AT,
I recently purchased a Natuzzi sectional. It's lovely. Low to the ground, curved corners and a tailored, buttonless, tufted seat with a low back. BUT. It's filled with down. Loved it in the store. Now that it's getting some love everytime I lay down on it I get poked and scratched by the feathers! This was my first really special furniture purchase and now I am bumbed about the fill. Is there anything people do to minimize the down pokey-ness? Will this wear in and mellow out?. . .
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Unfortunately, I don't have a solution, but I had to add that recently, my boyfriend had a little dot of irritation on his arm for a couple months. The other day, he got tweezers, wondering if it was a splinter, and pulled out a feather! From our sofa!?!?
So, I'd like to hear any advice too. :)
It's a shame, I'm sure you paid a good price, but down/feathers only emerge when they haven't been put into a tight enough weave fabric (in the industry it's called 'downproof ticking' and it's simply a tightly woven cotton). If you purchased it recently, I'd consult with the store. If you need to resolve this on your own, I'd take a good look at the cushions, open them up and see if they're inside a pillow form. If they are, it simply wasn't made out of a heavy enough cotton to do the job properly, and any seamstress or upholsterer could make new covers for those of downproof ticking (then simply restuff inside the upholstery fabric and you're done). However if it's loose floating down and feathers (I'd be surprised because modern upholstery usually uses some fabric to contain it), then you'd want to take it to someone who makes custom down cushions and bedding (because once this stuff starts floating around it's almost impossible to recapture). I used a place in SF on Folsom, I think, down near 4th Street. They've made a number of custom sofa cushions, floor cushions, and down comforters for me and done an excellent job. I just can't recall their name, it was something cute like Dreams or Feathers, it's been a few years since I used them but they regularly cleaned my down comforters and restuffed them.
Hope that helps, good luck!
There have been a rash of "down" products advertised, which when you read the fine print are actually a percentage of down and FEATHERS.
I'd imagine if you feel poking, yours has feathers mixed in. Decent quality 100% down doesn't poke.
I have a fabric sofa with a similar problem... well, not poking, but shedding feathers/down.
Get a thin layer of foam and wrap the interior of the cushions. This should help. You're still sitting on a down cushion, just a wrapped one.
good suggestions. i would amend valerie's suggestion, changing her foam wrap to poly batting. no pesky feathers can get thru that and it's not as firm as foam.
If the back pillows are near to the size of bedroom pillows, you could purchase the zippered pillow cases they sell for blocking dust mites (ie for allergies). Walmart has them for pretty cheap, around five dollars? A lot of department stores are carrying them as well now.
They are fabric-ey, not plastic-ey and even if your pillows are slightly smaller, they could easily moosh in.
It will keep the feathers in, anyways. An extra layer of poly batting would also pad any tips near the surface.
Oh fewie! Thanks for the comments. I will try a couple of them and see what will work best as well as calling the store I purchased it from. (As well as look deeper into my big furniture buys.) Thanks AT!