Instructions for Foam Furniture

The Foam

• Purchase high-density foam; select the thickest foam you can find for your furniture pieces. A good source for foam is a foam mattress, which offers a lot of foam---4 to 10 inches thick---at a fraction of the cost of buying it by the foot.

Constructing the Foam Furniture

• Make a pattern for the furniture piece you want to make. Use a roll of brown craft paper, a marker and scissors to trace the side profile of a chair or couch onto the pattern paper and cut out the pattern.

  The next thing to do is to take some measurements for the foam furniture piece. What are its height, width and depth? Sketch your design onto a notepad and label the sides of the image with their coordinating measurements.

  Start building up your foam into the layers needed to reach the appropriate height of your furniture piece. Use hot glue to tack the layers together, and then trace the cut lines for your chair or couch onto the foam with a permanent marker.

  Carve out the shape of your foam furniture with an electric carving knife. Depending on your design, you may have to chisel or slice away layers of the foam to get the right contours of your foam furniture. For extra curves or angles, consider cutting separate pieces of foam to these decorative shapes and then gluing them onto the foam furniture. This is also a way to add arm rests to your couch or chair.

  Apply a generous amount of hot glue to connect all of the pieces together to make your foam furniture piece strong and sturdy. Inspect the piece and make any final cuts or trims to get the foam furniture look that you really want.

Covering the Foam Furniture

• Dress up your foam furniture form with home décor or upholstery fabrics. Choose neutral fabrics that coordinate with many design styles, or choose bold fabrics that make an accenting statement. Measure the surface area of the entire foam piece to determine how many yards of material you will need.

  Sewing your foam furniture cover can be a bit of a challenge, but if you make a pattern using brown craft paper or old sheets, you will be able to get the job done.

  Treat each side of the foam furniture as one pattern piece to make a custom-fitted cover. Do not try to make one large piece to fit over several sides. Cut the pattern pieces 1 inch beyond the edge of each side, and mark where to sew the pieces together on the pattern.

  After transferring the pattern shapes to the fabric, cutting the pieces out, sewing them together and putting the cover over the foam, you will have your one-of-a-kind foam furniture to enjoy for a long time.