Versatile floor cushions for the home

Making New Fashion Cushions For Home

The conventional living-room suite consisting of a sofa and two armchairs is declining in popularity, partly because of its high price, and partly because it takes up so much valuable floor space. It is being replaced in all kinds of homes by large floor cushions. These are very easy to make yourself; by doing this you can get exactly what you want and save money at the same time.

Floor cushions can set the mood of the decorative scheme in your living room. Square shapes covered in plain, smart fabrics can create a formal appearance, while unusual shapes with brightly patterned covers will give a totally different feel to the room. Floor cushions are the perfect answer for bedsitting rooms, where practically every piece of furniture has to have more than one function.
These cushions can vary enormously in shape, size and feel, according to their Fashion function. Modular foam units which can be fitted together in different ways, alone or in wooden frames, to form beds, chairs, sofas and seating platforms, are perhaps the most popular, as they are extremely versatile.
A subtler appearance can be created by using large rounded cushions filled with a softer substance such as Terylene wadding, foam chippings, feathers or down. These are not suitable for sleeping on, but provide comfortable fashion sitting accommodation at a low level.

Fashion Foam

Foam has become a very popular filling for cushions and mattresses, because it comes in many forms, and its uses are limitless. Latex (natural rubber) and polyether foam are used in solid blocks as the basis for chairs and beds. These blocks can be bought in different densities and thicknesses to suit their function ; polyether foam is much cheaper than latex, and is therefore more used. Crumbed polyether and latex foam chippings are a popular filling for cushions, because they are light and non
Above. In this bedsitter, foam mattresses covered with cheap fabric serve as a bed by night and a seating platform by day, edged with a bolster filled with foam chippings.

Other fillings suitable for stuffing cushions

The chief physical difference between latex and polyether fashion foams is the way in which they react to pressure. When a load is applied to a piece of latex foam, it compresses immediately at an even rate. Most polyether foams currently in use for load-bearing applications are stiffer at first, and then, as the load increases, they tend to 'give' at the same rate as latex. In practice this gives latex a softer, more 'enveloping'feel and polyether foam a firmer support.

The reason for the difference in behaviour between latex and polyether foams is that the hardness or softness of latex depends entirely on its density (i.e. its weight per cubic foot), but polyether foam, a synthetic product, can be made from scratch with any required stiffness, quite irrespective of its density. Thus a firm latex foam has a lot of latex in proportion to the air it contains, and a soft one less latex and more air. With polyether foam, on the other hand, a firm foam can have either a high or low density.

It is important to remember, however, that high density fashion foams resist wear better than low density foams, and a low density foam used in the wrong application will quickly lose hardness and sag. The choice of foam density and hardness must be related to its use.

Polyether Fashion foam

Polyether foam is used as a cushioning material in furniture and bedding, and can be made either in block form or moulded to a required shape. Block foam is produced in a continuous length by the factory and cut into manageable pieces to make it possible to store. These large pieces are then re-cut to the size you order to meet your own needs. When foam is moulded, a metered quantity of liquid polyether is fed into a mould, and foams up to fill it.
The key to the correct use of polyether foam is its density, and this is the first factor to be considered when designing furniture. Densities generally range from 11b to 31b per cubic foot, corresponding roughly to a range of 16kg to 48kg per cubic metre. The lighter grades from 11b to 1 .51b per cubic foot can be used for back cushions, headrests and arms, but should not be used for seating purposes. Manufacturers of cheap furniture use grades from 1.51b to 1.81b for seating cushions, but it is better to use a density of 1.81b and over; the higher the better.
Once the required density has been decided on, the hardness can be selected in order to give the type of 'feel' required. Polyether foam of a certain density is generally made in two or three hardnesses. The choice depends not only on the 'feel', but also on the thickness of the foam, so this is the next point to consider.

