Constructing My Own Rietveld Furniture

Red and Blue Chair

This was the first piece of Rietveld furniture I constructed. While constructing it, I was visiting the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at least twice a week to take measurements of their original. The security guards and I played tag frequently as I tried to take measurements while they weren't looking.

[Diagram of My Red and Blue Chair]

Coffee Table

This is my own variation of an original piece of furniture designed by Rietveld. Rietveld's original table was higher and proportionally larger. I use mine as a coffee table.

[Diagram of My Coffee Table]

Hanging Lamp

I drove all over Los Angeles looking for the parts for this hanging lamp. I acquired the strip light bulbs in Ireland and Holland, since they don't make them in the United States. It works like a regular lamp. When I construct my home, I'll hang this lamp from the ceiling in my living room.

[Diagram of My Hanging Lamp]

Table Lamp

I also drove all over Los Angeles looking for the parts for this table lamp. Fortunately, I was able to find the light bulb here in the United States, although it doesn't exactly match Rietveld's original design (Rietveld painted the top of the light bulb on his lamp with paint, which reflected the light downward; the light bulb on mine is coated with reflective material on the inside front, which reflects light horizontally, towards the back).

[Diagram of My Table Lamp]

Telephone Table

This is my own variation of another original piece of furniture designed by Rietveld. Rietveld's original table was higher, longer, and proportionally larger. I use mine as a telephone table.

[Diagram of My Telephone Table]

Zig Zag Chair

I'm still in the process of constructing this piece of Rietveld furniture. I've milled the pieces, but have as yet to put them together.

[Diagram of My Zig Zag Chair]

Learn More

There's lots more to learn about Rietveld furniture. And be sure to check out Paul Ket's web page for photographs of Rietveld furniture he's constructed. Also, an invaluable source of diagrams is:

Drijver, P. and Niemeijer, J. (2001)
How to Construct Rietveld Furniture, With Working Drawings
(Rietveldmeubels om zelf te maken, met werktekeningen)
2001 BUSSUM
With text both in Dutch and English. Measurements are metric.

You can find this book listed at:

Nijhof and Lee (EUR 22.50)
bol.com (EUR 22.50)

ISBN: 9068682806

Try making your own. It's fun!

PostScript Document

Here's a PostScript document that contains all of the diagrams shown above, to scale and in more detail. Please note that you need a PostScript reader set up as a helper application in Netscape or your favorite browser for this to work.

Adobe PDF Document

Here's a Adobe Portable Data Format document that contains all of the diagrams shown above, to scale and in more detail. Please note that you need a PDF reader set up as a helper application in Netscape or your favorite browser for this to work.

FrameMaker Document

Here's a FrameMaker document that contains all of the diagrams shown above, to scale and in more detail. Please note that you need the Adobe FrameMaker application to open this document.

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Last modified: Mon Aug 14 15:07:33 PST
©2006 Brian C. Keith
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