GB2156208A - Occasional furniture - Google Patents

Abstract

Occasional furniture comprises a generally tubular shell of flexible fabric, gathered around its circumference at at least one position between its ends, and generally flat ends to close said tubular shell, the interior of the shell being filled with a compressible packing, e.g. spheres of polystrene foam. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Occasional furniture The present invention is a novel construction of occasional furniture.

Furniture ofthe general type to which the invention relates is normally light and therefore easily moved, especially in a domestic setting. This type includes in particularthe conventional pouffe, which is a squat, usually rigid-sided cylinder having an upholstered seat portion, and the now popular "bean-bag", which is essentially a very loosely filled bag of resilient material able to assume a variety of supportive shapes.

It is an object ofthe present invention to provide a novel type of occasional furniture which can afford bettersupportthan a bean-bag which may be designed to be visually more attractive than either a pouffe ora bean-bag. The invention also affords a novel way of making occasional furniture which is extremely simple but gives an attractive result.

The occasional furniture ofthe present invention comprises a generally tubular shell offlexiblefabric, gathered around its circumference atat least one position between its ends, and generally flat ends to close said tubularshell, the interior of said shell being filled with a compressible packing. Thus, in its simplest form, thefurniture consists of a cylinder of fabric, closed by flat circular end-pieces, gathered around its middle and filled with compressible pack ing. In this form in particular, the furniture lends itself to very easy manufacture, by band or machine, requiring very little skill otherthan perhaps rudimentaryneedleworkskills. Manufacture on a large scale by a simple sequence of repetitive operations is readily possibie.

Thefabricofwhichthegenerallytubularshell is made may be any fabric acceptable for upholstery and/orsoftfurnishing purposes, including leather and imitation leathers possessing enough flexibility to permit gathering. Conveniently the fabric is sufficient ly close-formed to prevent loss of the interior packing and sufficiently strong to resisttearing under pressure on the interior but these characteristics may alternatively or additionally be imparted by an innersecond shell of fabric. Thus an outer, essentiaily decorative fabric shell may contain an inner, unseen functional shell offabricofdifferenttype. Such an inner shell may be wholly independent ofthe outer shell or may be secured to the outer shell if desired.Otherforms of composite structure are described hereinafter or will become apparentfrom the following description.

The generaliytu bu lar shell is closed by generallyflat ends. Such ends may comprise fabric which matches or is similarto that ofthe shell or may be different therefrom or visually contrasting therewith. The ends may be offlexible orstifffabric or may be rigid or semi-rigid. The two ends may be of identical material and design ordifferentfrom each other. Thus, for example, one end mav be reinforced and/or uphol stered to form a seat and the other end may be of hard-wearing material to form a base.

The shell is gathered at at least one position between its ends. For example, there may be one, two orthree gathered sections to produde a variety of different structures and visual effects. In many versions, the shell is gathered at a single position half-way between its ends. The gathering preferably takes the form of one or more parallel lines of stitching around the circumference of the cylinder, especially stitching using an elasticated thread. However, the gathering may be produced very simply bytying a cord or ribbon around the cylinder if this is acceptable to the user.

The structure is filled with a compressible packing.

The packing may be in the form of one or more discrete structures of inherently compressible mate rial, for example a resilient foam plastics material.

However, it is much preferredthatthe packing be particulate in character. The desired compressiblity may be inherent in the material of which the particles are made or may be afforded by relative movement among the particles. The particles may also be resilient if desired. They may be in the form of irregu lar "ch ips" of material but we prefer to use spheres, not necessarily of uniform size. A preferred suitable packing is spheres of polystyrene foam.

The fabric shell may be sealed, as by stitching, or may be designed to afford ready access to its interior by the user. For example a zip or similar closure, or dress hooks and eyes, or a hook-and-eye type fabric, may be provided so that the user may remove the packing to enable cleaning ofthe shell. A doublewalled access arrangement may be provided so that opening ofthe outer layer does not lead to immediate spilling of the packing from the shell.

One preferred embodiment of the occasional furniture according to the present invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. lisa perspective view of the embodiment; and Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the embodiment of Fig. 1 in an inverted position.

Thefurniture illustrated in the drawings is a soft seat comprising a cylindrical shell 1 of brushed nylon fabric approximately 18 inches in diameter and the same in length when in undistorted state. The ends ofthe cylindrical shell 1 are closed by fiat circular pieces of the same fabric, comprising a base end 2 and a seat end 3 respectively. The base end 2 is secured to the shell 1 at 4 by an internal line of stitching while, where the seat end 3 is secured to the shell 1 a decorative and reinforcing rib of beading 5 is incorporated in the structure.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, a short inner sock 6 offine mesh nylon fabric is secured within the shell 1 along the line 4 and is closed at its outer end by a reversed zip 7 which provides access, but with difficulty, to the interior of the seat. The sock 6 normally lies within the seat but can project, when desired, through a part diametrical slot in the base end 2, normally closed by a zip 8.

Aroundthecircumferenceoftheshell 1,atthe middle ofthe height ofthe shell, are three parallel lines of stitching 9 in elasticated thread, which gather the shell 1 into a waist and convert the cylindrical structured into a twin or "diabolo" shape.

The whole ofthe interior ofthe seat is filled with various-sized spheres of polystyrene foam (indicated generally at 10), ranging from about one eighth to aboutthree eighths of an inch in diameter. These spheres impart an overall stability to the seat struc- ture,while "giving" enough in use to affordahigh degree of comfort to the user.

If it is desired to clean the seat, by washing or dry cleaning, it is necessary only to open the zip 8, draw the sock 6 out via the slot in the base end 2 and then open the reverse zip 7 to remove the packing. The zip 7 deliberately makes access a little difficu It, to prevent accidental spillage of the packing, for example by a child.

Claims (14)

1. Occasional furniture comprising a generally tubular shell of flexible fabric, gathered around its circumference at at least one position between its ends, and generally flat ends to close said tubular shell, the interior of said shell being filled with a compressible packing.

2. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 1, having, at least in part, an inner shell of different material.

3. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 2, wherein said inner shell orpart-shell is secured to said generally tubular shell of flexible fabric.

4. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3, comprising an outertubuiarshell of decora tiveflexiblefabric and an inner shell or part-shell of nylon mesh.

5. Occasional furniture as claimed in any ofthe preceding claims, wherein the ends are offabric which matches or is similar to orthe same as the flexible fabricofsaidtubularshell.

6. Occasional furniture as claimed in any ofthe preceding claims, wherein the generallytubularshell of flexible fabric is gathered at at least two positions between its ends.

7. Occasional furniture as claimed in any ofthe preceding claims, wherein the gathering is intheform of one or more parallel lines of stitching.

8. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 7, wherein said one or more lines of stitching are of elasticated thread.

9. Occasional furniture as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the gathering is produced by tying a cord or ribbon around the generallytubularshell.

10. Occasional furniture as claimed in any ofthe preceding claims, wherein the compressible packing comprises particles of foam plastics material.

11. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 10, wherein the compressible packing material comprises spheres of polystyrene foam.

12. Occasional furniture as claimed in any ofthe preceding claims, having a closure which permits ready access to its interion

13. Occasional furniture as claimed in claim 12, having an innershell or part-shell which also has a closure permitting access to its interior.

14. Occasional furniture substantially as herein before described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.