So, the other day I came home from work and what do suppose was waiting for me?My package of foam from Rochford Supply with three brand new sheets of 3 x 22 x72 sheets of blissful comfort! So I will now regale my faithful readers with the saga of settee cushion replacement, part 2. The package of foam and a canister of spray adhesive was delivered to my doorstep as promised in only two days, very nice. And as you can see was extremely well wrapped in heavy duty tarp material. It was also taped within an inch of its life too! You can go back and catch up to this article by clicking on Settee Cushion Replacement, which was the first installment of replacing the settee cushions aboard Aurion, our Islander 28.

Foam Package

Yes those are icicles hanging from our roof! Boo, Hiss!

Tuff package

After unwrapping the foam and allowing the sheets to take on their normal shape for awhile, I began to plan out exactly how this was all going to happen. I have zero experience with any upholstery work, I had heard of upholstery however so at least I had that going for me. Previously, I had removed the foam cushions from the fabric and got a pretty good idea of what I was going to have to. It promised to be a fairly straight forward type of project.

Tools of the trade

Here are the tools of the trade. A straight edge, a square, a sharp knife, heavy duty spray adhesive, and best of all, an electric knife. The only thing missing from the photo that I ended up needing towards the end of the project was a tape measure for getting the overall length. After assembling the required tools the next task was laying out exactly how I was going to cut all the bevels, radius’ and other non-straight lines with a minimal of foul language. You can see from the photo below how my cut ended up. It was not as smooth as I would have it to be, but once it is wrapped in the upholstery should not be a problem. The greenish foam is the old foam by the way. As an aside note, after examining the green foam, we decided that is was a memory foam. One of the ways memory foam conforms to your body is from your body heat, so having it wrapped in batting and then a very thick layer of upholstery between the foam and yourself would probably not be the way to go.

Beveled Edge

As you can see there is a very long beveled edge to accommodate the angle of the seat back.

I made the long cut by lining up the old with new piece of foam and used the old as a guide for the electric knife. If I were more adept at calculating angles perhaps I could have achieved cleaner results, but alas the tape measure has been a deceitful friend of mine on many a project. After making this cut I lined up the tops of the two bevels and traced the outline of the old foam to the new foam.

Radius1 Cut

Radius Cut Detail.

Radius2 Cut

The Other Radius Cut Detail.

Foam Outline

You can see the seams here where I glued additional foam to the ends to achieve the required length as well as the outline for the next big cut.

I ensured that the foam was off the edge of the table far enough that I would not be modifying the table as well as the foam and then made the cut free-hand using the electric knife. The knife makes easy work of cutting foam and when the cut was finished only required a few additional swipes to clean up the edges. I had my lovely assistant pull the cut piece away as I sliced through the foam. This made pulling the knife through the foam much easier.

After finishing the final cut, the next step was to see how well the the new cushion would fit into the upholstery. There is a zipper along the back side that runs almost the entire length of the cushion. This proved a much more difficult task than at first I would have imagined. The inside of the fabric was quite rough and fought us the entire way. After some gentle persistence however, we eventually  coerced the foam into it’s new home. A few more inches of zipper on either end would have been very welcome indeed! At one point we thought we would have to trim the foam more, glad we didn’t do that!

New Settee

New Settee Cushion ready for a nice siesta!

Overall this project was fairly simple to complete. I think the key is having an electric knife to do the cutting. I still haven’t made up my mind about wrapping the foam in batting. Right now the idea of removing the foam again and trying to get back in without tearing it is making me think twice. And there is still the matter of doing the starboard settee. The good news is that I am looking forward to a much more comfortable summer aboard our Islander 28.