Mosaic Chaise

I was out in Orewa and saw a very interesting Mosaic chair, I thought that something similar would look nice around the pool. Who knew that mosaics were so hard and so time consuming. I was hoping to get this done over the xmas break, but life got in the way what with waterpumps breaking down and visitors etc. Then COVID hit so I suddenly had some time

Timber (4x4, 6x1, decking, exterior ply)

Nails (lots of)

Ceramic and Mosaic tiles

Tile cement

Grout

Lots and lots of patience!!!

My first idea was to buy a chaise and strip off the upholstery and use the frame as a basis, this unfortunately wasn't viable for a couple of reasons.

1. A shop bought chaise probably wouldn't be strong enough and the structure was unlikely to be weatherproof

2. Stripping off the upholstery takes ages (see my i'ble about la-z-boys)

3. This is probably the most important - I couldn't find one at a reasonable price

So best I build one myself! I mean how hard can it be right?

I had some timber lying around, plus I bought some more, all of the stuff I used is exterior grade stuff (H3.1 and H4).Most of it was pretty chunky too, 4x4s, 6x1s, 30mm decking timber and exterior ply plus lots of nails!

The legs were made from 4x4 (basically a fence post)

The two legs at the "head end" were initially cut at 600mm (2 feet)

The foot end rear leg was 450mm (18 inches) and the foot end front leg 300mm (1 foot)

However these may be trimmed later as I want it to look right

Because they looked really chunky I tapered the bottom of them with a 10 degree taper using a chop saw (compound mitre saw)

I joined the two front and two back legs using the 150x25 (6x1) planks which were 1.8m (6 feet) long

These were actually fence palings

I then joined the two sets of legs with a 750mm (2 foot 6) piece of the same to make a base.

Blood was drawn for the first time (but not the last by a long chalk) doing this when I "smacked myself upside the head" with a piece of wood! (I am not a clever man!!)

This bit was done in the garage as it was hot and sunny outside

At this point I thought it wise to decamp to where it was going to end up before it became too heavy to move.

I then paneled the seat with decking timber and built up the sides to the shape I wanted with 6x1.

The back and foot end were double skinned to make an arm rest and hide the 4x4s.Finally I infilled with strips of exterior ply and made the shaped back rest of bent ply, bent over shaped pieces

I also made a cup holder at this point as somewhere to put a drink might come in handy!!

By this time the weather had taken a turn for the worse so I finished for the day

I rounded off all the corners using a grinding disc on my angle grinder, blood was once again shed, I must put the safety guard back on the grinder!!

I then stapled on chicken wire on all the wood to give the tiles a key, this used about a thousand staples!

Using Facebook and TradeMe I begged and bought both ceramic and Mosaic tiles, a lady in South Auckland sold me several boxes of mosaic tiles cheaply (I think it was a hobby she lost interest in) and a lady in Parakai gave me several boxes of ceramic tiles that had been sat in her garden for a couple of years

These are just two of the seven boxes that I got, all in all about 150 kg of tiles, dollar store gems and mosaic pieces

I printed lots of pictures of the interwebs for mosaics and started making these up indoors by using PVA glue to stick the ceramics on, this way I can do them in relative comfort sitting down inside and then cement them into position a scrub the paper off (I hope) then grout

This was very time consuming, the original plan was to have lots of different animals on the surfaces,I ended up with about 15 which was probably 30-40 hours work

The first few mosaics I made I used PVA adhesive to stick the tiles to the paper, I found that this made it really difficult to remove the paper, so as an alternative I used a glue stick (prittstick) this was much better

.Around this point I realized that doing mosaics is really time consuming and this wasn't going to be completed over the Xmas break.

However I think I have done enough to give the general idea

If you look closely to you can see the nautical/kiwi theme to the mosaics

On the backrest is a blue dolphin, a green turtle, a black and yellow angel fish, a multi colored gecko and an orange seahorse, on the base is a red anchor, a green gecko, a red dragonfly and a chessboard and on the site a brown kiwi and a red starfish, along the top rail are briar roses.

The whole thing then had to take a backseat for a while due to the COVID lockdown and me being an essential worker so it went on a back burner as all my spare time was being used to keep up with the farm maintenance when I wasn't on duty

However Xmas came around again and I was stood down,(mainly as I had to have a hip replaced after a fall)

As I wasn't as mobile as previously, I decided that rather than making lots more mosaic pictures i would infill with the 50 or so kgs of Dollar store gems that I had

The whole thing was then grouted (I actually wore the skin off of my fingers doing that!)

It was then all polished up to reveal the colours

it weighs between 150 and 200 kgs (That Sucka ain't going anywhere)

Costs (in NZ dollars)

Wood - $80

Tiles/Dollar store gems - $125 (plus some free from a local)

Tie Cement (40kgs) $150

Grout (10 kg) $90

Patience Priceless!

So all together about $445

I have quite a few tiles left, used just about all of the gems, and am over mosaicing for ever!!