How to Fix a Seat Cushion
As they get old, seat cushions for chairs, benches and other household furniture can get dirty or develop tears, and their padding can become flattened. It is often cheaper to repair them by hand than to have the entire cushion professionally reupholstered or replaced. It usually does not take many supplies or a lot of time to repair seat cushions. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Upholstery cleaner
- Rag
- Sewing needle (for cushions with holes)
- Thread (for cushions with holes)
- Foam mattress pad (for flattened cushions)
- Scissors
Instructions
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When old seat cushions look bad, the upholstery usually just needs to be cleaned. Use an upholstery cleaner like Woolite Heavy Traffic Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner, available at hardware stores and online. Most upholstery cleaners are simply rubbed into fabric using a rag.
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To repair holes or tears in a cushion, first unzip it and take off the cover. The seams are the most common place for holes to develop because there is a lot of strain on seams when people sit on the cushions. To fix these holes, sew along the damaged seams with the cushion inside out. Do this either with a sewing machine or by hand. Sew over the hole twice for extra strength.
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To replace the padding in a cushion, purchase foam padding from a site like Overstock.com, or from a bedding store. Cut the pad to a rectangle the size of the cushion. Place the foam on top of the existing pad before putting the newly sewn cover back on.
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Tips & Warnings
If padding inside the seat cushion is incredibly flat, it can be taken out entirely and replaced with either multiple layers of a thin mattress pad or one layer of a thick mattress pad.
