Summary:

This article will give you an idea of how I went about making the cushions for my bench seats and bed. I wanted to make sure that I had good support for when I was sleeping on my bed, as well as when I would be sitting at the table. To me, this was going to be a bit of a challenge since these are two different needs and typically two different types of support. The goal was to have a temporary solution I could try out until I decided on the right type of material(s) and then get that material upholstered properly.

Materials:

Prep/Planning:

I decided to visit some mattress stores to see what I was getting myself into. I found some various options for color choices, fabric options, as well as foam types.

I liked most of the options I was seeing, however, when I got the final tally for foam, fabric and labor, I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger. I’ve never done this before, but it seemed very expensive to me. Without knowing if I’d truly like the look/feel/etc, I wanted to find an alternative solution.

I decided to head to the Upholstery Fabric Outlet here in San Diego, CA and check out their foam options. After sitting on some options, I decided on a 1.5 inch high density foam with a 3 inch memory foam underneath it. I found the memory foam online so I decided to order that separately. Since I wasn’t ready to commit to the selection completely, I found that standard pillow cases were about the same size as each quadrant of my bed platform. Score! I even found some on sale.

Now that I had my plan of attack, it was time to get things assembled.

Build Steps:

1. I bought the high density foam from UFO so they were able to cut to the dimensions that I required. This was a good starting point for cutting the memory foam myself.

2. I laid out the memory foam and put the high density foam that was cut over the top of it and cut around it with an electric knife. This cut very easily and did not have any jagged edges.

3. Once I had the corresponding memory foam pieces cut to the same size as the high density pieces, it was time to put them into their cases.

4. It was easy enough to put the foam together and pull the pillow case around it.

 

 

Final Product:

Review:

Pros:

The combination of foam seems comfortable to me and most who have sat on it. I did notice that sitting with the memory foam side up was not as comfortable as having the high density portion be what you sit on directly. Since the foam is in pillow cases and I didn’t sew them shut, they are easy to take off and wash like normal sheets.

Cons:

The measurements I took aren’t totally perfect so there are some gaps between the cushions when I put the area into the “bed” mode. The pillow cases I selected are incredibly soft, but that doesn’t provide as much support as I would have liked to hold them together. Due to softness, they also tend to slide around a bit. I’m hopeful that when I get final cushions made (if I end up doing that), I’ll measure again now that I know how things move around and get it a bit more snug with a thicker fabric to help with some of the support and movement.