With its graceful curves, cabriole legs, and ornamental back splat, a Queen Anne side chair is a bucket list build for many woodworkers. Dan Faia had a very specific Queen Anne side chair on his bucket list. He wanted to replicate a chair that Phil Lowe built in the 1980s and featured on the cover of a Fine Woodworking VHS, a chair that sat in the corner of his mentor’s office for decades and that was gifted to him recently by Phil’s family after he passed.
This build is not for the faint of heart, but there are countless lessons in this series for woodworkers of all stripes. Dan uses the chair as a platform to teach lessons on layout, joinery, efficiently working at the bandsaw, and shaping and sculpting. In short, any woodworker would benefit from Dan’s impeccable techniques and teaching style, as exhibited here.
This series is likely one of our more in-depth video workshops and will release one episode per week. You can watch Dan measure Phil’s original chair and make full-size drawings in a previous video workshop here. Dan’s full-size drawings can be found here, and the drawing that Phil probably used to build this chair can be found in SAPFM’s archive, here.
Editing by Brigid Meyer of Dinkle’s Woodshop
Video by Ben Strano
Videos in the Series
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Ep 1: Starting with the back postsAugust 9, 2023
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Ep 2: Laying out back post joineryAugust 9, 2023
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Ep 3: Mortising and tapering the back postsAugust 16, 2023
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Ep 4: Chamfering the back postsAugust 23, 2023
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Ep 5: Adding molding to the back seat railAugust 30, 2023
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Ep 6: Gluing up the back “H”September 6, 2023
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Ep 7a: Sawing the crest rail tenonsSeptember 13, 2023
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Ep 7b: Fitting the angled crest rail tenonsSeptember 13, 2023
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Ep 8: Making the back splatSeptember 20, 2023
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Ep 9: Shaping the crest railSeptember 27, 2023
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Ep 10: Sculpting the back splatOctober 4, 2023
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Ep 11: Blending the crest rail with the back splatOctober 12, 2023
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Ep 12: Blending the crest rail with the back postsOctober 19, 2023
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Ep 13: Blending the outside of the crest railOctober 25, 2023
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Ep 14: Finishing the chair backNovember 1, 2023
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Ep 15: Rough shaping the cabriole legsNovember 9, 2023
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Ep16a: Roughing out the cabriole legsNovember 15, 2023
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Ep 16b: Finishing the cabriole leg shapingNovember 15, 2023
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Ep 17: Angled tenons for the side railsNovember 22, 2023
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Ep 18: Fitting the front railNovember 29, 2023
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Ep 19: Cutting curved seat rail rabbetsDecember 7, 2023
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Ep 20: Front assembly glue upDecember 13, 2023
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Ep 21: Creating the leg transition blocksDecember 20, 2023
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Ep 22a: Wedged through-tenonsJanuary 3, 2024
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Ep 22b: Pinning the tenonsJanuary 3, 2024
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Ep 23a: Rough shaping the legs and front railJanuary 10, 2024
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Ep 23b: Final shaping of the kneeJanuary 10, 2024
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Ep 24: Final inspection and fairing of the legsJanuary 17, 2024
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Ep 25: Final fairing of the transition blocksJanuary 31, 2024
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Ep 26: Rounding the Seat RailFebruary 7, 2024
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Ep 27: Final glue-up of the chairFebruary 14, 2024
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Ep 28: Completing the Queen Anne sidechairFebruary 28, 2024