This cushions series is related to the chairs series. Last week I shared that the frames turned out pretty nicely, but my college roommate’s reaction to a picture of them was that they “looked like a torture device from [2006 James Bond film] Casino Royale.” No link or picture. You can look that up.

My initial idea was to wrap the original cushions in a fabric. There are many YouTube videos that explain how easy it is to reupholster cushions simply by rewrapping them.

Given the work it seemed like it would be to entirely redo the cushions, that sounded ideal.

The cushions couldn’t be used as they were. The one in better condition looked like it had been stabbed a bunch of times with a paring knife.

The one that was in worse condition looked like it had been sliced open by Doug from Scrubs.

Wrapping the stabby one seemed like it could work! And I have fabrics galore for that to be a valid approach.

But first I decided to see if there was any significance to the markings on the cushions.

3101?

Tyson 23 x 20?

21 x 25?

What I didn’t want to do was destroy something that would be Antiques Roadshow-worthy.

Mind you, the chairs had been painted orange, and I had refinished them, including tearing through some veneer, but maybe there was something to these chairs after all.

I went to reddit with these questions. If anyone would know, it would be various reddit communities. The woodworking ones certainly are eager to o-pine.

There were various interpretations. None of them was correct. Also none of them indicated that the chairs and cushions had any value. I was free to do what I wanted.

I had fabric, Calah’s staple gun, cushions to reupholster.

But then I realized that the boards for the seats were sagging.

If I couldn’t trust the integrity of the seats themselves — and now clearly I couldn’t — simple reupholstery would not suffice.

I had to start anew.

More next week!