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Foam grades & types
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October offer:
10% Discount & FREE memory foam pillow worth £30 on orders over £150 How to reuse or renew your old sofaAt eFoam, we are continuously working to find new ways to ensure that any foam offcuts and old foam products do not end up in a landfill. We ensure that all our excess foam is repurposed and resold – all our foam offcuts can be purchased via our website and can be used in an array of projects and applications. As an environmentally conscious producer of foam, we also like to offer our customers creative ideas on how old furniture items – and more – can be broken apart with the foam and other materials re-used in new applications. How to reuse your old sofa?If you are thinking of replacing your sofa, you may be in two minds about how to sensibly pass it on. Sometimes it isn't easy to sell on a second-hand sofa or donate it to a charity shop. However, a sofa includes several foam components that can be easily stripped out and used elsewhere, in addition to the great amount of upholstery fabric covering it. Instead of discarding your sofa, the numerous materials it holds can be put to great use. To begin, strip all upholstery fabric from your sofa as best you can. Some parts may be chemically bonded or affixed with strong glue, so they may be more difficult to remove than other parts. Carefully remove the fabric to ensure you are left with multiple large pieces – this will increase the opportunity for you to find a suitable application for them. Some sofa cushions have multiple foam bases, topped with a feather or synthetic wadding, both of which can be separated and used. Thinking about what to do with each component of your old sofa is easy. For example, the polyurethane foam used within sofas can also be used to upholster many different types of dining chairs. Given that these chairs only require a thin yet high-density piece of foam to ensure adequate comfort, you can store your cut up foam pieces somewhere safe and use them to upholster dining chairs on an ongoing basis. Your sofa foam pieces can be cut to the desired thickness and shape, wrapped in the appropriate stockinette, and inserted into existing seat pad covers. Alternatively, you can upholster entirely new seat cushions using a fabric of your choice – or even using the fabric that covered your old sofa! Feathers and/or synthetic wadding can find a new lease of life in DIY cushions, quilt blankets and more. Should you have a large sofa with plenty of excess filling, you may choose to create a selection of scatter cushions to go on your new sofa! Any old material from your old sofa can also be used to create new cushions or become a part of a patchwork blanket, for example. Sofas typically include many materials we should avoid discarding, such as leathers, cottons and more. Should the foam in your old sofa be really worn out or not be suitable enough for seating or cushion applications, you can create comfortable pet beds using multiple layers of foam. Foam is highly resistant to wear and tear, making it the perfect comfort solution for our four-legged friends. You may wish to top your old sofa foam with new memory foam or a high-density foam sheet, which can be ordered using our cut to size online tool for added comfort and durability. How to renew your old sofa?We live in a throw away society, many people will throw away a sofa that is looking a bit tired and has lost its shape, and simply buy a new one. But, the last several years has seen an increasing trend towards "up-cycling" i.e. the creative repurposing and renewing of used objects, furniture etc. A good example of up-cycling is the creative reuse of wooden pallets. Have pallets leftover from a delivery of paving slabs? Put them on Freecycle and see how many people show an interest, stating that they want to make them into coffee tables and other furniture. But I digress, in comparison to turning old, splintered and dirty wood into an attractive coffee table, renewing an old sofa is quite an easy endeavour which can be done in just a few steps:
Your sofa should now be looking a lot fresher and newer, and all for the fraction of the cost of buying a new one. For more information on our sustainability goals, or if you would like more craft ideas, check out our other blogs. |