Guess What These DIY Cushions Are Made From?

In this week's AT Boston House Tour (Two Friends Create a Blended Home), we revealed Sarah and Megan's lovely, homey apartment which they decorated and furnished almost entirely with trash finds and secondhand treasures. But Sarah really wowed us with her DIY floor cushions and bolster cushion filled with...

Her old futon stuffing! Once the futon had lived its full and useful life as a bed, Sarah decided to keep it alive by chopping and cutting it up to make more bite-size futon cushions. And she reports that strung together and covered with layers of blankets, they make a perfectly comfortable guest bed. Brilliant! How else could you store a guest bed in a such a usable arrangement. The pillows are employed constantly as additional seating in their living room.

Do you have any surprising materials that you've used to fill pillows and cushions?

Comments (16)

Great repurposing for what was probably a saggy unpleasant looking futon (I haven't found a futon I didn't hate!).

If we threw away every upholstered piece of furniture that had dust mites living in it, there'd be nothing left to sit on. Sorry, but the alarming reality for some people is that your stuff is contaminated and there's nothing you can do about it.

If there wasn't bugs on it in the first place, then why would there be now? Is it simply that reusing something automatically turns it into a possibility for infestation?

Anyways, they look cute but I imagine it took effort to cut the thing up!

Wow super great way to use the futon. I wish I had thought about that before I got rid of my old futon. Great Idea.

From the photo it looks like these people have reasonably good hygiene. I don't think we need to go bug crazy here

The body bag leaning against the wall is colorful...
don't like that it appears to be full, though. ..

Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger. If you don't have extreme allergies, who cares about mites? Our environments, ourselves, microscopic critters--we are the world.

my problem is i am just plain getting too old to sit comfortably on the floor for very long.. though they do look cute in a stack

I have to say that some people's initial thought of mites and bugs is something I agree with. Pillows should be replaced every 2 years(Having a friend who works for the CDC is pretty cool)... I couldn't imagine what kind of yucky unhealthy stuff a futon filling should hold after its been worn enough to warrant cutting apart.

Here's the truth:

Dust mites are everywhere in your home - on every soft surface. Why should pillows be replaced every two years, when couches and soft chairs and mattresses shouldn't? The level of "contamination" is the same on all those things. Rugs, too.

Americans have a strange obsession with faux sterility in their homes. Throwing out pillows after two years may give you better neck support, but the new pillows you bring in will be "reinfested" within a day or two by whatever is living in your mattress and comforter. The notion that you've created a safer environment for yourself by tossing perfectly good pillows (or futons) isn't born out by research. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the pillow companies are the ones who encourage the pillow-tossing.

Dust mites have been hanging out in soft bedding since humans invented soft bedding. Just because we have electron microscopes now and can take their ugly little photographs doesn't mean we're suddenly living in plague conditions. A 3-year-old mattress, owned by a normally sanitary person, is perfectly safe for human use. So is a 3-year-old futon, rug, or pillow. Four years? Fine. Five years? Yup. What's the magic age when a mattress suddenly becomes a killing machine? I'd say it doesn't exist.

Next lesson: the innumerable bacteria that reside on a healthy person's skin, and why it's silly to try to kill them.

Science Teacher Mary

You can wash both pillows and pilllow/futon stuffing, then dry them on high heat to kill the bugs. "Problem" solved.

TIP: If you're going to be drying a bunch of pillows, I recommend using a large dryer from a laundromat and throwing in a few (clean) tennis balls to help them fluff up nicely. Clean pillows smell fabulous!

Mary B C - thank you for that. I don't understand this obsession, either. In fact, I think a bit of exposure to some allergens and germs is good for you - you develop an immunity. I used to be allergic to dust mites, and kept my house paranoidly spotless. Then I caught mono and couldn't keep up with it. Guess what? I seem to have an immunity to dust mites now.

Thank you Mary B C, I agree too that we don't need to live in germaphobe world!

Love that rug- where can I find one?

So growing up and not replacing my pillows every 2 years, means my house is now contaminated? What ever happened to hanging your bedding out in the sun on a regular basis? It kills the mites and makes them all nice. If the owners are concerned, just throw them out in the sun for a few hours.