I got two new cushion covers made, but the foam really needs to be replaced. The guy roughed out some foam, but the shape isn't smooth at all and the cushions look really cheap, though they've been done in a nice glove leather.
The question is, how do you shape foam rubber so it has the smooth contours that the original Saarinen cushions have? Thanks in advance.
fm
Knoll
I recently replaced my crumbling cushions with new ones from Knoll and they are formed to the correct shape and then wrapped in a batting 'sock'. I have also been told moms old electric turkey carver is great at scuplting the foam but you might try wrapping the cushion in batting as well.
when I worked for an office...
when I worked for an office furniture manufacturer (groan boo hiss hate) we'd cut out the foam from the block and spray the cut edge with contact adhesive, let it tack off and then pinch the edge closed to make a radius edge, a thin layer of dacron over this should smooth it out.
Its hard to find a tradesman who respects the job as much as you do.
i got a big kick out of...
i got a big kick out of reading all
of your answers on redoing and cutting foam.... guess what you are all right....
we do this every day. we try to make the knoll cushions just like the old ones and the Herman miller just like the old ones.
we use the spray glue and that works great but you have to work really fast with that one , that is why we have gotten the Eames Buckets down to 2 hour job.
and the electric knifes although these come from a upholstery supply house and look a little different .
With these you can cut really thick foam, We try to use poly wrap but if we can save the original down that is first priority , as that and foam have doubled in price in the last year.
Thanks for all of your...
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I knew there had to be a way to do this, and it's certainly reassuring to hear from people that do this every day. I will give the meat knife and the spray glue technique a try.
One more question though...do you just glue the dacron over the tapered edges that you've glued down? Do I still need to put the cushion in some sort of stockinette to smooth it out? I've never done this before, so I'm not even sure how this would be done.
fm
if you really want to have some fun
If you really want to have some fun try to reupholster a sarrine womb chair or a Jacobsen Egg chair 2 of the hardest chairs to recover cause yo u have to hand sew them up .
all of them need new foam and you have to shape it then spray it with the glue, and then try to make the slip cover for hand sewing . This chair is one tough chair to do you also have to get the chair pad right or it will sit wrong. cannot be to thick or to small very critical ,
another suggestion
I've done lots of foam shaping, just not for tulip chair cushions. What I do is cut the underside of the foam to shape and then smooth the edge of the topside down to the finished edge.
That would be tricky to do with a Saarinen cushion because of its finished shape. I have two of them to redo and was thinking of ways to get that nice shape.
Latex foam is authentic, I believe. Polyfoam isn't. You can order latex foam from foamorder.com.
PS-- 3M spray adhesive is a reliable brand. I've gone through many cans of it. Other brands generally suck. Spray both of the things you want to stick together, let it get tacky (5 mins or so) and stick together.
Heh, having just opened up...
Heh, having just opened up another project (a knoll Saarinen vanity stool), I can see that latex is authentic. It has literally turned to powder, just like I would expect latex to do after 40 years. Now I know what my latex foam mattress is going to look like in 20 years. 🙂 I think I'm going to go with urethane foam for the cushions.
Again, thanks for all your help. I'll make sure to get some 3M spray adhesive.
fm
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