1 X 6 treated lumber (on one cut the middle back of chair, upper back support, one seat, and two arms) (on the second cut two legs, the first seat piece/bottom support for back, and two seat pieces)
1 – 8 ft 1 x 4 treated lumber (cut both support for arms, the front cross piece of chair, and two legs)
1 – 10 ft 1 x 4 treated lumber (cut all four of the remaining back of chair)”
Based on the photo of your finished chair, you have 5 seat pieces and yet on your cut list, you only reference 3 (1 coming from a 12′ 1″ x 6″ and the other 2 coming from the other 12′ 1″ x 6″.) Where do you propose the other 2 seat pieces come from? Your help is much appreciated.
Marc
Just wanted to let you know that I just completed 6 of these for sitting around my firepit. They are outstanding! Great plan and the templates worked great! The only difficulty I had that I never found in the plan is where to place the front of the arm over the front leg. I suspect I pulled it too far forward because my 30 degree cut was off on the back.
Regardless, the chairs are outstanding and they are bringing rave reviews! Thanks for publishing!!
Can you provide me with dimensions for a child-size chair…. want to make one for my grand nephew who is 2 years old. Perhaps it is just a percentage of the adult dimensions… like 75% (leg would be 1’11.75″).
Thanks for any advice.
Hi Chris, if you email the file to a local copy center like Office Max or Kinkos they will print it out on 24″ x 36″ paper. All the pieces will be just the right size to trace around and cut out. Our copy center charged me about $6.00.
Hi David,
My husband said he did it with jig saw. He adjusted it to 30 degrees and followed the line. I hope this helps. Let us know if you have more questions.
How can I make the 30* angle cut on first seat board I am thinking with job saw?? Anyone???
I brought the pdf to an insty-prints place and they wanted $60. At any rate open the pdf document , choose print then under page sizing & handling click on poster, then print. You will have to assemble and tape all the pages (24) but this should work for most.
Anyone tried cypress lumber?
Hi there, after reading this remarkable paragraph i am too happy to share my experience here with friends.
I do believe all the ideas you’ve offered for your post.
They’re really convincing and can certainly work. Nonetheless,
the posts are too short for starters. May you please lengthen them a bit
from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
The orientation on these plans do not allow you to print in actual size. I had these printed on 24 x 36 and they are far too small. There is no way you can make this fit on 2 pages. The PDF needs to be turned into 4 pages and rotated to landscape and printed 48″ wide x 24″ tall or all the templates are miniature. How in the world are people getting their templates correct?
I liked the plans so I decided to make a few for my grandkids (between ages 2 and 5). I had the file reduced to 25.2″ X 16.8″ (70% of the original 36″x24″). That doesn’t seem like a big change but trust me, it is a lot when you think 3 dimensionally. I then had the plans mounted to poster-board because it makes it easier to cut out and transfer the outline than using a flimsy piece of paper. I flattened out the curves a lot on the upper and lower back supports as the curves were too extreme for the 3/4 inch thick wood. I also had to adjust the horizontal legs back more on the front legs than the template is marked for because the wood was also 3/4 inch thick.(Reducing the template does not account for the fact the wood still has the same thickness as the full size chair.) The arms were placed with a 3/4″ overhang over the front legs. These were all easy changes. I also increased the height of the back pieces by 2″ each just because I wanted to have a taller back. If you have a router table, round over all the edges. All pieces can be cut easily from a single 1x10x12.
Can you please provide me with the dimensions of the chairs.
Thanks
Gene
I cannot open your dimensions file. Can you e-mail it to me as a PDF?