I had a hard time getting up this morning. I was up late last night working, my husband is away in Minneapolis on a business trip, and it was densely foggy, but bright outside.

I made a deal with myself to work on the Sea House Warming Hut fireside chairs in short segments interspersed with my *real* work. This is a downside of having one’s office and one’s studio in the same place. Chairs won. And that’s what’s bad about me.

I decided to build Jane Harrop’s “Utility Fireside Chair” from her book Thirties & Forties, with just a couple of changes.

I located all the stock, cut out the pieces and labeled them, and put them in a project tray.

Then I did a whole hour of *real* work. What happened after that is kind of a flow blur, but I realized the light was changing outside.

Here’s the chair frame, unstained. I added the little crossbar to support the back. The legs and stretchers are only 1/8-inch (3mm) square, so the whole assembly is held together with wee pins and glue. I opted to leave the heads on.

And here it is stained, with the beloved Minwax Classic Gray 271.

I could not resist adding some self-leveling gliders, because after all, these chairs will be moved around the fireplace a lot.

With the upholstered cushions, in luscious peacock blue linen.

I brought the new chair up to the living roof (moss don’t mind) along with a sketchbook to continue my *real* work, while watching the sun set into the foggy horizon. Sometimes there’s a fine line — or no line at all — between work and ideas and how things get done.