A garden bench looks unfinished without a cushion and sloppy with the wrong one. The pad that keeps sliding forward was usually ordered as three chair cushions on a plank that wanted one rectangle.
One cushion, the length of the seat
Measure arm to arm (or end to end if there are no arms) and front to back on the slats. One boxed cushion with welting looks like furniture. Three squares look like a waiting room.
If the bench tapers, give front and back widths. Window seats are the same problem with a wall behind them — still one rectangle, still measured on the box, not on a quilt.
Thickness and fill
A 2-inch pad is a dining leftover. Most outdoor benches want 3–4 inches. Use densified fiber or reticulated foam so a rainstorm is not a sponge. Ties or a non-slip underside help on slick teak; a snug width helps more.
Fabric
Benches live in the open. Solution-dyed acrylic. A stripe down the length makes a long pad look intentional. A busy print on 60 inches of bench is a lot of print.
Design a bench cushion in the designer or start from custom bench cushions. We sew them in Griffin to the length you typed — not to a “standard 48-inch” that is never your bench.
