Canopy Studio is a creation of my girlfriend, Kat.

She designed and we build the Canopy Lounge at home. I don’t feel comfortable going into the design, because she is the brains behind this operation. I did work quite extensively on the construction process.

The shell is bent plywood covered in adhesive back walnut veneer. We start with three sheets of bending plywood that we glue together. They are then placed over a mold and inserted into a vacuum bag. Once they are set to shape we cut them width on the table saw, the first cut is on a sled to define one edge. The next cut is just referenced on the   fence for the correct width. The veneer is then applied – very easy. The veneer is trimmed  with a top bearing router bit. Prior to veneer, magnets are imbedded into the shell for cushion retention.

The next step is to create the curve on the corners. This is done by mounting the bed vertically in a jig built to be used on the router table. We use a bottom bearing router bit that rides on the jig for consistency. Final clean up is done with a block plane.

The stand is solid walnut and much more fun to build. The legs and are three pieces and are roughed out on the table slaw on a crosscut sled that has attachments for cutting all of the angles. To ensure all of the angles are correct we built three dedicated shooting boards – the LN 51 takes care of the rest.

The legs are dowelled together at the joint with a simple dowelling jig. We worked on this joint for what seems like months. We tried angle mortise and tenon, mitered half laps, floating tenons, etc….. they all resulted in failure.

The cushion creation is…..I have no clue, Kat takes care of all of the upholstery. Not a skill I have. There are magnets imbedded into the cushion to attach it to the frame, and make the cushion replaceable (if needed).

We build about 10 at a time for efficiency. While machines take care of the majority of the heavy lifting nearly every surface is touched by a hand tool.