Back Cushion Rejuvenation

Most furniture ships with back cushions filled with either polyester or a down/feather blend and sometimes with down/feather blended with polyester.  With normal use the polyester filled inserts will start to show wear and begin to sag.

We were recently brought some sagging fiber/down filled backs.  Fiber/down is the filling that blends down/feather with polyester.  Although down/feather on it's own is fluffable, once it's blended with polyester it gets tangled in the poly fibers and as the batting wads up and flattens, so too does the down/feather.  These cushions had lost their fullness, were drooping severely and provided no support (the picture below says it all) for their owners.

We emptied the backs of the fiber/down filling, as you can see it comes out in ropey bands of wadded up polyester and feathers.

After emptying the tick, we refilled it with Cluster Fiber, making the insert very firm, supportive and full.

Lots of Cluster Fiber filled into the existing tick makes the insert much fuller and firmer than before.

The new cushion is dramatically fuller than the old cushion.

By the way, we never mix down/feather with polyester.  Either we make a polyester filled cushion which is firm, or a down/feather cushion which is fluffable, or a foam core poly

Stuffing a Cushion Cover

How To Measure a Cushion - Depth, Width & Boxing

Depth - measurement from front to back

Width - measurement from side to side

Boxing - dimension of panel when measured from seam to seam

Wool Seat Cushions

Sometimes we are asked to manufacture a seat cushion that utilizes more “natural” materials which means no foam and no fire retardants.  Finding the right materials is a challenge given the strict fire code regulations we are required to follow in California.

Cotton is not an option because without a fire retardant treatment it is flammable.  Down and feather, although naturally fire dampening, is much too soft for most people when used as the sole component of a seat cushion.  100% natural latex does not meet California fire codes.

Spring unit and a roll of wool batting.

Wool however is both naturally fire dampening and can also provide good support in a seat cushion.  We construct our wool cushions two ways. We use either a spring core that is wrapped with wool batting or we can make a solid wool cushion.  Either construction is very full and round.  You can see in the pictures the relative distance between the boxing measurment on the cover and the much higher crown in the middle.

We will wrap the spring unit with several layers of wool. 

Spring/Wool or Solid Wool cushions have a very high crown. 

In the spring core / wool wrapped cushion, we build a spring unit and then wrap it with wool batting until we have buried the edginess of the spings.  Springs are available in in different guages which can be soft, medium or firm.

Solid Wool Cushion

Also, wool on it’s own can be layered to make a firm, fluffy cushion.

New Foam Cushions

Switching out the old foam cushions for new ones always makes a difference.  The job pictured above was for a customer’s 20 year old sofa.  The cushions were flat, the covers loose and they were too soft to sit on comfortably.  Since he has teenage twins who love playing video games on this the primary sofa in the house, he needed to firm the seats up.  We measured the covers and as you can see from the picture, they were designed to contain a much thicker cushion than what they had become.  We fit the cushions with a firm High Resiliency foam that was wrapped with bonded polyester.  As you can see in these photos, the difference is dramatic.  

By the way, these cushions were High Resiliecy (HR ) foam, density 2.5lb, ILD 45, cut 24” x 24” x 5 1/2” thick with a bonded polyester wrap.

Send us an email if you need help with your project.