Nico Zafarana - JUN Chair

Project Overview

Born out of a want to create a chair for the first time. The purpose of the chair was to create a very lightweight, sustainable chair for my desk setup and more, as COVID has created a need for furniture that can be transferred from Savannah, Georgia (where I go to school) and Fort Collins, Colorado (where I currently live). I still treat this chair as a bit of a prototype, the first iteration of many. Shortly after creating the chair and testing it on friends and family, there are tons of tweaks and changes which I will be taking to create a better JUN Chair that is ever changing to the needs of the user.

My Contributions

The whole project was a brainchild of mine, with the help of Natalie Schaake throughout the whole process. However, in large part, building and designing was my main priority as Natalie focused on upholstery and fine details.

The Problem

Up to date, I had never created any furniture before, but was active woodworking and loving furniture design. So I decided to take a shot during the summer, and see what I could create. I wanted a chair that was perfect for my desk setup, but also multifunctional, working as a dining chair, lounge chair or really any type of low backed chair. This is considered a prototype as commissions have come in to create a more polished version!

The Initial Ideation

The initial idea came to me one day while sketching out chairs. The striking side profile is what the basis of the whole entire design relied on. From the side, it looks as though it is defying gravity, in a position to show movement forward, while sitting still. As this was the beginning of the chair itself, most of the details for the chair made their way onto the chair as it was being built. It was an extremely organic process, all Natalie and I knew was that we wanted to make it out of Poplar, with this silhouette and "bar stock" shaped wood. Besides that our design took shape, excitingly, as we built it.

Building the Chair

Building the chair essentially happened in two parts, with me handling most of the woodworking and construction. While Natalie took part in planning and upholstering the seats and cushions. Our skills up till this point with any fabrics has been making blankets, but we extended our knowledge and learned via YouTube, how to create an upholstered seat bottom. It turned out exactly how we wanted.

Sustainably Built

Working in the Gulfstream Center for Design's shop taught me that there is a lot of wood waste out there, and lots of people tend to throw out or dismiss woods like Poplar. It isn't an exotic wood, in fact it grows in my backyard. But it is a wood that is traditionally reserved for learning how to woodwork, we wanted to challenge that notion with our design. Making a chair that can hold it's own, despite not being made out of an exotic wood that took hundreds of years to grow. Poplar grows quickly, grows locally, and it readily available in most stores with a great white hue. Sustainability is always top of mind for Natalie and I when designing, and this chair was no different.

The Chair Itself

Enjoy some photos from a photoshoot with the chair, just after it was finished. For more of these kinds of projects, make sure to head to my instagram @nicozafarana.

Reflecting on the project

Of course, as this being my first real piece of furniture, there is so much I would change. Mostly pertaining to the type of joinery and some of the tactics used to create the chair. As I continue to expand my skill with furniture design and building, these types of things will come naturally.

But currently, there are already changes being made as many people requested commissions for their own JUN chairs. Things like the seat base being wider for different body types, and also changing the support beams that run the length of the chair. However, what will remain mostly the same regardless, is the wide profile of the chair, which has always been the inspiration and original idea for the chair.