Custom Outdoor Furniture Made From Old Skis You Still Own
The skis have been behind the lawn mower since the second Bush administration. Every spring you move them to get at the hose reel, you look at the topsheet for a second, you remember exactly one run, and then you put them right back. That moment, the one you have had four or five times now, is where most of our custom outdoor furniture actually starts.
Why Old Skis Beat Fresh Lumber for Outdoor Furniture
Here is the thing about a ski. It was engineered by people who cared a great deal about what happens when a 200 pound human meets a frozen mogul at speed. Wood core, steel edges, fiberglass or carbon laminate, all of it pressed and glued to survive a decade of abuse in weather that would turn a big box patio set into kindling. Then the bindings age out, or your knees file a formal complaint, and that piece of engineering gets demoted to the garage rafters.
That always struck us as a waste. A ski is already waterproof. It is already UV stable, because it spent its whole career sitting in high altitude sun on a snowfield reflecting light straight back up at it. It flexes without cracking. It shrugs off hail. Ask any teak lounger to do that and see what happens by year three.
There is a second advantage that has nothing to do with durability. Skis come with graphics on them. Somebody at a design studio got paid to make that topsheet look good, and thirty years later it still does, in a way nobody can quite reproduce with a paint can. When we build a chair from five pairs of skis, the color scheme is already handled. We are just arranging it.
And then there is the part people do not say out loud until they are standing in the shop. A new patio chair is an object you bought. A chair built from the skis you learned on is an object that already knows you. Those are not the same thing, and after twenty plus years of building these we have stopped pretending they are.
How a Pile of Skis Becomes a Chair
The math surprises people, so we lead with it. One Adirondack ski chair takes four to five pairs of skis. Not one pair. Not two. A matched set of two chairs runs eight to ten pairs, which is a genuine pile in the back of a pickup. If you are working from your own gear, plan accordingly, and know that we can fill the gap from our own stock if you come up short.
The build starts with sorting. We lay the skis out and look at tip shapes, waist widths, colors and how the graphics run, because a chair back reads as one composition once it is assembled. Then the skis get cut down, the edges get dealt with so nobody loses a finger reaching for a beer, and the pieces get laid up across a base we build ourselves from Douglas Fir. That base is the unglamorous half of the job and the half that decides whether the chair still sits flat on a stone patio in five years.
Standard Adirondack dimensions here are 45 inches tall, 36 inches deep and 32 inches wide, which is comfortable for people from 3 feet to 6 feet 10. Some builds run 55 inches tall for folks who like a taller back. Weight capacity is 400 pounds, so you and someone you like can share one without any structural drama.
Every chair gets a ski binding cup holder mounted on the arm, sized for a stein rather than a shot glass. It is the detail everybody photographs. It is also, honestly, the reason a few people order in the first place, and we have made our peace with that.
Painted surfaces get high quality exterior oil paint, which is colorful and weatherproof and holds up to Colorado sun without going chalky. Murals are hand painted in those same exterior oils by an actual person with an actual brush.
What Custom Actually Means Around Here
Custom is one of those words that has been beaten senseless by marketing, so let us be specific about what it buys you at our shop.
It means you choose the skis. Yours, ours, or a mix. People send us a parent’s old Rossignols, a first pair of shaped skis, a set from the one season they still bring up at dinner. Mismatched pairs are welcome and usually look more interesting than a perfectly matched set anyway.
It means you choose the finish on the base. Stains from light to dark walnut, or painted colors if you want the base to argue with the skis instead of agreeing with them.
It means you can add a hand painted custom front board for $75 to $100, which is where a lot of the personality lives. Mountain profiles, a lake, a trail name, a date, a dog. Painted in exterior oils, done by hand, no two identical.
It means any chair or bench can be made into a rocker for $75 more, using repurposed oak wine barrel slats for the runners. Yes, real barrel slats. No, the chair does not smell like cabernet.
What it does not mean is a painted logo. If you want a company mark on a piece, that goes on as a logo decal floated onto a painted background, with aluminum and plastic appliques as the other options. We do not hand paint logos, because a hand painted logo looks like a hand painted logo, and no brand manager has ever been happy about that. Branded work gets quoted on a call, since the variables run wide.
Want to see the range before you decide? The Custom Designs collection is the closest thing we have to a catalog of what is possible, and most of it started as somebody’s phone call.
