Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Taplin
First Post and rookie at upholstery.

I am going to make a built-in bench for our Nook and looking for a way to make the seat feel like a couch.  My quick research found that webbing may be the way to go, but need to understand the right way to do it.  I see lots of different kinds of webbing and clips, but not sure how to decide what would work best for my application.

The plan is to make the furniture out of wood and individual cushions for the bottom and sides; not built-in.  There will be finished wood on the sides that go up about an inch above the seat/backing to restraint the cushions in place.  Also, figure some velcro would be a good idea to prevent the cushions from moving around.

We were thinking of using 2" foam, but concerned with the feel at the edge where there will be no webbing, so considering 2 1/2".  The back will be thin plywood for "give" to the back cushion.    The design will provide really effective "fixed" joints at the ends so considering 1/4" plywood, but also realize 1/8" may "give" more.

Need to make some decisions:

- WEBBING - What type, width and spacing?  We want a couch feel, but not too soft.  The bench has 45 degree parts at each end so not sure how to deal with them for the webbing.
- CLIPS - It looks like the idea is to make a wood runner around the edges of where the bottom cushion will be.  This will be used to attach the webbing clips.  I guess there is no need to recess the part of the runner that will receive the clips since the cushion should be able to give where the clips occur?  Is there a How to Video for this?
- SIDE PLYWOOD - Is 1/8" too weak?  the height is your standard chair height, ie, about 16"

Hopefully, there is an experienced upholsterier out there that can help with this.  Oh yeah, one more thing.  I plan to have built-in drawers below the seating, so the thickness of the "springy" part is important.

Thanks in advance! 

Hi Chris

Your bench specs look like this will be a permanent part of the wall. I suggest using a plywood base instead of webbing. Webbing is great but it will eventually have to be replaced and that may be problematic if the bench is in fact a permanent part of the wall. just my 2 cents...karl