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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Cushions

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Downbucket
Navigator

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USA
188 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/09/2005 : 20:12:56

Hi:

As a mentioned in my other postings, I am the new owner of the Tako Kichi. I am planning on replacing the cushions on the settees and in the v berth. Does anyone know where to purchase foam and material? I know Catalina sells replacement cushions. Do they sell just the material? Also, any suggestions for cushions for the cockpit benches?

Thanks.

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 20:36:31

JO ANN'S Fabric stores sell close foam 2-4 inches thick for cushions at a reasonable price. They also have all kinds of upholstery material including canvas if that is what you want to use.

Edited by - on

atgep
Master Marine Consultant

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1009 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 20:46:40

I bought the foam at Jo-anns using the weekly 50% off coupon. I bought a ton of marine fabric on ebay for about 50$ It was a very rewarding project with huge savings doing it yourself. Still looks great and smells good after 2 years.

Tom.

Edited by - on

Tony Dillon
Navigator

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USA
168 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 21:24:23

We replaced our cushions with foam and a bolt of medium blue denim from Joanns. All still looks good after 2 years.

Edited by - on

existentialsailor
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1180 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 21:32:20

Defender sells foam as well.

Edited by - on

pjeffarch
Navigator

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USA
135 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 23:45:32

Wow, I'm impressed with you Tom and Tony! Last fall my wife and I searched high and low across the internet, local fabric stores, marine fabric companies, etc., and between not finding the right fabric and not finding a good local tailor/upholsterer to do a boat job, we gave up and ordered through Catalina Direct. It was expensive - about $2500 for all new cushions - but it looks great and they fit perfectly.
We had to send in our old cushion fabric to them so that they could make templates to perfectly fit our boat according to the original ones. AFter talking with several people before ordering, we were advised to think twice about doing it ourselves, depending on the fabric, how many cushions, quality desired, etc...and my wife is quite the seamstress! After it all, we have no regrets.

Edited by - on

pjeffarch
Navigator

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USA
135 Posts

Response Posted - 09/09/2005 : 23:47:56

Did I say $2500?

I meant $1250!

(I was thinking of the whole retrofit job we did on our C25 upon purchase.)

Edited by - on

atgep
Master Marine Consultant

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1009 Posts

Response Posted - 09/10/2005 : 06:14:28

The price for me "Including" a ebay Husqvarna sewing machine was $450. My only regret was making quarter birth cushions. They now reside in my spare bedroom. I am sure new factory cushions are the way to go if you want to spend the $$$. I have 3 little ones who are generally jumping from one cushion to another!

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 09/12/2005 : 09:03:19

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by atgep
 ...My only regret was making quarter berth cushions. They now reside in my spare bedroom...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Mine reside in the garage.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/12/2005 : 14:55:38

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dlucier
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by atgep
 ...My only regret was making quarter berth cushions. They now reside in my spare bedroom...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Mine reside in the garage.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I converted the smaller quarterberth cushion into the "bridge" cushion for the main salon queen-sized berth in the dinette interior. It was just the right width but a little long. BTW, if Frog is referring to closed-cell foam, I wouldn't recommend that for interior cushions--you'll be disappointed by its stiffness for sleeping or lounging. Closed-cell is best for cockpit cushions and PFDs that need to resist absorbing water. We used medium-density foam and made the seat bottoms and berth cushions an extra inch thicker with a layer of fiber padding on top. They're really nice.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 09/12/2005 14:58:12

oyster cabin
Deckhand

Members Avatar

USA
3 Posts

Response Posted - 09/12/2005 : 20:48:00

The company is called Sailrite. They sell every thing you need for cushions, boat accessories, and of course sails. (Fabric, thread, foam)
Request a catalog. It is quite an impressive selection of products.
www.sailrite.com
Anne

Edited by - on

atgep
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

1009 Posts

Response Posted - 09/12/2005 : 21:31:46

The foam from Jo-ans is open cell..errr. cushion foam. One big piece usually goes for $40 but with the coupon $20. I scouted our friends and got 2 or 3 week. The nice folks there finally helped me out and told me to buy what I needed and rang it up for 40 or 50% off. I think they thought it was funny that a guy was in there several times in the same week. I bought batting and glued it onto the foam with spray adhesive.
The cushions were easy enough to make and I used velcro to hold the covers on. At first I was using a cover as a template but quickly went to the trial and error mode. Then it went much faster.

Tom.

Edited by - on

cmckitrick
Navigator

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USA
119 Posts

Response Posted - 09/13/2005 : 12:19:22

We had ours done by Catalina last year. The price was $1600. They did a good job however they did not put in the big buttons on top of the cusion which are kind of attractive( I dont know what yo ucall them) and the snaps in back dont line up with the existing ones. I gues that is understandable and easy to fix.