Who Sends Us Their Skis, and Why
There is no single customer for this, but there are patterns, and after this many builds we can spot them coming.
The biggest group is the person who simply cannot throw the skis away. They know the gear is obsolete. They know nobody is going to ski a 205 centimeter straight ski again without medical supervision. They also know that hauling them to the dump feels wrong in a way they cannot fully justify to their spouse. Building them into a chair resolves the standoff. The skis stay, the garage opens up, and everybody wins.
The second group is buying for somebody else. A retirement, a milestone birthday, a sixtieth for the guy who has been skiing the same mountain since he was nine. These orders usually come with a text thread of old photos and a request to work in a specific color.
The third group is memorial work, and we take it seriously. Families send us a father’s skis after he passes, or a set that belonged to a friend, and ask for something the grandkids can sit in. Those builds get extra photos along the way and extra care in the sorting, because you only get one shot at it. The Sentimental collection exists entirely because of these customers.
Then there are the businesses. Ski shops, breweries, lodges, real estate offices with a mountain town listing. They want something in the entry that says where they are without a sign saying where they are. Those usually end up with a logo decal on a painted background and a photograph in the company holiday card.
The one thing all four groups have in common is that none of them wanted furniture. They wanted the thing the furniture is made of.
Where This Stuff Actually Belongs
On a covered porch is the obvious answer, and the most common one. A pair flanking the front door, cup holders loaded, is the classic setup and there is a reason it never goes out of style.
Around a fire pit is the other big one. These chairs sit low and lean back, which is exactly the posture a fire pit asks for, and the 400 pound capacity means nobody has to do the polite hover before sitting down.
On a deck, at a cabin, at the end of a dock, in the yard where the sprinkler hits it twice a day. Exterior oil paint and weatherproof construction mean the sprinkler is not a problem. Snow load is not a problem either. We have customers who leave them out all winter in Summit County and send us photos of a chair wearing a foot of powder like a hat.
Indoors is more common than you might guess. A ski chair in a basement bar, a mudroom, a mountain house great room. If you go that route, the ski binding cup holder becomes weirdly practical for a TV remote. And a chair indoors never has to weather anything, so it will look brand new for a very long time.
The place they do not work is a small balcony with a strict HOA and a 30 inch depth limit. At 36 inches deep, an Adirondack is a real piece of furniture. Measure first. We would much rather answer a tape measure question on the phone than build something that ends up sideways in a stairwell.
Benches, Tables and the Rest of the Family
Chairs are the front door of this whole thing, but they are not the entire house.
A bench takes more material and gives you more room. The Sentimental Ski Bench works the same way as the chair, built from your gear, and it is the right call if you have skis from more than one person in the family and want them all in one piece of furniture. Two generations of skis in one bench is a good look.
Snowboards behave differently. A snowboard chair needs at least three boards, which catches people off guard, because a board looks so much bigger than a ski. A single snowboard, on the other hand, makes a genuinely great coffee table or bench. If you have exactly one board in the basement, that is the piece to ask about, and the Customizable Single Snowboard Coffee Table at $397 is the standard version of it.
Hockey sticks work too, and the count there is twelve to fifteen sticks per chair, which is what the Sentimental Hockey Stick Chair at $675 is built from. Golf clubs make a chair from one full set, eleven or twelve clubs. Same shop, same base construction, different raw material.
Ski lift benches and porch swings are a category of their own and worth being straight about. Almost all of ours are handcrafted replicas built in our shop, not chairs pulled off a decommissioned mountain. When we do have a genuine retired lift, the product name says so plainly. We will not invent a provenance to make a sale, and you should be suspicious of anybody who will.
There is also the smaller end of things. Custom Party Skis with drink bindings start at $375, and there is wall art, signs and tables besides. Poke around the Benches collection if a chair is not quite the shape you need.
Care Through Four Seasons, Realistically
The honest version of a care guide is short, because these are built to be left alone.
Leave it outside. That is the whole point. Exterior oil paint over a Douglas Fir base handles rain, snow, hail and the kind of sun you get at 8,000 feet. You do not need to drag it into the shed every October, and most of our customers never have.
Wash it when it looks dirty. Mild soap, water, a soft brush, done. Skip the pressure washer, which is overkill on any painted surface and will eventually chew the finish. A hose is plenty.
