Choosing a bean bag - Comfort
Posted by karen | Filed under Design & Manufacture, General News
Happy new year! Let’s take this opportunity to finish our mini-series on how to choose the ideal bean bag.
Comfort
Most bean bags will provide a casual, comfortable seat or somewhere to perch for a cup of coffee, a laid back half hour in front of the TV or curled up with a good book.
However, in order to get the best or the most comfortable option for you, we would highly recommend speaking to your seller before purchasing. Our friendly customer service team will help you answer questions like:
- - size & height of the person who is predominantly using the beanbag
- - the way it will be used (eg. TV, reading, gaming)
- - the position / size in the room
As a rule of thumb, bigger is always better! If you want to use the beanbag to sit in for several hours at a time, a larger size will give you more support and more room to manoeuvre.
As bean bags have developed, a bean bag can offer many more seating positions than they originally did. For example:
The gaming bean bag sits you lower to the floor, but provides loads of back and neck support.
A Whopper huge bean bag sits you higher up off the ground, but its traditional bean bag shape means you can move the beans around to get into your ‘bum groove!’
A Bazaar Bag gives you loads of scope for a variety of positions, for lounging flat out to sitting in a ‘canoe shape’ with loads of back support.
Finally our more structured sofa bean bags act like more traditional furniture with armrests and a comfortable seat.
NOTE a quick tip from the experts - if a bean bag may feels initially uncomfortable it could have too many beans in it! Therefore just let a few out and keep them in a safe place to top up the beanbag at some point in the future and you will usually find a much more comfortable seat.
Over time polystyrene beads will compress or flatten, therefore top ups/refills can be a fantastic way to rejuvenate what is likely to have become your favourite seat. Check out bean bag refills for very reasonably priced top ups.
Tags: Bean Bags, design, fabric, manufacture, quality
Choosing a bean bag - Style
Posted by karen | Filed under Design & Manufacture, General News, Interior Trends
In Part 3 of our guide to choosing a bean bag, we look at style.
Style
Style is about great design and quality workmanship as well as personal choice.
Bean Bag Photography
It can be difficult to discern size and shape when buying online from a photograph. But a very good rule of thumb to follow is that the more effort a company spends on how their website looks, and how well the product is photographed, the better the product will be.
Also look for the size, number and quality of images it shows. If a company is trying hard to show you every colour option without resorting to crude image manipulation techniques as well as pictures with different sized models, it is probably trying to tell you that they are very proud of their products.
Branding
Branding makes a difference too; for example, the bold labelling on the Bazaar Bag really gives the product a strong sense of personality. Also keep an eye out for company branding on the beanbag - this will often tell you if the company manufactures the product themselves or whether they are a reseller. There is nothing wrong with resellers, most retailers are in fact resellers - just bear in mind that a reseller will be looking to double their money on a sale and this is the reason that resold products are often more expensive. Our philosophy is the if we can offer good quality branded products that we make ourselves this provides the customer with the best possible value without compromising style.
Attention to detail
Style, of course, can mean different things to different people but attention to detail catches the eye and enhances the desirability of a product. Features like a double row of parallel stitching down each seam on products like the gaming bean bag really set it off, as does piped seams or panelling on the large sofa bean bags. These features show that the bean bag is a statement piece of furniture in its own right and fills a living space with just as much style as structured furniture. Bold splashes of colour can also create the same effect - making the humble bean bag a centrepiece of the room.
Fit for purpose
Good design means that not only does the bean bag look good when in use, it often retains an attractive shape when it is not being sat in. A good example is the gaming bean bag that looks great with or without a person giving its distinctive shape. Our furniture range also retains an attractive and purposeful finish regardless of whether there is someone sat on the products or not.
BeanBagBazaar standards
We work to the maxim, that we only design and sell bean bags we would be happy to have in our own home or garden. Our standards seem to have struck a chord with our customers based on the feedback we receive.
Tags: Bean Bags, design, manufacture, quality, style
Choosing a bean bag - Fabric
Posted by karen | Filed under Design & Manufacture, General News, Interior Trends
Further to our blog post earlier this week on bean bag quality, we thought an in-depth guide to choosing the perfect bean bag might be useful to our customers. This time we look at choosing the right bean bag fabric.
Bean bag fabric
What fabric should I choose?
As we mentioned in our last post, the most popular fabric for bean bags are faux leather, woven polyester, or faux suede with cotton also making an appearance.
Faux Leather Bean Bags
Try to choose a faux leather that looks pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing. A good faux leather has a woven (slightly hairy) backing which is often a grey colour. This is the fabric that we use at BeanBagBazaar and it is exactly the same as is used in the making of good quality upholstered furniture or in faux leather seats of executive motor cars. It costs roughly twice the price as a ‘cheap and nasty’ faux leather! Cheaper faux leathers have a plastic, almost shiny, look to them and a thin white knitted backing. They are consequently much less attractive and less hardwearing.
