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#10402
Hi everyone. I recently reupholstered my grandfather's swivel/rocking/easy chair With leather — my first project of its kind — and my only sticking point has been the foam in the seat cushion. Largely because the old foam was the one thing I threw away before I could study it in-depth.

From what I can remember, the original cushion was installed in the late '60s or early '70s, and when I pulled it apart, it wasn't just a slab cut to shape. It seemed to have hollow "silos" cut into it (is if for tufting), and then another thin layer of foam glued over the top and bottom surfaces of the holey foam to ensure the holes didn't show through the outer covering. Two vent grommets in the back edge of the cover; when sitting down, and standing up, you'd hear the rush of air going through the vents, and the cushion would return to shape quickly enough that you wouldn't see an impression of your butt.

The foam I ended up using was (from what I can tell) 1835 "medium" slab foam. Nothing fancy, not memory foam. The covering is 3" thick, but I got 4" foam to keep it nice and taut. To give it a little "preload," and to make it look a bit overstuffed around the sides, I cut it with a full 1" allowance around the perimeter.

It came out looking perfect, and it feels fantastic to sit on. The only irritating thing is, when I stand up from the chair, my (relatively small, lightweight) butt leaves a prodigious impression in the cushion that doesn't really go away, and air does not get sucked back into the cushion. Yes, I installed vent grommets similar to the originals.

So I guess my question is this: is it fairly common to use a "cored" foam for such applications? Or is there a better density/weight of foam that returns to shape more reliably?

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#10404
I understand the numbers but don't have a great deal of experience with furniture.

The first two numbers of your foam are the density. In other words the quality of the foam. Generaly, an inexpensive production foam will be under 20 (2.0lbs). A better quality, higher density, will be higher than 20.

The third and fourth numbers are the firmness. 35 is a medium firmness and something like 55 would be relatively firm. In Automotive work, the seat cushion is generaly firm while the back rest is medium firmness.

My guess is you would be much happier with something like 2255 foam for the cushion both now and several years down the road, as the 1835 will probably loose it's resilliance fairly quickly.

Bare in mind also, Furniture generally gets used longer and harder than automobile applications.

John
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#10417
@punkassjim ,

I have learned to recognize densitys in foam by colorand that foam is a lower density foam by the looks of it and will compress easier. Just give it its time to come back to life after sitting on it or redo the foam entirely. I will bet that chair had been recovered in the 80s.
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#10418
@BigRig, trust, I know every step of this chair's life since 1976. The brown leather you see above is the first time it's been reupholstered in that span of time.

As for foam color, I've seen conflicting reports that color doesn't indicate anything concrete about the foam's firmness or density, and to rely on the number to be sure. That said, I got it from a seller who wasn't sure, so yeah, I can't trust that it is what he said it was. Wish I had a local retailer who stocks quality foam for me to check out in person.
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