If it sits directly on wet ground year round, put a couple of pavers or feet under the base. Any wood in permanent contact with standing water will eventually complain, and this is a five minute fix that adds years.
The base will change color a little over time if it is stained rather than painted, the same way any exterior wood does. Some people like that. If you do not, a fresh coat of exterior stain every few seasons puts it right back.
Snow does no harm. Leaving it buried under a drift all winter is fine, though the chair will be more useful if you can get to it. In heavy wind country, tip chairs forward against a wall or throw a strap over them. They are heavy, but a big flat chair back catches gusts like a sail.
Everything comes with a 3 year hassle free warranty. Yup. That covers the build, not what your neighbor’s tree does to it in a windstorm.
Giving One as a Gift Without Wrecking the Surprise
This is a great gift and a slightly tricky one, mostly because the good version requires their skis, and their skis are in their garage.
A few workarounds. The most common is to conspire with a spouse, who can usually get skis out of the garage without anyone noticing for a week. Second is to order from our own stock in the right era and brand, which gets you close without a heist. Tell us the years they skied and what they rode, and we will find something that reads right.
Third, and the one we recommend most often, is to give the order instead of the object. Print out the build, wrap it, and let them pick the skis and the front board themselves. That turns one gift into three months of them being pleased about it, which is a better return than any wrapped box.
Timing matters. Made to order pieces run two to four weeks, and longer in the run up to the holidays when everybody has the same idea in the same week. Some pieces are ready to ship with no wait, which has saved a number of people who called us in mid December with a certain tone in their voice.
For smaller gifts, party skis and wall art land in a friendlier price range and still hit the same note. And if you want the big swing, a matched set of two chairs on a porch is the version people photograph and text to their whole family, which is the Sentimental Ski Chairs, Set of 2 at $1,088 and eight to ten pairs of skis.
How Ordering Works, Start to Finish
Step one is a conversation. Call 303.775.7273 and tell us what you have and what you want. Ten minutes on the phone saves a lot of email.
Step two is getting the skis to us, if you are using your own. You can drop them off at the shop in Manitou Springs, Colorado, ship them to us, or in some cases we can arrange pickup around Colorado. Shipping skis is less painful than people expect. They go in a long box, and we will walk you through it.
Step three is the design call. Colors, base finish, rocker or not, front board or not, which graphics you want facing out. This is where the Sentimental Ski Chair stops being a product and starts being your chair.
Step four is the build, two to four weeks for most made to order work. We send photos as it comes together, especially on memorial pieces.
Step five is delivery. Local delivery runs across Colorado, and we ship nationwide to the lower 48. Most chairs ship free to the lower 48. On builds where you send us your own skis, note that return shipping of the finished piece is billed separately, which is the one line in this whole process people miss, so we are saying it twice.
Everything is built in Manitou Springs by a small crew that has been doing this a long time. There is no factory, no overseas container, no drop shipper. When you call, you get somebody who knows exactly which chair is on the bench that morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pairs of skis does one chair take?
One Adirondack ski chair takes four to five pairs of skis, and a matched set of two takes eight to ten pairs. If you come up short, we can fill in from our own stock of retired skis so the chair still gets built on schedule.
Can I use my own skis instead of buying a finished chair?
Yes, that is exactly what the Sentimental Ski Chair is for. Drop the skis off in Manitou Springs, ship them to us, or ask about pickup in Colorado, and we handle the cutting, sorting and building from there.
Can it really stay outside all year?
Yes. The Douglas Fir base and high quality exterior oil paint are built for weather, including snow, hail and high altitude sun, and every piece carries a 3 year hassle free warranty. Set it on pavers if it will sit on permanently wet ground.
How long does a custom piece take, and does it ship free?
Made to order work runs two to four weeks, and some pieces are ready to ship right now with no wait. Most chairs ship free to the lower 48, though return shipping on builds using your own skis is billed separately.
Can I put my company logo on one?
Yes, as a logo decal floated onto a painted background, with aluminum or plastic appliques as alternatives. Logos are never hand painted, and branded pricing is quoted on a call because the variables run wide.
If those skis are still behind the lawn mower, you already know how this ends. Call 303.775.7273 and tell us what you have, or start with the Sentimental Ski Chair and we will take it from there. Worst case, you finally get to the hose reel without moving anything.
