We use them all the time and rarely even think about them: Chairs are everywhere, and come in all shapes and sizes. They can be oozing with style to complete a room or be a simple background character that adds a touch of realism.

Most commonly found in the wild as a quadruped, the chair has a few basic traits: a flat top to sit on, optional back- and/or armrests, and (usually) up to four legs. That is a very short list of requirements, but one that will provide ample room to be creative with. After all, there is a myriad of LEGO pieces, and as such, there is a wild variety of options for representing any of those things.

Smooth Sailing with Boat Studs

Element 2654 – Plate, Round 2 x 2 with Rounded Bottom (Boat Stud)

When doing some research in the LEGO furniture catalogue that is Flickr, much like in real life, certain trends appear again and again. A favorite element of many LEGO furniture designers is the humble boat stud (2654) – that rounded-off inverted tile you put on the underside of boats so they glide smoothly across the floor.

Marcin Otreba combines it beautifully with wands that he simply sticks in the element’s four recessed studs, then flips the whole assembly upside-down.

It’s a simple yet effective design that shows how far just a few simple elements can go. In this scene, the three chairs really complement the wonderful kitchen around them.

But Marcin takes the same concept a bit further, simply by replacing the wands with other, more ornate elements.

His wonderful Sitting Room, for example, pairs the boat stud with four plain paint brushes and some round plates with open stud and manages to evoke a completely different mood altogether.

Should you be in the mood for something more modern, let us look at a Jonas Kramm original, who takes you from the tennis court straight into a dinner setting.

As part of his series of lovingly designed brick rooms, he broke down the design over on Stonewars. Combining our friend the boat stud with four simple horns, he then carefully wedges a bar with clip into the space between the studs that holds a minifigure tennis racket. So beautifully simple, isn’t it? Thanks for the lesson in furniture design, Jonas!

The boat stud also works beautifully for bar stools – Michael Jasper uses screwdrivers and a small tire, to make a taboret (simply take Jonas’ design, leave off the tennis racket), and whatever else one can dream up with the extensive library of LEGO bricks that have bar connections on one end or the other.

Getting a Handle On It

Element 95344, Minifigure, Utensil Bucket 1 x 1 x 1 Handle / Scooter Stand

Another popular technique to build chairs involves an element that on its own seems fairly useless… at least at first glance—the bucket handle.

Introduced all the way back in 2011 as part of the Kingdoms line or the Pirates of the Caribbean play theme, the bucket handle was initially used solely to help carry water from point A to point B. It has quickly become a staple in LEGO furniture.

Often used to represent drawers simply stacked on top of one another, its primary use these days might just be chair legs. When one does some furniture research, it pops up again and again—and it’s always marvelous!

Marcel V. combines it with one of the most basic elements imaginable, which also perfectly explains the technique at the heart of a lot of chair designs:

The bucket handles are simply stuck into the underside of a humble 2x2 plate (3022). The space between the center anti-stud and the walls is just enough to hold it in place.

Michael Jasper upgrades the idea with a 2x2 round jumper and an old LEGO Castle cape, while ekjohnson1 goes a step further and gets creative with some rubber bands and minifigure wands that are still connected to their sprue, creating a lovely detail in the back of their Game of Thrones MOC.

As you can see, fewer than five elements can create a lovely chair detail for a vignette – maybe you feel inspired to build your own now? I, for one, just can’t stand around all day and really want to try my hand at some more minifigure-scale rooms now!

Do you have a favorite technique for simple but beautiful furniture? Share it with us in the comments!

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, Dan Church, and Roxanne Baxter to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.