Outdoor Cushions FAQ
What Outdoor Fabrics do you offer for Custom Replacement Cushions and Pillows?
We offer an amazing selection of outdoor fabrics. Including Sunbrella, Outdura, Tempotest, Revolution, Maria Flora, Sunbelievable, Fortress, Inside Out, Phifer, Twitchell, Perrenials and more. Each manufacturer offers a huge selection of durable, UV resistant fabrics for your outdoor cushions and pillows. Order free fabric swatches of our online fabric selection before you order. If you live in the North Texas area, you are welcome to come by and look at our fabric books in person. Our talented design team will help select and coordinate fabrics for your custom outdoor cushion project.
What Is A Solution Dyed Acrylic?
Solution-dyed acrylic fabrics keep their colour longer because of the specific process that’s used to dye the fibres. Acrylic fibres start as a liquid acrylic polymer solution. The chemical fluid is forced through a device called a spinneret, which has many tiny holes. Long acrylic fibres are extruded during this process. The sun, wind and rain can take a toll on your outdoor cushions.
Outdoor fabrics need to endure the elements. Your patio furniture cushions should look great and maintain their color for several years. Solution dyed acrylics are the most common outdoor fabrics used for outdoor patio furniture cushions and pillows. The most well-known manufacturers of Solution Dyed Acrylic Outdoor fabrics in the US are Sunbrella, Outdura, and Tempotest. Acrylic fabrics are durable, high-performance synthetic fabrics made from acrylic fibers.
The benefits of a Solution Dyed Acrylic Fabrics are:
- UV Stable & Fade Resistant
- Mildew Resistant
- Stain Resistant
- Bleach Cleanable
How Are Solution Dyed Acrylics Made?
Acrylic fiber starts as a liquid polymer solution. The liquid is extruded to make long strands or fibers. To create the color, dye is added to the chemical solution before it is extruded. This gives the fiber a consistent color throughout. The dye or color does not sit on the surface of the fiber but goes all the way through. Think of adding food coloring to your icing for cupcakes. The icing starts out white, but when you add the food coloring and stir, the color is all the way through the icing.
Another analogy is a carrot! If you slice a carrot in half, you can see the orange color all the way through. Compare this to a radish and it becomes easier to understand. When you slice a radish, you see the red color on the outside of the radish only. The inside is white. This is the difference between a solution-dyed acrylic and a piece dyed fiber. Solution Dyed Acrylics like Sunbrella, Outdura, Tempotest and Maria Flora can keep their color longer due to the dying process before extrusion.
What Is A Solution Dyed Polyester?
What Is A Printed Polyester?
Polyester fibers are extruded and woven into a plain white bas cloth fabric. The pattern or design is then printed onto the fabric with High UV inks. Printed polyester design are not woven into the fabric, thus there is a bigger variety of colors and patterns available. The down side is that the Printed Polyster fabric does not have a long life in the sun. It has limited UV stability and will fade very quickly. This type of outdoor fabric is perfect for covered patios that do not get full sunlight all day long.
What Is the Warranty On Custom Outdoor Cushions Made By Chair Care Patio
Every outdoor fabric manufacturer offers a specific warranty for their fabric. You can find detailed fabric warranty information on our OUTDOOR FABRIC page.
Click Here to View our Outdoor Fabric FAQ page.
Custom Replacement Cushion Warranty - 1 Year
Chair Care Patio offers a one year manufacturers limited warranty on our workmanship. This limited warranty lasts for a period of one (1) year from the date of delivery or pick up. Cushion warranty covers workmanship of the cushion itself and the foam or fiber. Fabrics may be covered under a separate warranty by the fabric manufacturer.
Can you match the fabric on my existing cushions?
If the manufacturer of your patio furniture used outdoor fabric from the fabric manufacturers stock fabric collection, then many times we can match your existing fabric. However many manufacturers have exclusive fabrics made just for them. These exclusive fabrics must be purchased directly from the company that made your outdoor furniture. We only purchase outdoor fabrics that are from stock collections.
We offer the entire Sunbrella Outdoor Fabric STOCK collection as well as The Sunbrella Fusion Collection. These fabrics are available as cut yardage and stocked through authorized Sunbrella fabric distributors.
Outdura is another brand of solution dyed acrylic that we offer. Their stock collection is called Ovation 3, Ovation 4 and soon Ovation 5. Outdura fabrics are made in the USA and purchased by the yard through authorized Outdura fabric distributers.
Tempotest fabrics are also solution dyed acylics with a 6 year warranty.
Tempotest is made in ITALY but stocked and ready ship from a distributor in the USA.
Can I provide my own outdoor fabric for my custom outdoor cushions?
Yes you can. We call this COM fabric or Customers Own Material. Many times customers choose to buy their outdoor fabrics from a specialty distributor such as Thibault, Perennials, Schumacher, to name a few. Just make sure you bring enough fabric for your project. Contact us and we can help you determine how much fabric to order. If you are shipping your COM fabric direct to us, make sure the fabric has your name as a side mark. It's important that you contact us to let us know the fabric is shipping direct to us.
