This is a digital drawing and construction project that explores the concept of the love seat. Designed to pivot around a 3/4" steel rod, it creates a dynamic seat that lets you play with the boundaries of personal space – exploring the range between intimacy and separation.

Step 1: Digital Drawing

Draw the seat elements, foot risers and rotating support pieces in a 2D .dwg file. For seat elements, seat depth and backrest height are both 17" long, with a 10-15 degree angle between. All seat elements, foot risers, and rotating support pieces are drawn to slide onto a 3/4" diameter steel rod.

Step 2: CNC Cutting

Bring the .dwg file into into VizCam or another CAD CAM software to prepare the G-Code to control the router function on a CNC (computer numerical control) router. As the CNC is only used for cutting (seat elements, foot risers and rotating support pieces are all cut this way), a simple profile ramping path with ¼-inch bit works fine.

Materials: Two 4'x8' sheets of 1/2” AC ply. 20-28 bench pieces can be arranged on a single sheet for routing. With 1" spacing between pieces, a 4’ long love seat comes out to 50 pieces, cut out of two sheets.

Step 3: Separate and Sand

Separate the desired love seat pieces from the ply sheets. If the drilling wasn't completely clean you'll have to break through some connecting tabs that the router doesn't cut all the way through with the help of a bevel edge chisel or a jigsaw. Then get your hands on some sandpaper -- a coarser 40-60 grit for a first pass, followed by a 80- to 120-grit sandpaper -- and bring in the elbow grease.

Step 4: Piece Together

Thread a 3/4” diameter steel rod with the triangular seat pieces, each separated by two rotating support pieces. Once on the steel rod, slide everything into the rotating support lip, constructed out of a 4' long 8x8" post, planed, joined and routed with a 1" x 1" midline groove. Fasten the triangular feet to the support lip with 2” long wood screws drilled perpendicularly into the base of the support lip.

Step 5: Construct Footing Bases

Construct two footing bases from laminated redwood 2x4s. Cut two 8 ft 2x4 into four 2'6" long pieces (at this length they extend just beyond the 2'1" length of the triangular standing supports). Apply wood glue to the interior surface of each piece, then clamp them together until wood glue dries (at least a few hours). Plane the resulting pieces for a sleeker finish. Cut an 1"x1" midline groove on the bases with a router.

For a cleaner, less labor intensive base, use a 4x4 post rather than laminated 2x4s for the bases.