Keeping Water From Pooling Patio Furniture Cover — Case Study

Guy found us through the contact form on a Saturday afternoon. He had photos ready and knew what he wanted quoting, as is the way many enquiries start.

The back of the sofa bows outwards. The end section curves round on itself. A straight-sided cover would have hung off it in folds, and folds are where rain collects.

Guy was clear about three things from the start. The cushions stay in. The legs stay showing, so the cover can be strapped underneath. And it should sit snug, not loose — his garden is windy.

Widths and depths describe a box. Guy's sofa is not a box — the back bows out past the frame, and we needed to know by how much.

So John sent over a guide we provide to help with measuring of curved-back sofas and chairs — it sets out the three important measurements we need and how to take them.

The guide uses a wall as the straight edge. Guy's sofa sits out on the patio, so he improvised — he stood a broom handle upright against the widest point of the curve instead.

A broom handle gives the same straight vertical line to measure from as a wall does. From there it is a simple measurement, the base of the broom to the sofa leg. Guy marked 13 cm on the front of his drawing and 23 cm on the back.

In return Guy sent a hand-drawn sketch with every dimension marked on it. He went to more trouble than most in this respect — plenty of people start with a back-of-a-napkin sketch, as Jorden did on his outdoor kitchen cover project.

Either way works — a scaled drawing or a rough sketch. With the sketch and the measurements in front of him, John had everything he needed to draw the cover up properly.

Guy had been clear from the start that the cover had to go on with the cushions left in place. That changes the height and the depth, so John needed one more number before he could quote.

One rule gets repeated at every stage, because it is the one people get wrong. Send us the exact size of the furniture. Do not add anything for slack — we add a 25 mm tolerance ourselves, and a cover measured tight is a cover that sheds water instead of holding it.

Guy sent the cushion depth back, and with it shared a concern most people are thinking at this point but often do not say.

Worrying about fit is fair enough. A made-to-measure cover is not a cheap thing to get wrong, and Guy had no way of knowing whether his numbers really described his sofa.

Getting the shape right is our job, not the customer's. It is why every cover is drawn up first through our free design service, and why the finished cover comes with a guarantee that it fits first time.

So that was the next step. John put the drawings together, so Guy could see the cover before he committed to it.

John turned the sketch into a four-page set of scaled diagrams: the cover in three dimensions, then front, side and rear views with every number on them.

One measurement was still missing. Rather than assume it, he marked the drawing with a red question mark. A question on paper costs nothing. A guess in the fabric costs a cover.

Guy came back later the same day.

Three weeks went by before the next email. This is not uncommon, and quite often it is a good sign. The numbers are worth an hour of anyone's time, and most people would rather sit down and go through them properly than fire them off and hope.

Guy used the May bank holiday to do exactly that. He measured the whole sofa again and came back on the diagrams, this time holding the tape tight to the furniture and adding nothing for slack, because we add the 25 mm ourselves.

Every figure came down. 230 became 227. 215 became 211. 94 became 91, and 78 became 75.

Then he chose his own fixings. We had proposed elasticated corners; he wanted square corners, because they look neater. Instead he asked for six snap buckles, three a side, with the middle one set slightly off centre to land between the seats.

By this point Guy and John had been at it for the best part of a month, and none of it had cost Guy a penny. The design work is free and carries no obligation — people go through the whole process, decide not to order, and that is fine.

What it buys is confidence. Guy could now see exactly what he would be getting, so John sent the payment link, along with one last thing to confirm.

Guy paid first thing the following morning.

With the order in, John sent the production diagrams across for approval. These are the drawings the factory works from, so nothing is cut until the customer has signed them off via our design approval portal.

Guy came back with some final bits of feedback.

One more round of tweaks. John redrew it and reissued the set within three minutes, and Guy approved the corrected diagrams late that evening. Only then did anything get cut.

Guy's cover was delivered in late May. It went straight on over the cushions, first time — no alterations, and no adjustments to the pattern.

The cover is PVCArmour 550gsm in beige: a heavy PVC-coated fabric made for permanent outdoor use, warranted for five years.

Confident enough in the process by then, he had also put in a second order: a cover for his coffee table, measured and drawn exactly the same way.

Nobody asked him to. A few weeks after the second cover arrived, Guy left a five-star review on the site.

Two covers, cut to shapes that exist in the back garden of one house. Both fitted first time.

That is what the free design service is for. Drawings put the customer, our design team and the factory in front of the same cover, so problems get spotted and mistakes get caught long before anything is cut. It is also why we can offer a first-time fit guarantee and mean it.

If your furniture is an awkward shape, send photos and whatever measurements you have. We will draw it and send you scaled diagrams. Nothing is cut until you have approved every detail, and if it does not fit when it arrives, we remake it free. Get your custom outdoor sofa cover.