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Kitchen doors
The million dollar question asked by people lookin... |
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| HOME & GARDEN |
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| Cushion comforts |
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| 20.01.2012 19:13
- By Nathalie Jones
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| Cushions: where would we be without them! Putting the facetious responses to that statement to one side, you’ve got to admit cushions are a decorative and practical soft furnishing feature of probably most homes, adding colour and comfort to chairs, sofas and sunloungers, and even serving as seats. |
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| Sizes, colours, shapes, cover fabrics, designs: the possibilities are as wide as the imagination and individual tastes |
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| Dictionary definition A rifle through the dictionary reveals the word “cushion” stems form the Old French “caisson” or “cousin”. The literal meaning is a soft bag of ornamental material which can be stuffed with various things, including wool, hair, feathers, man-made fibres, or even torn up bits of paper. Their purpose is for sitting on, kneeling on and for lying down on, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a chair or couch. Early cushions In Europe cushions really became part of the furniture so to speak in the early Middle Ages, at least in palaces and mansions. In those days they tended to be on the awfully big side, usually covered with leather, and firmly padded and solid enough to make a very satisfying seat. When chairs became commonplace for the lordly classes, the non-noble were still expected to sit on cushions – only nobles posteriors were deemed important enough for furniture with legs! In later centuries, the French and Spanish remained great cushions as seating fans. As time went by, cushions tended to get smaller, and were placed on seats rather than serving as the seat itself. Infinite choice Not all cushions are the same of course: far from it. They can be miniscule and dainty or vast and squidgy. They can be purely decorative or serve an important comfort-providing purpose. Sizes, colours, shapes, cover fabrics, designs: the possibilities are as wide as the imagination and individual tastes. From cosy cottage floral and tapestry covered rustic, to animal print tasselled and fringed or novelty shaped fun and funky. Monochrome simplicity would be in keeping with city centre converted warehouse living, and richly-coloured, eastern-style floor cushions would suit a more ethnic look. Whatever your preferences and your home’s décor, there’s a cushion out there to suit you. Practical considerations Don’t base your cushion choices solely on factors like colour, pattern and size. Think too about the practical side of things. Consider whether the cushion cover fabrics are crease-resistant, whether they are durable enough to withstand being handled and potentially tossed around by the kids, and how well they will stand up to washing. There’s not much point in opting for cheap fabrics in a bit to save a few cents if before you know it they are already looking rather the worse for wear. Pillows past and present If cushions are found in most homes, there in virtually all of them there must be pillows, which are described as cushions for the head, particularly when lying in bed, as well as for supporting the body if reclining on a couch or chair. The pillow concept goes back thousands of years, at least for the rich and privileged, although one person’s comfy headrest would be another person’s comfort-depriving torture. In the long ago times of the Chinese dynasties for example, cushions were made from such uncushiony materials as wood, jade, bronze, bamboo and porcelain, and were shaped like or decorated with pictures of animals, plants, humans or even geometric figures. The thinking was that soft substances robbed the body of vitality. Pillows of the more recent past were stuffed with things like reeds or straw – I can feel my scalp itching at the thought. This type of filling has mercifully been superseded by more comfort-friendly materials, such as the more economically prices foam or polyester and the more pricey duck or goose feathers and down. Pillows come in various sizes and shapes; there is certainly a cultural influence here. It can come as quite a surprise to the British to discover rectangular pillows are not the norm elsewhere in Europe, and that the Germans and the Dutch favour large square pillows to rest their heads on, while a traditional Spanish pillow is in my opinion like a made for two, long, lumpy sausage. The purely decorative “throw” or “toss” pillows are made to be used on beds or chairs. All very pretty, but if I’m really honest I don’t quite see the point…Then you have the bolster, a rectangular, circular or cylindrical pillow, which can add a nice decorative touch, but which at the same time serves a useful purpose. The laid back beanbag The beanbag is somewhat of a laid back variation on the cushion theme. According to my research the very first beanbag was called a “socco” and was created in 1969 by Italian designers Gatti, Paolini and Teodora for the furniture firm Zanotta. Apparently it dawned on them this would make a rather groovy low cost, lightweight furniture idea, slotting right into the hippy-dippy inspired interiors scene of the times, after someone at a Stryrofoam factor stuffed a load of leftovers into a bag. Essentially beanbags are fabric filled with small chunks of Styrofoam or PVC pellets, or often today, shredded polyurethane. The beanbag chair makes a really cosy, practical and easily moved about back supporting seat, at least to begin with! In my experience, continuous compression can take its toll on the ‘beans’, and you are likely to end up feeling as though you are sitting directly on the floor with not much more than a piece of material between your rear end and the tiles, although the bags can be given a new lease of life with bean refills. In those early flower powery, pop culture beanbag days, most were teardrop shaped: round at the base and tapering to nearly a point at the top. Today the round sack style and pear shaped are also common, but so too are more elaborate beanbags. Some have head, arm or foot rests, some are novelty shaped, plus there are giant beanbags, and even doggie and moggie beanbags. Covers range from practical wipe clean and washable to faux suede and luxury leather. |
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| COMMENTS |
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13.05.2013 6:24
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