Seating: sheepskins, seat pads and cushions

Three ways to soften a seat

Most chairs in a house were not built to be sat in for three hours. A dining chair is sized for posture, a kitchen stool for height, a window seat for the window. Comfort is added afterwards, and there are three ways to add it.

A seat pad sits on the seat and stays there. It is the one piece designed for the job: cut to the seat, flat enough that the chair still tucks under the table, and either bare-backed so it drapes over the edge, or padded so it lifts a hard seat by an inch or two.

A cushion supports the part of you that leans. On a sofa or a deep armchair the seat is already soft; what is missing is something behind the small of the back, or under an elbow. A cushion moves around the room with whoever picks it up, which is the point of it.

A sheepskin does neither precisely and both loosely. Thrown over the back of an armchair, folded along a bench, laid across a window seat, it covers a whole piece of furniture rather than one seat. It is the least fitted of the three and the most forgiving - a single skin will take the shape of whatever it is put on.

The short version: pad a hard seat, cushion a soft one, drape the rest.

At a glance

	Seat pad	Cushion	Draped sheepskin
Best on	Dining chairs, stools, benches, desk chairs	Sofas, deep armchairs, beds, window seats	Armchair backs, benches, reading chairs, ends of beds
Fits	Cut to the seat - 40 x 40cm square or circular	Standard 40–45cm cushion covers	Nothing precisely; takes the shape of the furniture
Padded	Optional - bare skin drapes, padded lifts	Yes, filled	No
Stays put	Yes, backed base grips the seat	Moves with whoever sits down	Needs resettling after use
Wool	NZ long wool, shearling or Tibetan	NZ long wool, shearling, Icelandic or Tibetan	Long wool, the full skin
H&H from	£39	£69	£79

Sheepskins over seating

A whole skin is the oldest answer to an uncomfortable chair, and still the most adaptable. It has no fixed orientation: the neck end over the back of an armchair with the body of the skin falling into the seat, the long edge run along a bench, the whole thing folded in half on a window seat so the wool sits double.

Size is the only real decision. A single skin covers one seat and most of one chair back. A double, two skins joined along the spine, runs the length of a two-seater bench or a sofa back without a break in the wool - which matters, because a joined seam is the thing the eye finds first.

Two habits make draped sheepskin look deliberate rather than dropped:

1. Let one edge hang lower than the other. A skin squared up to the furniture reads as a cover; an asymmetric fall reads as a skin.
2. Work the wool back up with your fingers along the fold line after it has been sat on. Long wool holds a crease where it has been compressed, and the crease is what makes it look tired.

Long wool suits backs and benches, where the pile is seen side-on and length is the whole appeal. For a seat that gets daily use, shearling (shorter, denser wool) keeps its appearance for longer - which is where seat pads come in.

Seat pads

The seat pad is the most-used piece in the collection and the least discussed. Ours are cut square or circular at 40 x 40cm from premium New Zealand wool, sorted and matched for texture and colour by hand before cutting, so a set of four looks like a set rather than four separate skins.

Square or circular. Square suits a square or slightly tapered seat and a straight-sided chair; the corners sit into the corners. Circular suits a round stool, a bentwood chair, or any seat where the pad will be seen from several angles - the curve reads better than four corners overhanging at different depths. On a seat deeper than 42cm, square covers more of it.

Bare or padded. A bare pad is a single skin with a hardwearing backing. It drapes over the lip of the seat and moves with the chair, and it is the right choice when the seat is already upholstered or you want texture without changing the chair's proportions. A padded pad has a filled base. It raises the seat by an inch or so, flattens a chair with a dished or slatted seat, and is what makes an antique dining chair sittable through a long lunch. Padded runs £59, bare £39; the difference is almost entirely comfort rather than looks.

Across a set. Buy them together. Natural wool varies between skins, and a pad bought six months after the first four will not be a tonal match, however carefully the colour is named.

Cushions

Cushions are the piece people over-buy and under-place. Handmade in England from 100% New Zealand wool, ours come in long wool and shearling at £69, and in Tibetan at £79 - the Tibetan being the finest and most fluid of the three, a fleece that moves when you walk past it rather than holding a shape.

Four on a three-seater is the usual mistake. Two is almost always better: one at each end, where an arm actually meets the sofa, leaving the middle of the seat clear so the sofa still looks like somewhere to sit down.

If you are layering, change one thing at a time. Two cushions of the same size in different pile lengths - a dense shearling beside a long-wool - read as considered. Two of the same pile in different colours read as a pair bought together. Three variables at once reads as a shop display.

Where they earn their place:

• Sofa. One at each end, shearling for a seat that gets daily use; the shorter pile holds up to being leant on.
• Armchair. One, in the small of the back. A reading chair with a cushion behind the lumbar is a different chair.
• Bed. Long wool or Tibetan, in front of the pillows, where the pile is seen and not sat on.
• Window seat. A cushion against the glass side, so there is something between a shoulder and a cold pane.

Wool does this work in July as readily as January. A cushion's job on a sofa in summer is the same as in winter: it puts a breathable natural fibre between a person and a surface, and wool moves heat and moisture away in both directions.

How to choose

Start with the chair, not the room.

The chair	What it needs
Wooden dining chair, flat seat	Square padded seat pad
Antique or rush-seated chair	Square padded seat pad; the fill protects the seat as well as you
Bentwood or round-seat chair	Circular seat pad
Kitchen or bar stool	Circular seat pad, padded if the stool is used at length
Desk chair	Square bare pad over existing upholstery
Bench or window seat	A draped sheepskin, plus one cushion at the end
Deep armchair	A cushion in the back; a skin over the back if the chair is low
Sofa	Two cushions, one at each end

Three questions that come up most often:

Can a seat pad be used on a dining chair that tucks under the table? Yes for a bare pad, which adds almost no height. A padded pad adds an inch or so, so measure the gap between the seat and the underside of the table first.

What size seat pad fits a standard dining chair? 40 x 40cm covers the great majority of dining chair seats. On a seat narrower than 36cm the pad will overhang; on one deeper than 45cm it will leave the front edge bare, which looks intentional on a square seat and less so on a round one.

Is a sheepskin cushion the same as a seat pad? No. A cushion is filled and loose, made to be leant against; a seat pad is cut flat to a seat and stays on it. Sitting on a cushion compresses the fill and flattens the pile in a way it does not fully recover from.

Keeping them well

Sheepskin asks for very little, and most of what it asks for is air.

• Shake it out. Weekly, outdoors, holding it by the short edge. This does more for the pile than anything else.
• Brush the long wool. A wide-tooth wire brush, in the direction the wool falls, on seat pads and draped skins that get sat on. Shearling and short-pile pieces need it rarely; long wool benefits monthly.
• Spot clean only. A damp cloth, cool water, blotting rather than rubbing, then air dry away from direct heat. Heat is what stiffens the hide underneath.
• Keep it out of direct sun. Prolonged sunlight will lift the colour of a dyed skin, particularly on the darker shades.
• Dry clean by a specialist when a full clean is needed, and only by one who handles sheepskin. A standard dry clean will strip the natural oils from the hide.

A cushion cover and a seat pad get different treatment from a rug: because they are sat on rather than walked on, the compression is localised. Rotating a set of four seat pads between chairs every few months keeps them wearing evenly, in the same way a mattress is turned.