How To: Stadium Seating for Superbowl Sunday

February 4, 2007 · 20 comments

Over the last month my roommates and I have been planning on building some means for having stadium seating in our living room. The living room isn’t too spacious and only had enough room for two futons. So, just in time for Superbowl Sunday, Chris and I have created a cheap deck for stadium seating. All it required was plywood, 4×4 & 2×4 wood, a box of wood screws and basic tools.

In hindsight, we probably should have measured things more than once. I showed this video to my architect sister and she said it lacked structure.

*RSS readers, there’s an embedded video so if you can’t see it click here.

I had the MacBook recording in time lapse with Gawker and set it on top of the TV, so if you see us looking at something we were watching SNL at the same time.

Stadium Seating
Now we can get another couch to put in front of it. It’s also much larger than we had envisioned.

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February 4, 2007 at 5:43 pm

{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Laurence Anderson February 4, 2007 at 3:26 pm

Very nice idea there Paul, enjoy the game, out of curiosity who you rooting for?

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2 Paul Stamatiou February 4, 2007 at 3:27 pm

I don’t really have any favorites but I like saying “Da Bearrrrs” so I’ll be rooting for them. I’m watching it for the commercials mainly.

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3 Laurence Anderson February 4, 2007 at 3:34 pm

Same here, Da Bearrs is a fun phrase to say though.

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4 Dennis February 4, 2007 at 3:39 pm

hmmm….I think I agree with your sis. Put some pillows around the bottom in case you fall off.

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5 Ronald Heft February 4, 2007 at 3:44 pm

I hate the Bears. Packers all the way! So, you can assume I’m rooting for the Colts. Also, it doesn’t hurt that my cousin lives right down the street from Peyton Manning.

To bad I’m going to miss the game, though. I’ll be working, but I should at least be able to listen to the game on the radio.

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6 Paul Stamatiou February 4, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Haha, we plan on putting a few more braces when we get more supplies in addition to carpeting the plywood so we don’t get splinters.

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7 Dillon K. February 4, 2007 at 3:54 pm

Paul, that is so awesome!

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8 Jeremy Zawodny February 4, 2007 at 4:06 pm

You guys don’t own a level, do you? :-)

Nice video.

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9 alex February 4, 2007 at 4:07 pm

no, actually that is so lame!

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10 Ralph Dagza February 4, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Yay! college life

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11 Paul Stamatiou February 4, 2007 at 5:26 pm

Haha, yeah after watching that video I can tell that our horizontal brace was wayy off. A bubble level would have come in very handy.

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12 Mads February 4, 2007 at 6:12 pm

Haha! Very nice Paul!

I’m hoping I can stay awake for the entire game… unfotunately for me, it is already past midnight over here, and the game hasn’t even started yet… I’m going to the airport in about 6 hours with my dad and then straight to work… gonna be a hard day tomorrow! But hey, it’s the frickin’ superbowl!

“Go Da Bearrrrs!”

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13 Michael Yurechko February 4, 2007 at 7:15 pm

I love the ghetto seating ;)

That gives me an idea for my room…hmm..anyways I like being different from everyone else so Go Colts!!!

**I’m also just watching for commercials :P**

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14 know it all February 4, 2007 at 9:14 pm

I am a technical director for theater ( i build stuff) stuff that is very much like what you made. You did a great job till you put legs on the unit. You can just use 2×4 and put a leg in the middle of the span and it will hold substanuly more weight. about the bracing they don’t have to be level if fact it is better to have them on a diagonal to create a more ridged platform. simple aside you made a platform that is independent from the theater trade.

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15 titanium_geek February 4, 2007 at 9:33 pm

stick some drawers/shelves under there for extra storage. :)

I like it- but it’s tall! (this reminds me of the loft project)

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16 rob February 4, 2007 at 9:58 pm

You really didn’t have to go COMPLETELY above the seating in front of the rear seating to achieve “stadium” seating. Maybe a foot or so off the floor for the riser would have been sufficient.

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17 Paul Stamatiou February 4, 2007 at 9:59 pm

@rob, but this way it doubles as a table for beverage sports. ;-) I’m referring to kool-aid pong, of course.

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18 Niel February 5, 2007 at 12:31 am

Heh… excellent use of plywood, Paul. Hope it was a splinterless evening for all..

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19 Daniel Andrade May 28, 2007 at 4:01 pm

hehehe, the boy is posing for the camera :)

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9969/pauljv7.jpg

btw, nice project man!

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