On a previous trip to California we visited Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is most famous for the swallows that (used to) return each year. My wife and I visited the mission early in our relationship and it’s always been a special place for us. Growing up in Orange County, I also have fond memories of the mission since we would take field trips there in grade school, which usually included a short train ride, ice cream, and walking around the small town. But enough of the sentimentality. During my last visit I took a number of photographs of the furniture, since I’m rather fond of the mission aesthetic.
There were a couple of chairs that stood out and I thought it would be a fun project to use them as inspiration for my own chairs. Plus, we needed two more dining chairs. The chairs that I designed and built are made from yellow pine, are quite sturdy/heavy, and use mortise-and-tenon joinery. They certainly aren’t the most comfortable chairs, but comfort wasn’t necessarily my aim since I was going for a piece that had the long straight lines and harsh angles indicative of mission furniture. But there is a very subtle incline in the chair’s back. Here are some photographs of the chairs at the mission (left column) next to my representation (right column):
ex-materia.com 
