We took the cushions to our friend Vicky at Galesville Canvas to see if they could be saved. She pulled one apart and showed us how to use a clothes steamer to fluff up the foam cushion. Running the steam across the sagging foam, it instantly puffed back to it's original shape. She explained that it would behave like new since the foam was in good condition and we would still get many years of use from them. She also showed us how to replace the batting to give a good rounded shape on the edges and corners. Finally, she showed us how to re-stuff the foam into the fabric covering. With our "cushion class" fresh in our minds we raced home to see what we could do.
We went to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked up a Rowenta 1400 watt steamer for $50. After stopping at the local fabric store for some batting and spray adhesive we got to work.
We pulled the foam from each of the bottom cushions. They're the only ones that have zippers (the back cushions are stapled to a plywood form and had to be cleaned with a spray cleaner. This worked out OK because the backs were in better shape than the bottom cushions). Once we had the foam pieces out we washed the covers about 7 times until we felt that they were truly clean. We stripped the old batting off the foam and then fired up the steamer. This part is soooooo cool. The foam grows back to it's original shape before your eyes and it only takes a few minutes to go over each piece. Once we had steamed them we put all the foam in a room with a dehumidifier for 2 days. Next we sprayed them with some Fabreeze deodorizer. We cut out new pieces of batting and attached it with a spray adhesive (3M Foamfast 74). We also inserted a couple of anti-static dryer sheets to keep things smelling sweet. Then we jammed the foam back in. This was definitely the hardest part of the process.
We found that folding the foam into a V shape helped. Then we just slid our hands in between the outer cover and the foam and pushed and pulled until things were in place. We worked on a few cushions each evening after work and before too long had them all finished.
The fabric covers look much better than before and the cushions themselves have a nice shape to them. Considering that we only spent about $75 for everything, instead of $5150, I'd say we came out OK. Now we can put the extra $5075 towards that new headsail we've been salivating over.
4 comments:
I'm impressed! Well done, you guys, plus very interesting. The cushions look great.
Thanks for taking the time to post this...very helpful. I think we'll try this ourselves.
I have been trying to figure out how that thicker front portion of the seat keeps the cover attached to it leaving that nice impression. Can you comment? Thank you
It's been quite a while since we did this but as I recall....once you have the foam and batting inside the cover you have to slide your hand inside (very tight fit) and push + pull everything to get it all in the right place. The cover is tight enough against the foam that once you have everything where you want it it'll stay in place. After we refurbished our old cushions we used them daily for about a year and they held up well. It was worth the effort. The only reason we replaced them was we really liked the look of the blue ones. In the end we bit the bullet and had all new cushions made and that was the best decision by far.
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