How to Replace Outdoor Furniture Cushions and Refresh Your Porch or Patio

If your outdoor furniture cushions are looking a little tired, faded, sagging, or just not as comfortable as they used to be, it might be time for an upgrade. Replacing cushions is one of the easiest ways to give your porch, patio, or outdoor space an instant refresh, and the results can completely transform the space.

We recently ordered new cushions for the sectional sofa on our front porch, and the difference is amazing. The porch is the place we use almost every day from spring through fall. It’s where we have morning coffee, read in the afternoon, and have evening drinks and appetizers with family and friends. 

With so much use for a good part of the year, our cushions had begun to fade, sag, and lose their comfort, not to mention the squirrels had gotten to a few of the cushions before we started covering them every night.

Since we spend so much time on our porch, we wanted new outdoor cushions that are durable and look good. So we turned to Patio Lane for help. They assisted with the measurements, walked us through fabric options, and made the process incredibly easy. The result? Beautiful, high-quality cushions and outdoor pillows that make our porch look and feel like new again.

We’ve relied on Patio Lane for years. They also made our seat cushion for the custom DIY corner banquette that we built, as well as the cushion for our window seat in our cozy attic space. We know we can count on them to do it right.

Using the Patio Lane cushion builder

Patio Lane has taken out a lot of the guesswork for ordering cushions online. Here’s a link to the Cushion Builder tool, along with another link to a short video on how to use it.

The Cushion Builder tool helps you select the right kind of seat and back cushions, the right kind of filler for the cushions, and the right fabric to fit your needs and current furniture.

Old cushions vs. new cushions

Here’s how the Cushion Builder tool works

1. Select the cushion type you need (seat and back cushions)
2. Select the number of seat and back cushions you need
3. Select your cushion shape (rectangular/square or isosceles trapezoid)
4. Select how you want your cushions to be connected (not connected, hinged, or pinched)
5. Provide measurements for the seat cushion depth, width, and thickness you want
6. Provide measurements for the back cushion height and thickness
7. Select the type of foam you’d like in your cushions (you can buy just the cover only if you’re reusing your existing cushioning – we needed new foam for ours as our current foam had compressed and lost its comfort)
8. Select your fabric and type from the large Sunbrella fabric selection provided in the Cushion Builder tool (you can use the filter to look at all the options)
9. Decide if you’d like welting or no welting (our old cushions had welting, but for the new cushions we went with no welting and they look great!)
10. Determine if you want ties or not for your cushions (since we cover our furniture every night now, we opted for no ties)
11. Review your order and make sure you’re getting what you want.
12. The tool automatically calculates the price of your order based on your choices, and if you’re satisfied, add it to your checkout cart

Note: Patio Lane offers free shipping on all orders over $150.

If, at any point, you’re unsure about measuring or ordering correctly, Patio Lane offers a call service to walk you through the steps. We weren’t certain about the trapezoid back we needed for a specific section, so we set up a FaceTime call, showed them how we did the calculations, made the necessary adjustments, and then placed the order. And a couple of weeks later, our new cushions arrived.

If you’ve been thinking about refreshing your outdoor space, new cushions and fabric are such an easy way to make it feel new again. We couldn’t be happier with how ours turned out, and working with Patio Lane made the entire process simple from start to finish. They helped with measurements, fabric choices, and made sure everything fit perfectly.

If your outdoor furniture needs a little attention, I can’t recommend Patio Lane enough for beautiful, durable cushions that truly transform a space.

A few things to consider when buying cushions for outdoor furniture

Comfort, durability, and longevity are the key factors, in my opinion, when selecting the right cushions for your outdoor furniture. Here are a few things to look for:

• If your cushions get a lot of sun, you’ll want to find a UV-resistant fabric to reduce the amount of fading the fabric will experience when it’s in direct sunlight.
• Fabric that is water repellent is also important. This helps prevent mildew and mold build-up.
• Should your cushions get wet from an unexpected storm that blows through, you’ll want cushions that drain and dry fairly quickly. So be sure to look for high-quality foam engineered to drain quickly.
• A cushion with high-quality foam and fill can significantly add to the comfort and longevity of your cushions. In addition to being more comfortable, it won’t flatten or sag nearly as quickly as a low-quality filler will.
• Also look for good quality, stain-resistant fabric. Outdoor furniture is usually in a very casual setting where spills can occur more often than in a more formal setting. That’s where stain-resistant fabric helps.
• When not in use, keep your outdoor seating covered. We learned the hard way, and one night, the squirrels ripped through the cushions and took away much of the filler. We bought these covers for our outdoor furniture on the porch and the back patio. We haven’t had a problem since keeping them covered overnight or when we’re not on the porch. It’s a bit of a hassle, but better than the alternative.

If you’re interested in ordering cushions from Patio Lane, you can use the coupon code MOSTLOVELY10 to get 10% off your order.