Chairs

Yes. Every chair is built from genuine retired skis or snowboards, not lookalike panels. That is why the graphics, the wear and the colors vary from chair to chair.

Yes, that is the Sentimental Ski Chair. Ship them, drop them off, or we will collect them anywhere in Colorado. If the original pair is long gone we can match something close to what you used to own.

Yes. Chairs sit on solid wood frames and are painted in exterior oils, so they handle sun, snow and rain. There is a three year warranty on everything we make.

Both are available on most designs, along with low and medium rocker heights. The rocker is more popular for porches and fire pits, the standing base for dining areas and tighter spaces.

Yes, and the mural is painted across the set as one design rather than repeated. See Set of 2 and Set of 4.

Nearly every chair is made to order, usually two to four weeks. Some are ready to ship. Local delivery covers Colorado Springs, Denver, Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen and most of the state, and we ship nationwide to the lower 48.

The angle. A deep pitched seat, a tall slanted back, and arms wide enough for a drink and a paperback. Thomas Lee drew the first one in 1903 for a sloping lawn in Westport, New York, and nobody has meaningfully improved on it since. It is the rare outdoor chair that is comfortable with no cushion at all. Ours keeps that shape exactly and builds it from retired skis and snowboards on a solid wood frame, so you get a 120 year old design made from gear that already had a life.

Four to five pairs for a single chair, and eight to ten pairs for a matched set of two. That surprises nearly everyone, because a finished chair looks like it should be one pair. Very few people have five pairs sitting in the garage, so the normal arrangement is that you send the pair that actually means something and we fill in the rest from our own stock of vintage and retro skis, matched to your colors. Yours go in the places you look at.

Costco and the other big box stores sell molded resin and pressure treated versions, and for a rental patio they are perfectly sensible. It is a different product. Every chair here is built one at a time in Manitou Springs from real retired skis on a solid wood frame, hand painted in exterior oils, with a three year warranty. If you need four identical chairs by Saturday, buy the resin ones. If you want the chair your guests ask about, call 303.775.7273.

It depends entirely on the chair. A resin one gets you a few seasons and nobody ever mentions it. A well built wooden one outlives the patio furniture around it and gets used every day. The only honest test is whether you actually sit in it, and ours tend to become the chair people quietly race each other to when the fire gets lit.

The one with the right seat angle and a back tall enough to rest your head against. Ours come as rockers, in low and medium rocker heights, or on a standing base, and the ottoman is worth adding if you are the sort who stays out until the fire burns down. One honest note: a properly reclined Adirondack is wonderful to sit in and takes a moment to get out of. That has been the trade since 1903.

Originally, yes. The first one was built for a sloping lawn in the Adirondack mountains, which is why the back leans so far and the front of the seat sits high. On flat ground it still works, it simply reclines more than a dining chair, which is rather the point. On a deck, a porch, or a lawn with a bit of pitch, it sits exactly the way it was drawn.

Parks Canada placed pairs of red chairs at scenic points in the national parks as an invitation to stop and look at the view, and they became a small symbol for exactly that. People have been buying them in pairs ever since. We paint sets in any color, red included, and on a set the mural is painted across both chairs as one design rather than repeated twice.

A plain cedar or pine chair from a plan runs roughly seventy five to a hundred and fifty dollars in lumber, plus a weekend and a few tools. A ski chair is a different exercise. You need four to five pairs of retired skis, and ski laminate is fiberglass over steel edges, which dulls blades fast and splinters if you rush it. It is absolutely doable. Most people call us at 303.775.7273 somewhere around the second ski.

Mostly the border. Muskoka is the Canadian name, after the cottage country north of Toronto. Adirondack is the American name, after the mountains in New York. Canadian versions often have a rounded back and the American ones a squared or fanned back. What we build is the American shape, with skis on it.