Has anyone ever replaced their (crap) sofa cushions with made to measure new foam ones?

[CroissantNeuf]

We have 2 sofas that aren't particularly old and weren't particularly cheap but the seat cushions are lumpy and uncomfortable to sit on. I think the filling is currently loose 'stuffing' rather than a solid foam IYSWIM.

We can't really justify/afford buying 2 new sofas at the moment but have worked out that we could replace all the seat cushions with a high density foam recommended for the job , cut to the exact size and shape for around £120. (sofas have loose covers so easy to pop new cushion pads in)

Has anyone else ever done this and was it worth it? Or are we better off putting that money towards new sofas?

oooooh this is something that might save my ancient sofa

Watching as I have this exact problem. I have considered hanging round the recycling centre to see if people chuck sofas with suitable foam

I think that sounds like a very practical idea, tbh.

Maybe I should buy a few shares in a foam company then with all this interest .

In the meantime I just need lots of people to come and say 'yes, best thing we ever did. Sofas are so comfortable now'

I considered it and got as far as googling suppliers. I found one that seems to do this as routine, but can't for the life of me remember the name. Then I decided it was an extra expense I couldn't justify . I think there are considerations about fire retardents that push up the price a little and mean that not just any bog standard foam is a good idea.

Yes, we did it several years ago and it was worth the money. Sofa is still going strong.

Used a company called Furniture Medic and I'm pretty sure it cost more than £120 but a lot less than a new sofa of equivalent quality.

what about a campervan/caravan company, could they cut foam to size more cheaply?

If IIRC we sent the covers off and they filled them and sent them back. They were fine but made everything very 'square' IYKWIM I can't remember who though-sorry. It was at least 6/7 years ago.

Had same problem with our DFS sofa and ordered new filling telling them what suite we had.

e foam is one of the companies that we looked at.

I don't mind the £120 price if it makes the sofas comfortable for a decent amount of time. TBH it would be a bargain!

I just don't want to throw good money after bad (is that the right expression??)

I have replaced seat cushions with foam on a suite.

The foam for your back is softer than the seat ones.
By law, all foam is flame retardant.
You cant just bung the foam into the cover.(Its nigh on impossible to get it to slide in like this anyway) It is meant to be wrapped in a light 'wadding' (like v.v.thin duvet) and this encased in loose weave stockinette (like your dish cloth). This stops the 'square' effect and makes it feel plumpshius.

I dont know about buying all this online but the foam can be bought from foam shops cut to size or you could hand the covers over to an upholsterer and get a quote. Having struggled with it all myself in the past I would now just hand it over to the experts to do - lot less hassle.

It is definetely worth doing if the framework is sound/traditionally made.

Swerving - the online foam places offer the stockinette covers as an extra so I'm glad that you said that its best to have them otherwise I would have been cursing trying to get the covers over the foam Thank you.

Sounds promising though

There is an art to putting the foam into the covers.
You wont be able to do it like a pillowcase.
Tackle it when you have plenty of energy.

You will need a strong man (or woman) who can fold the foam in half lengthways. Whilst still in his grip slide each cover all the way up the foam.

Take extra care to get the zip-end corners of the cover positioned over the foam corners. This is the most important part because:-

1. when it springs open the rest will kind of fall into place and
2. It will protect the zip from getting damaged under the strain and the zip head flying off. When strong arms are slowly removed you can then stroke the cover into place. If you have to do it by yourself then its kneeling on it on the floor and slowly feeding the cover on. Its hard to fold and wants to spring open so I used to tie it up with a strip of lining and still kneeling on it.

When I made my covers I had the zips going round both of the back corners to widen the opening. I dont know why manufacturers dont do this to make our housekeeping lives easier.

Anyway, it will all be worth it in the end.

Thanks for the tip. I'll get in training and build a few muscles in readiness!

Definitely worth getting done by experts - we have a reasonably local foam shop who did a pair of sofa back cushions & a long extra wedge to go under the seat cushions in a fabric that matched extremely well, and it was £140the lot last xmas. Transformed sofa...

We've still not taken the plunge and ordered it but I think we are going to give it a go.

We used a local place - we have feather back cushions, which are fine with plumping except the dog used to sit on the top of the chair back and it became impossible to shake it back into shape so we replaced with foam. And we replaced some of the cushions after DD had a few potty training accidents - well worthwhile, the furniture was a wedding present, we've just clocked up 25 years and its still solid.

We have replaced our sofa back cushions and it was the best thing ever. We did them in stages as they needed it. Be careful as prices can differ enormously. The first 2 we had done were over £100 each! The second 2 were about £40 each. Both equally as good. I would recommend that you send your empty cushions to be filled to get a purfect fit. Don't go for the cheapest options, we went for medium firm with wraps ( for the backs ), the seats didn't need doing, being sprung. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Think carefully though, if your sofa is not otherwise in good shape.

I'm sure I read on a thread on here that some mn's wrap a duvet around the (old,saggy) foam and put the cover back on. This was supposed to make it plumper. The thread was about this same problem I think, I'm sure I didn't dream it!

I was quoted £76 per cushion to have foam put in my dfs sofa,which was only 3 months old and looked awful.. I decided to buy a 10 kilo bag of fibre fabric for £19.99 from amazon and stuff it myself. There was no zip on my inner cushion so I had to carefully cut open, then I just stuffed handfuls of the fibre and packed the cushions up then smoothed it out..I then just hand stitched the cushion with big stitches and put back in cover. It looks great now and took me about and hour to do my sofa seats and chair. So before you go to the expense of having foam put in give this a go..so easy you will be shocked.

I wonder how long that will last though because the fibre will flatten with use in a way foam doesn't. A lot of sofa manufacturers cut cost by using instead of foam or thinner layers of foam with fibre wrapped round. People think the cushions are lovely and squishy when they try them out in the showroom and don't realise what a pig they are after a few months of sitting on them at home.

I had the seat cushions on a sofa which is nearly twenty years old replaced with new foam a couple of years ago and it's like a brand new sofa.