Kaitlyn Fye Portfolio Spring 2024 (Furniture ONLY)

PORT FOLIO

Kansas State University

College of Architecture, Planning, & Design

Selected Works

CONTENTS

This collection of selected works features a range of interior and furniture projects from different studios. From furniture studios to an interdisciplinary studio, the work featured expresses the joy I find the vast world of design.

ABOUT ME

Hello! I’m Kaitlyn Fye!

I have always been inspired by the act of creating. Through painting, dance, and music, I was able to explore my passion for creating art from a very young age. I grew up in Bellevue, Nebraska, the oldest city in the state. Until college, I imagined myself pursuing art, but I desired more. Through art, I often explored realism and enjoyed painting buildings and other designed environments. This opened my eyes to design, leading me to explore design at Kansas State University.

As I look to the future, I hope to revisit part of me that created art and bring together some of the passions that brought me here.

Throughout my education I have been able to approach design from this different perspective, and also allowing me to appreciate design itself.

As I complete my fifth year, I am able to reflect on my time, learning and designing at the College of Interior Architecture & Product Design. It has been the most fulfilling experience and I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to expand my knowledge in design through a multitude of projects and exercises. With my practice in interior design along with furniture design and fabrication, I look forward to what comes my way.

Bellevue, NE

Manhattan, KS

Thank you!

fåra

PROJECT TYPE

LOCATION

SEMESTER MATERIALS

Accent Chair, Furniture

Manhattan, Kansas

Fall 2023

Maple Hardwood, Mild Steel, Upholstery

This chair design was an exploration of new fabrication and design processes. The chair is completely knock-down, allowing it to be easily stored and moved while remaining visually appealing like an accent chair. The cushion is also an exploration of posture, introducing more user choice of how the chair can be sat in. The task of breaking down the chair into smaller, packable parts introduced new challenges and exciting solutions.

Concept: Knock-down

Inspired by the personal goal of creating a knock-down piece of furniture, the fåra chair celebrates asymmetry and differing postures all while being able to be packed away. The chair has purposeful joinery that celebrates the meeting points with contrasting material and exposed hardware. By highlighting these points, there’s a nod towards the functionality of it being able to separated and packed away. Knock-down furniture is usually simple in form, but this piece celebrates details and still appears as an entire accent piece. By finding solutions in the joinery and materiality, the design allows the chair to be a show piece that is functional.

Top Side Front

Exploded Axon

Fabrication

From welding, gluing, turning, and assembly, the fabrication of the chair proved to be challenging with the knock-down detail, but it was rewarding finding solutions. There was a lot of back and forth when assembling the pieces and quite a bit of test fitting throughout. Fabricating with wood and metal was something that was familiar, but upholstery and sewing was new. The creation of the cushion involved the strategic assembly of the fabric, weighted beads, and cluster polyfill stuffing to ensure weight was distributed into specific areas.

Prep + Glue Up

Clean Up

Dry Fit

Cushion

Turn Wood

Prep + Turn Metal

Weld

Sanding

Wax Finish

Finishing

PROJECT TYPE

LOCATION

SEMESTER MATERIALS

Coffee Table, Furniture

Manhattan, Kansas

Spring 2022

Maple Hardwood

This Scandinavian modern inspired coffee table was an introduction to woodworking. This simple coffee table combines use with sculptural form to create a statement piece in any space.

Concept: Outreach

This course tasked students with creating a coffee table inspired by a design movement of choice. The Scandinavian Modern movement was interesting to navigate as the forms can be so simple, so this was a challenge to try to create something unlike most pieces. Scandinavian furniture celebrates simplicity, organic nature, and joinery. These all took main stage in inspiring the direction of this coffee table design.

Top Side Front

Axon

Fabrication

From picking out and purchasing the wood to final coats of finish, the fabrication process proved itself to be fulfilling by the end. The simple forms brought a challenging assembly, calling for precision and patience throughout. It was a challenge running into issues, but it made for new opportunities in the design.

Chop + Prep

Glue Up

Prepare Joint

Test Fit

Kaitlyn Fye

Clean Up

CNC Legs

Cut + Router Table

Sand + Assemble

Details

Finishing