Customer Reviews

Cedar Adirondack Chair

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought TWO cedar Adirondack style chairs from here on Amazon. One was this one ( Western Red Cedar by All Things Cedar), and the other one was the Folding Cedar Adirondack Chair by Kilmer Creek (Amish crafted). Let's just say my respect for the Amish rose a few notches.

The Kilmer Creek chair came 70% assembled (just had to attached the back to the seat to the arms). This chair from All Things Cedar came completely disassembled. We had to piece together the entire chair, part by part by part. I'm not above such a project, but since I ordered the same kind of chair from two different companies (which both arrived on the same day) the comparison had to be made between them.

I had the Kilmer chair assembled in 15 minutes. It took me an hour (maybe a little more) to understand and assemble this one from All Things Cedar. And that is fine, because in the end it's a good chair. Just as comfortable as the Kilmer Creek chair.

The problem, besides the stress and time of assembly is that a couple of the pre-drilled holes ended up splitting the adjoining wood part. The 'stress' I mentioned was just that there were no guides or definite 'fits' when screwing one part to another. There were more than a few guesstimates made when committing to screwing in the screws. Where as on the Kilmer Creek chair, everything fit right into a non-guessing pattern.

And on top of it all, besides the fact the Kilmer Creek chair conveniently FOLDS (the All Things Cedar does not fold), the Kilmer Creek Chair was about $20 cheaper!

And the Kilmer Creek seat opening is actually a bit wider. I'm 6'3' and about 260 lbs. Sitting in the All Things Cedar chair I'm a bit 'contained' whereas in the Kilmer Creek chair, there is 'wiggle room' for my big butt.

Twenty dollars cheaper, more solid construction, and less stress and wiggle room with the Kilmer Creek chair. If I order another Adirondack chair, it will most certainly be from Kilmer Creek.

Again, this All Things Cedar chair is fine. Nothing wrong with it now that it's assembled. But why pay more, get stressed more and not have a folding option when you could with Kilmer Creek's item?

Anyway, both chairs smell great.

My husband and I ordered 4 of these chairs. They come ready for paint, stain or sealer or to be assembled as is. We chose to stain the chair (recommendation by the seller). Assembly as always is a bit of a pain but our electric screw driver saved us a lot of work! If you follow the instructions step by step and lay everything out in the order in which the instructions recommend the chair comes together great. The only draw back of the chair is that it is a bit smaller than we imagined. My husband is 6' 2" and he is almost too big for the chair. Overall, we are very pleased with our purchase and can't wait to enjoy the chairs outside around our fire pit this fall, winter and spring.

While a bit overwhelmed having to put the chairs together...it turned out easy...the product is very well made and very comfortable! We did make a decision to shellac to protect them--I have 5 now sitting in front of our outdoor fireplace!

I recently bought two of these chairs. Once together, they're quite nice and very comfortable. The price is excellent.

On the other side, don't fool yourself thinking assembly will be easy. There are nearly 30 pieces and not all are pre-drilled. If you aren't adept at working with wood or assembling many pieces from minimal instructions, I wouldn't suggest these. The manufacturer should pre-assemble the seat and back and that would make a lot of difference. In this case, no two boards are attached.

I do woodwork as a hobby and actual built one of these chairs from the basic pattern of these after assembling the purchased ones. I can tell you the cost of materials was nearly half the cost of the purchase and the cedar on the purchased ones is very nice. So these are a good value.

One final tip: If you finish them (I used a penetrating oil because I don't like gray cedar), finish the pieces pre-assembly. It will save you time and far better protect the pieces themselves.

I'm happy with the result, but the assembly definitely requires an electric drill, not just a Phillips Head screwdriver as the instructions indicate. It takes some time and patience.

These are very sturdy, beautiful, comfortable chairs but were more difficult to assemble than I expected. The slats all have holes pre-drilled in them, but the wood your attaching them to does not, so you have to eyeball it based on the instructions and put some muscle into it when screwing them together (Definitely not IKEA furniture). I'm fairly handy and it took me about 45 minutes to put the first one together and then maybe only 30 or so for the second one. The side of the wood that you touch is all very smooth and well finished, but the back is not, in fact it almost looks fuzzy it's so natural. It still looks great, but I'm not sure I saw that in the description. It's a very natural wood color, but when sealed with a water seal it turns into a beautiful cedar/redish color. They're nice and heavy so I don't worry about them blowing around, but light enough that I can move them without getting a hernia. It comes with all the wood and hardware, but you HAVE to have a power drill. There's no way your putting this together by hand, there are just too many long screws, in fact I had to change the battery on the drill out between chairs because I wore it out!

All in all they're surprisingly good quality (especially for the price!), but some assembly required is an understatement.

Not sure what others are talking about in regards to the instruction (assume sellers took note and provided addnl instructions), as each chair took less than 1 hour each to assemble (even with a 4 year old helping me) and I had no wood splitting. The chairs look great and I will be ordering additional ones in the future.