Your Questions Answered: French Mattress Cushions

Read the sizing notes before the shopping list. Scale is the part that is hard to return. In this post: French mattress cushions are a polished alternative to standard cushions that can be used for window seats, daybeds, and benches. I'm sharing pics of our new window seat cushion along with the sources I found for buying your own!

One of the little details of our previous home that made me fall in love with it is the large bay window seat in the living room. Such a perfect spot for curling up in a blanket with a bunch of pillows and reading a book! But the super thin cushion that came with our house had to go! In order to create the polished, comfy window seat that I'd pictured in my mind, I thought that a french mattress cushion would be perfect!

I think the first time I saw one (actually three!) was in Lauren Liess' to-die-for window seat from the 2011 DC Design House and I totally fell in love:

Lauren Liess

Lauren Liess

French mattress cushions simply couldn't be more inviting! Today I'm answering the questions that so many of you have had about French mattress cushions but first I'll show you a little “before” and “after” of mine. (post includes affiliate links – full disclosure statement available {here})

Here's what the our living room window seat looked like when we first bought the house:

And here's it's new look with a French mattress cushion (and a paint job and drapes too!):

It was definitely the go-to spot in our house for naps and book reading, especially during the time of your when that finished rhododendron bloomed outside! The view outside in the winter was finished too:

Our Boston terrier Hope absolutely loved the bird's eye view it gave her and would beg to come up the second anyone sat down in it. I sure miss that sweet face!

What is a French Mattress Cushion?

The style of this finished type of cushion originates with the French who created their actual mattresses this way. The most noticeable differences between a French mattress cushion and a regular cushion are the polished rolled edges of the cushion and the button-less tufting on top of it. They also tend to be taller in height than your typical cushion. They're often used in window seats but The household has also seen polished french mattress cushions on daybeds, benches, and even couches.

Where Do I Buy French Mattress Cushions?

I wasn't sure where to buy a French mattress cushion when I first decided to get one so I had to do some searching and found that there is a HUGE range in prices. There is a lot of hand stitching involved so it's quite labor intensive and they definitely run higher in prices than typical cushions. At the highest end of the price range, you can buy true hand-rolled edge French style mattresses from certain companies specializing in custom mattresses. I contacted one such company (Charles H. Beckley in NYC) for more information and a price quote and they graciously sent me this photo example of their product:Striking! I have no doubt that their craftsmanship is impeccable and the mattress would have been notable, but unfortunately it was out of my budget (over $2500 not including fabric). If you're looking for the best of the best though, this is it!My next step was to call around to several upholsterers – most of them had no idea what I was talking about when asking about a French mattress style cushion but I finally found that Calico Corners makes them using foam as the base (which is the more typical, less expensive way to go). My quote from them wasn't cheap either (over $1,000 not including fabric) so I kept looking and finally a local fabric shop gave me the name of a wonderful woman who specializes in making cushions. She had never heard of a French mattress style cushion before but she was willing to give it a try and did a fabulous job! To cut down on costs, she reused the foam from our old cushion and doubled wrap it in Dacron. So if you want to buy locally, call fabric shops and local upholsterers and cushion makers and get a few quotes.There are also online options for having a French mattress cushion made. {This Etsy shop} has thousands of glowing reviews for their work creating typical cushions plus French mattress cushions too! Also look at {this Belgium Etsy shop} that ships to the US.And while my window seat was an odd size so my cushion needed to be custom made, there are a few polished ready-made French mattress-style cushions and you may just be lucky enough that one of them fits the size that you need. Pottery Barn, makes a 75″ long Upholstered Daybed Mattress (found {here} that's really pretty:

And Urban Outfitters has an overstuffed French mattress cushion in four colors (including this dark gray) that you can find {here}:

And if you love the look but want something more small scale, look at {these highly rated tufted floor pillows}.

So what are your thoughts on French mattress style cushions – do they have your heart too?!