My Dad Builds a Couch

My Dad Builds a Couch
by Paul Armetta

It looks like a couch but in truth it is an adventure. My Dad is almost 80. And he likes to keep busy. One day he decided for reasons unknown, that it was time to build a couch. He likes a rustic look, so it was natural for him to go into the woods to get trees rather than to the lumber yard to get boards. Henry Armetta lives high on a hill in a log cabin home looking out at the start of the mountain ranges of northern California, near Reno. He read about lodge pole furniture. The time had come to build some.

There was a lot about building furniture that he did not know. This was a project in which he would learn by doing. He got permission from the local forestry officials to go into the woods to cut down a number of small trees of about 3 to 5 inch diameter. He was searching for a specific kind of tree, that according to reference books works exceptionally well for rustic furnishing.

To help in his efforts to build the couch he first had to build a wood working shed. Once that was done, he could start to cut and shape the wood into the frame of a couch.

He did not want a delicate prissy couch. He wanted a man's couch. Solid wood making a strong statement that nature lives in his home. This is the frame of a couch that says, " Sit with confidence for I am strong." It is a sturdy frame that is cut, wedged and glued. It will not be coming apart and it does not apologize for it's massive bold nature.

Being strong, does not mean one needs to be uncomfortable. So around the frame he placed thick comfortable foam encased in durable whimsically bold cloth. . The back rest of the couch can either be used as a pillow for your head to snooze away an afternoon., or it can be flipped back as a warning that beneath the foam there is great strength. This is a couch that lets you get cozy but never so self-assured. If you lose awareness of the wood rails, they have the potential to knock you out of your lethargies. This is a couch to remind you that nature can comfort, but is never to be ignored or taken for granted. Nature is to partner to be respected for what it can do for you and to you.

My Dad's couch is a silent friend in his living room reminding us all of the triumph of man and majesty of nature.

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