Should I bring or send my old cushions to use as a pattern?
YES - that is the best way to make sure we make your new outdoor replacement cushions correctly. If you are local in the Dallas, Fort Worth metroplex, please bring your patio furniture cushions to our warehouse showroom. We don’t need ALL the cushions. Just one of each size. For example if your sofa takes the same cushions as your club chair, then just bring one club chair seat and one club chair back. OR, if your sofa has a distinctive, right, center, left configuration, then we will need all 6 pieces. If you have any questions about this, please let us know. We can walk you through it. Worse case, if you bring all the cushions and we don’t need all of them, you can take them back home
If you are outside of Texas, please check with us first regarding your custom cushion project. We might have the pattern or we can easily have you measure to create a new replacement cushion. If we absolutely need the old cushion to use as a pattern, then open up the cushion, remove the foam and fiber, tag the cushion with your name, phone and if this is a seat or back, (a general description) make sure to include detailed contact information inside the box.
Do I have to leave my old cushions behind?
Yes. We use your old cushions to use as a pattern. The cushion will be disassemble and the pattern pieces will be placed on top of the new fabric to cut and sew a new replacement cushion. WE DO NOT RETURN OLD CUSHIONS. They will be put in the trash after completion.
BYE BYE OLD PATIO FURNITURE CUSHIONS!
What if I don’t have the original cushions that came with the furniture?
Don’t worry. We can help you measure your furniture to build a new replacement cushion. First, send us a picture of your furniture. We can then walk you through the measureing process. If you live in the Dallas area, feel free to bring your furniture frame to our warehouse showroom. We are happy to measure and discuss cushion style and design with you in person.
Can you just recover my old cushions and use the old foam?
We NEVER recover old cushion foam. It’s dirty, full of “gross stuff” and unsanitary to work with. The custom cushion quote we give you includes new foam and fiber as well as fabric and labor. YUCK!!!!!
Squirrels ate my cushions, can you just repair the holes in the fabric?
Did we mention that the little darlings are on the Chair Care Patio payroll? Just kidding! Starting around Februrary, North Texas squirrels start building new nests for the upcoming baby squirrel extravaganza about to begin. They love love love the loose fiber in patio furniture cushions. They begin to rip your patio cushions to shreds and haul off this fluffy cozy foam to make sure there little ones are cozy and warm. Unfortunately, its hard to patch a hole in a cushion. Really nothing we can do. Depending on the squirrel damage, it’s likely you’ll need to make a complete new cushion.
How to deter Squirrels from eating and destroying your patio furniture cushions?
If we had the answer to this riddle of the outdoor cushion universe and could somehow see into the minds of squirrels for an answer to this question, we would be gazillionairs! There is no simple solution to keep squirrels from destroying your patio cushions.
We can, however, tell you what NOT to do!
DON”T put dryer sheets inside of your patio cushions. The chemicals on the dryer sheet is oiy and will stain your cushion fabric.
DON’T spray your patio cushions with any kind of critter repellent. Doesn’t work and will again leave a residue on your patio cushions. And YUCK! Who wants to sit on those toxic chemicals. If you have a critter deterent that is sold at hardware stores, spray it AROUND your furniture, not on your furniture. Also spray around your patio area to keep them away from the furntiure.
Should I cover my patio furniture to keep squirrels away?
In all honesty, those little furry beasties are pretty sneaky and can easily shimmy up under the cover and have a nice lovely afternoon protected from the elements to munch away at your patio cushions. You can cover if you like, but if the Mr. Squirrely is desperate, he or she will find a way. As the owner of Chair Care Patio, I can say that I have never had squirrel damage to any of my cushions. I also have several bird feeders going and the squirrels seem more interested in the bird seed that cushion destruction. Just a thought.
Do you only make patio furntiure replacement cushions for certain manufacturers?
Heck no! We can make replacement cushions for any outdoor patio furniture manufacturer inlcuding.
Agio USA, Alfresco Home, Barlow Tyrie, Brown Jordan, Castelle by Tropitone, Century Furniture, DEDON, Ebel, Gensun, Gloster, Hanamint – Alumont, Homecrest, JANUS et Cie, Jenson Outdoor, Kettler International, Kannoa. Kingsley Bate, Lane Venture, Lloyd Flanders, Mallin Casual Furniture, North Cape, OW LEE, Patio Renaissance, Pavillion Furniture. Polywood Furniture, Ratana Furniture, Seaside Casual, Summer Classics, Sunset West, Telescope, Treasure Garden, Tropitone, Winston, Woodard, Frontgate, Ballard designs, Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn to name a few.
We can also make replacement cushions for outdoor patio furniture purchased at Lowes, Home Depot, Sam's Club, Costco and BJ's.
Contact us with your custom cushion project and we make new replacement cushions for your outdoor patio furniture.