Woven Polyester (Outdoor) Bean Bags
This fabric is water resistant and great for outdoor use. Unfortunately woven polyester is not totally waterproof (despite any claims to the contrary) but it’s properties mean that it is great for barbeques and outside use, and it’s crisp fabric and lines means that the bean bags hold their shape very well.
It is broadly available in two grades of thickness; a heavy-weight weave that tends to be used in the production of tents and awnings (be aware that this can be quite rough and uncomfortable on the skin if you plan to sunbathe on your bean bag!). Most UK companies use a softer and thinner polyester which is still very strong but kinder on the skin. The vast majority of this fabric comes from the same supply source so you can be very confident that you are comparing like for like when shopping around for the best deals.
Faux Suede Bean Bags
Faux suede is the most expensive of the popular fabrics but is still very popular for home furnishings. The benefits of a good quality faux suede are that the pile lasts forever and doesn’t flatten and although the fabric is washable at low temperatures, the better quality fabric simply brushes clean. We recently supplied a number of bean bags for a big society wedding and they were left out overnight in wet grass, and we were amazed that after they dried and were given a quick brush they looked as good as new.
Cotton bean bags
100% cotton is also a popular bean bag choice particularly for children as the fabric can be washed! It is kind on your skin and can even come in organic varieties, which may appeal to some customers. The thing to note on cotton bean bags is that often the shape of the bean bag can be lost, so cotton is usually only suitable for the classically shaped round bean bags.
Tags: Bean Bags, design, fabric, manufacture, quality
Choosing a bean bag - Quality
Posted by karen | Filed under Design & Manufacture, General News
We thought we’d do an in-depth guide to choosing bean bags out of the millions of options out there. This will make it easier for you to select the right bean bag for you and your family. BeanBagBazaar believes the perfect bean bag is a combination of quality, style, safety, comfort and most importantly value for money.
PART 1: Bean bag quality
What makes a quality bean bag and why is it important?
Fabric
First and foremost is fabric. Traditionally bean bags were made from cotton or denim however, these fabrics have been overtaken by others that are harder wearing and wipe clean thus avoiding the need to empty the bean bag to wash it.
The most popular fabrics are faux leather, woven polyester suitable for outdoor use, or faux suede. See our guide on choosing the right bean bag fabric coming up later this week.
Seams and Manufacture
The next element of quality is the stitching of the bean bags because there is nothing worse than a bean bags splitting and showering beans all over your home. Without getting too technical the strength of the thread and the distance between the stitching is very important.
The number of times a seam is sewn is the most useful element of keeping the beans safely inside your bean bag and this is something you can easily check by speaking to potential sellers when shopping around. At the very least, all seams should be flat stitched together and the two edges of the fabric inside the beanbag should also be overlocked together. At BeanBagBazaar we go further than this (although each product is manufactured to its own specification) many have an additional row of over stitching for strength and style. Our larger products have decorative panelling or piping and the Bazaar Bag is sewn four times (!) around its perimeter so it looks fantastic and is “bomb proof”.
It really is worth understanding how your bean bag is made as the cost of manufacture is a major part of the cost of the product so make sure the product you choose is made to the highest standard so it will last longer and look better.
Inner Lining
People often ask about an inner lining for bean bags because they (very sensibly) think this will safely contain the beans and it will easier to empty the product for washing. The reality is that with modern day structured bean bags is that most are wipe clean and don’t need washing. Therefore often an inner lining actually stops the beans freely moving round inside the bag to perfectly fit the contours of your body. Instead, good stitching means that you can be safe in the knowledge that your bean bag is secure without compromising your comfort.
The exceptions to this rule are sofa or lounger style bean bags which are basically big slabs beans. So to make sure that the beans don’t all get stuck up in one end of the bag we encase them in three stretchy nets which help to plump up your bed-style-beanbag as well as significantly improving the comfort. As well as being very comfortable this netting is also expensive, so make sure you really are getting added value with your sofa bean bag.
Zips and bits and pieces
Two other points to consider are zips and breather eyelets. Any top quality beanbag should have two zips - in particular, an inner zip that seals up a pocket inside the beanbag to provide extra security for the beans if little fingers manage to undo the outer zip. Also check that the outer zip slider can be tucked under when it is closed, this small but important bit of detail will stop kids exploring and save the slider from catching on fabrics or scratching wood or tiled floors. Breather eyelets should be small and unobtrusive and are basically mesh covered metal rivets that allow the air to flow gently out of the bean bag as it is sat in. This ensures it moulds perfectly to the contours of your body while taking the pressure off the seams where the air would otherwise escape.
Next time we’ll review the ideal fabric selection for bean bags.
Tags: Bean Bags, design, fabric, manufacture, quality