Edited by - on

Downbucket
Navigator

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USA
188 Posts

Response Posted - 09/13/2005 : 13:07:52

Anne:

Thanks for the Sailrite info. It is a great website with lots of useful information about cleaning sails, storing sails and cushions,etc.

Thanks.

Will

Edited by - on

mwalkup
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
79 Posts

Response Posted - 09/13/2005 : 16:46:14

Another advantage of living in this great state we call North Carolina
is the fact we have very good sources for fabric, as well as talented upholstry people to sew them.

Now I'm in the furniture business so I had a leg up on where to go, but I think most cities have places and people to sew cushions for our boats.
One step I took that can save one money is to use your exsisting foam. As long as its not dry rotted and crumbling you can reuse it.

My upholsterer using my cushions, with me providing $200. worth of material, she charged me $250. So for a total of $450.I had all nine interior cushions done.
Now the labor elsewhere would probably run alittle more, but even still
to my way of thinking it's the most economical way to go.

One last detail I used a Sunbrella type material on the v-berth, and quarter-berth cushions for it's water proof resistance. On the setee cushions I used a more comfortable fabric that had been scotchgaurded.
It was in a different pattern that compliments the v-berth and quarter-berth cushions. Top it off with a couple pillows in the corners by the bulkhead, and your all set.

Edited by - on

Gary B.
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
969 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2005 : 12:39:10

For those REALLY on the cheap, I covered my old, brown fabric with COVERS that I made from upholstery material. Sewed them myself and used grommets on the back to "tie" them on. It really improved the LOOK of the boat, but, of course, it's the same foam. I did this about 5-6 years ago and have not regretted it. For less than $100, the interior looks a TON better.

Now, however the foam is getting more worn and I am thinking of re-doing from scratch with new foam, etc.

I appreciate all the advice here.

Gary B.
s/v Encore! #685

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2005 : 13:13:59

Judy bought 7 yards of close-out fabric at $1.49 a yard and made covers for our cushions. She got a tropical fish pattern and it really brightened the interior. I sure as heck couldn't complain about the cost...

Derek

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2005 : 14:24:52

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Derek Crawford
 She got a tropical fish pattern and it really brightened the interior.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hmmm... Fish swimming in the cabin... Sounds like "This Side Down".

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2005 : 20:53:51

Now that's funny!

Edited by - on

tmhansen
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 09/16/2005 : 00:46:15

We are very lucky to have an upholstry supply business here in our small town. From him we ordered foam in 4" thickness for all of the cushions. We looked though all his fabric samples and ordered three that we liked. The main fabric is a soft treated material, the second is a fake leather we used on the seat bottoms at the dinnete so spills would be easier to clean up. The third fabric we used was a mesh on the bottom of all of the cushions so help them dry faster.

Things we learned: Buy an electric bread knife to cut the foam. We found one at a thrift store for 5$ after the fact and it is so much easier we wished we had done it before. Another is that sleeping on the 4" foam my back would ache in the morning. On my berth I replaced the 4" foam with 4 layers of 1" foam of different densities, mostly very firm. My wife calls my cushion "the brick" as it is very stiff.

Edited by - on

pjeffarch
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
135 Posts

Response Posted - 09/16/2005 : 22:23:52

Todd - you ought to go into the business and market those to other Catalina owners! That sounds like a winning combination, and inexpensive to boot!

Edited by - on

tmhansen
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 09/18/2005 : 04:01:25

They did turn out very nice and exactly the fabric and foam we chose but it was a lot of work for my wife. I don't think she wants to do it again too soon. Although near the end she had learned a lot about how to do it so it turned out to her satisfaction without nearly as much trouble as the first one.

Edited by - on

PZell
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
548 Posts

Response Posted - 09/20/2005 : 11:30:17

When we did ours I found a shop that specialized in cutting foam for auto seats, chairs, etc..
They have the saw thingies and cut it right to match the old foam. My wife made the covers with fabric from Joanne's but says shes not doing it again.

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 09/20/2005 : 14:46:38

Before we were any wiser we had a local upholstery guy who we met at the Cleveland Boat show redo our cushions. We used the original foam????? Probably because we were being cheap, but it really wouldn’t have been that much more for new foam.

Anyway, we spent close to 7 1/2 boat units. They came out beautifully, but I would have rather boat some foam from Joanne’s and had my mother create the covers.

For the cockpit cushions, use a thinner foam, maybe an inch. And cover it in that marine Naughahyde? Sp? They also make funny looking upholstery vents that you can rivet in along the side to help them breath if they get a bit damp.

We used a similar type of fabric for the bottom of the cabin cushions to keep any moisture in the bilge or cabin in general from sucking up into the cushions from beneath.

Edited by - on

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