We love Ikea because no other furniture company is so creative and has so much furniture with soul and style. And of course, we have lots of cabinets and other furnishings from Ikea, even if some people think that they may not be built so insanely stable. As a counterexample you may consider our old and great “Sundborn” sofa, which lasted really long, was very comfortable and in which you also sat nicely upright. Unfortunately, it actually gave up it’s ghost a few years ago, and after some seating-tests, we finally decided to buy the current baseline model “Ektorp” from Ikea.

But after about a year, the frequently used seats of the Ektorp sagged, and the back cushions were somehow not really comfortable – you slipped deeper and deeper and they also looked constantly crumpled, even if you had shaken them up just before.

It couldn’t go on like this! There had to be ways to stabilize such a sagging seat, and to get rid of the crumpled pads. So we looked around the Internet for old upholstery knowledge and also found what we were looking for: In the past, the spring core of elaborate armchairs and sofas was held in place and protected from overloading by means of a binding technique with stable hemp cords. This technique is apparently the most stable and durable of all, and besides, didn’t look very difficult.

A look below the Ektorp showed the problem of sitting through and how it could be solved by cords: The zig zag springs under the foam are not connected and are therefore all individually loaded when sitting on it. If they were to be connected to each other, then there would be no overloading at a point load of a spring, because the force would be distributed over all the springs of a seat.

So we have ordered at Polstereibedarf-Online a linen cord specifically made for this and also a few foam cushions 50 x 30 x 3 cm³ for padding the backrests.

The following pictures show how we knotted the cords between the zig zag springs and attached them to the wooden frame by means of sturdy nails. In fact, the sagging has been gone since then! Furthermore, we’ve cut through the foam mats once (i.e. to the format 25 x 50 x 3 cm³) and put them in the back cushions behind the existing filling. And rather in the lower area, i.e. where the existing pads do not really fit properly on the back and do not absorb any pressure. As a result, the backrests in the lumbar region are now much more comfortable and you do not slip down like that. In addition, the pads are more upright and look better.

This was a cheap and very effective padding!