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OK, we are getting somewhere.

I raised the rail part that picks up the bottom ends of the ziggys for the back.  Here is a back view.



And a section cut.  You can see the two rails inset down into the seat box to pick up the ziggys for the seat platform.



So is this getting close to right?

I am learning a lot.  Thanks to all.  Here is my next iteration of the frame for this.  Additional members have been added to pick up end fix points for the zigzag sinuous springs I envision for the back and the seat deck of this 66" wide settee.

The yellow translucent things denote the ziggy springs.

Am I getting closer?  I can get 24mm baltic birch plywood for this, which is quite beefy, instead of the 18mm I show in the model.  That is 1 inch versus 3/4 inch for those imperialistas amongst us.

Thanks, Paul.

So, you are saying I do not need to slat the back, but that something needs to be there, up above that rear rail?

Take a look at my pic here.  I painted the slats red that might stay, and we can lose the others.  We can thin down the ones we leave, or not.



What exactly is its purpose, again?  It is not quite clear to me.

I am the customer.  I'll make this for our house.

At its present iteration, my 3D model has the frame top edge 14-1/4" off the floor.  I think I am close.

I priced out wood and it looks as if one sheet of 3/4 baltic birch ply at $68 will do for the frame, plus some small chunks of hardwood from my cutoffs bin for the legs.

Here is what got the ball rolling with us.  Ethan Allen's ad in the latest edition of Architectural Digest.   The poppy colored velvet and the nailhead trim is what we want to do.

Ethan Allen will sell this to us for about $3000 and we will wait ten weeks.



Here is a view of my reworked frame and the lines in blue denote where sinuous springs might attach.  That gets the deck recessed and for the back, the spring base aligns to the end frame shape and the back can get boosted with dacron puffery.



My furniture-building expertise is pretty good, but I have never done an upholstered piece.  I just completed a pair of bow-armed Morris chairs that match what can be seen in a Stickley showroom.  Quartersawn white oak, a dead-on color and texture match to their Onandaga finish, etc.  Before that, in cherry, I completed a copy of their Highlands dining table.  I am retired and like to do this, and for me, the cost of a piece is only what I spend in materials and outside services.

So I am thinking of the frame and construction as being sinuous springs in back and deck, the deck recessed, and the cushions done with Marshall unit interior springing.  Cushions eared at back corners to wrap the back as it recurves to the end frames of the back.

I am a woodworker, not an upholsterer.  I want to explore making a settee that is sold by Ethan Allen, the "Baldwin."  I will make the frame and have the upholstery done by a local pro.

Take a look at these pics and see if you can answer some questions for me.

A perspective view:



End view:



From the front:



And the back:



And my first cut at a frame design, made very close to the 35h x 33d x 66w numbers Ethan Allen gives:



Questions:

1.  I was thinking of using 3/4" baltic birch plywood for much of the frame parts, and joining with loose tenons, glue, and screws.  Does this sound OK?

2.  Do you think they are using sinewy springs for the back?

3.  How about the seat?  Sinew springs or coils?  The frame seat box I drew is 4-7/8" deep.

4.  Would you suppose the cushions are made left and right, and are not reversible?  Note the side view and how the cushion is domed, the dome being forward and away from the back.

5.  Should my frame have a solid back?  A slatted back?

6.  Would spring units as shown in this pic, below, have been used anywhere?  In the seat cushions?  In the back?
In the seat frame?



So I can work on this some more, where can I get textbook advice on how frames for seats like this are best constructed?

We want to do a seat cushion in fabric, not leather, but we want the shape to look like this (catalog cut from a Stickley book):



Note the front-to-back shape.

We have a how-to-upholster guide from an article by Popular Woodworking that shows the pattern for the fabric and here it is:



We're concerned that if the fabric is cut with only the small fillet at each top corner (each side panel) that we will not get the shape we see in the Stickley photo.

Should not the pattern for the side be domed with fillets at ends, sort of like this:



We are not upholsterers, only woodworkers, and this work will be done by a pro over seat frames made by us.  It seems as if the more square the cover, and by that we mean, flat on top with smaller fillets and no dome top shape for the side panels, the more we get a look like this:



Are we right, and if we want the tighter pulled down front and rear look, as seen in the leather-covered Stickley chair, that we should go with the domed-shape side panels?

Inquiring woodworkers want to know.