Believe it or not, designing a chair that's actually comfortable is one of the most difficult projects a woodworker can take on. Building one from an established plan is relatively easy, but starting from scratch is very much a venture into the unknown.
Chairs today are largely taken for granted, but there is a ton of trial and error in every design to make them comfortable to sit in for anything more than a few minutes.
I consider this design a success and more than that, a learning experience. Yes, even when you have been designing and building things for nearly 50 years, there are still lessons to learn.

Things I would / will change: the foam for the backrest cushions should be softer. Also I would like to reupholster the chair with leather and take my time doing that. The upholstery aspect of the project was the one part I had the least experience with, so I consider doing the chair with vinyl as a practice run.
Things I got right / perfect: the overall size, seating angles and the armrest height and size are bangon. The springiness when you sit in the chair is also perfect just enough give. The recline of the backrest is also flawless. It's stiff enough to support my back when sitting upright and compliant enough to slouch back in a more relaxed pose.
The Baltic birch plates for each cushion can be painted black, and that was my original plan. But then I thought the contrast between the plates and the black vinyl would be a more interesting look. Surely if i did a better job on the upholstery that would have been the case.
The one thing missing is a footrest and I'll be working on that soon.

Was the project worth it? Yes and no. If all you want is a comfortable recliner, it's much more economical to just buy one. But for those of us who live to make things, I see this as bucket list project, regardless of how much it cost or how long it took to do.

A problem I have with making project videos on YouTube is that the project needs to be finished. In my real life, none of my projects are ever actually finished not truly finished, because I may (and often will) change or modify or improve something I wasn't happy with when I built it in the first place. So you need to look at this chair as something that works and I'm using it, but I ain't done yet.

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