In choosing the thickness, the type of base on which the fashion foam is to be used must be taken into account. With the simplest form of base-a rigid board-the foam will have to provide all the comfort and resilience required, and this is where the thickest cushions are needed. Firm grades need to be at least 3zin. thick; softer grades usually need a minimum of 42in. when used for seating.
These thicknesses can be reduced if the foam is to rest on a sprung or elastic webbing support. Firm grades can be reduced to 3in. and softer grades to 4in., providing that frame rails are not in direct contact with the cushion. If this cannot be avoided, however, the rail should be padded or the shape of the frame modified to prevent direct contact. Non-elastic hessian webbing and slatted wood bases should be treated as solid bases.

Fashion
Where the thickness of a cushion has to be reduced below these minimum levels to suit a particular design, this can be done by laminating together different hardnesses of fashion foam. A cushion that would normally be 5in. thick, for example, can be reduced to 4in. by laminating 3in. of the soft grade to 1 in. of a firmer grade. This type of combination is particularly useful for convertible furniture that is used for both sleeping and sitting; the soft grade provides surface comfort in the cushion's lightly-loaded use as a mattress, and the firmer grade prevents undue compression during its heavier daytime use as a seat.
As well as being supplied in solid blocks, polyether foam can also be obtained in profilecut form, where one surface is shaped to give an 'egg-box' effect. A typical use for profile-cut foam is in domed cushions or pillows; the shape is achieved by fitting a small flat foam section between two profiled sheets of a larger size. It is also used in conjunction with solid bed bases to give a better air circulation between the mattress and the base.

You can work out all kinds of combinations to produce different grades needed for your various upholstery problems. Cushions can be domed to prevent the effect of cover stretch ; cushion sides can be stiffened to give them crisp lines that maintain their shape; and headrests can be made very soft with firmer edges to prevent your head from slumping to one side.
Foam fashion can also be used with other materials; for example a foam core wrapped round with a layer of polyester fibre (such as Dacron or Terylene) produces plump, soft, bulky cushions.

Cutting and sticking Fashion foam

Thick slabs of foam are not easy to cut neatly, you should be able to get a satisfactory finish with a fine-toothed hacksaw blade or a really sharp and very long cook's knife. An electric carving knife, if you have one, is an excellent tool for the job, as it makes a clean cut. Always cut foam slightly oversize, but make your fabric covers to the exact finished dimension required. This will put the foam permanently under slight compression, which will ensure clean lines and minimize wrinkles. A mattress should be cut about ;in. oversize, most cushions about Qin.
A contact adhesive such as Dunlop Thixofix should be used for bonding foam either to itself or to other surfaces. To stick two large sheets of foam cogether, spread a band of adhesive about 12in1 wide round the edge of both surfaces,

and apply criss-cross bands of adhesive at random over the rest of the area. After the adhesive has been applied the two surfaces should be left for about 10 minutes until they are tacky, then brought together. A strong bond will form immediately on contact. Alternatively, the two surfaces can be pressed together as soon as the adhesive has been applied, and this will allow you to slide them about to a certain extent. You should press the surfaces together again after about half an hour to ensure a strong bond. The diagrams on this page give ideas for cutting foam and arranging it in laminated layers to suit different purposes.

Fashion Fabrics for covers

Large fashion foam cushions are useful both inside the house and in the garden, and the fabric chosen for their covers should be suitable for the use to which they are going to be put. Foam fashion slabs for use as cushions on a swing garden seat, for example, can be left outside if they are covered in pvc-coated cotton, which is hard-wearing, waterproof, and comes in a wide range of colours and patterns.
A large floor fashion cushion that will be used as a pouffe must have a strong cover if it is not going to wear out where it rubs against the floor. fashion Foam seating slabs which are also used for sleeping on should not have such a stiff cover that you can feel it through the sheets, but at the same time it should be tough enough to stand up to the hardest daytime use. There are many modern synthetic fabrics on the marketnylon ones are particularly tough-that will fulfil both requirements easily.

Making New Fashion Cushions For Home

Bright fashion ideas for a new house

Making New Fashion Cushions For Home