It’s the first day of June and summer is almost here. In Michigan, the summer heat is most certainly here. A couple weeks ago, I power washed our large format paver patio and resanded the joints with polymeric sand, then sealed it with Thompson’s Water Seal. Because I had cleared all the furniture off the patio for that project, it was the perfect opportunity to rearrange our outdoor sectional sofa into a better configuration.
We purchased this outdoor sectional sofa from Amazon in 2020 when our patio and pavilion were installed (remember when everyone rediscovered their backyards during COVID??). Since then, it has driven me absolutely bananas how the cushions slide around and always end up on the ground, especially after kids and dogs sit/stand/jump on them and especially on the end of the sofa that does not have an armrest. The first year we had the set, I purchased industrial strength adhesive Velcro that is supposed to stick to hard surfaces AND fabrics. Well, it didn’t. The sides of the Velcro that were adhered to the cushions came unstuck very quickly and we just lived with it that way for two summers.
So as I feng-shui’d our patio setup and reconfigured the sectional so that both the corner seats were at each end of a long sofa, I was left with two seats without armrests. That means the cushions to those seats would basically be on the ground until the end of time unless I finally figured out a way to keep them attached to the wicker frame. Enter Google. I searched ‘how to keep patio cushions from slipping’ and found looooooots of shopping suggestions for Velcro and grip pads, as well as videos on how to poke zip ties through cushions or attach ribbon to secure them to the wicker. I had already tried the Velcro, found the grip pads too expensive to purchase for 8 cushions, didn’t want to damage the fabric, and really didn’t want to sew ribbon.
BUT! The idea of sewing ribbon to the cushions reminded me that I sometimes use hot glue in lieu of breaking out a needle and thread. I thought, ‘surely, someone has tried this and shared the results online.’ If they did, I couldn’t find it. So here I am to tell you that this is an AMAZING way to keep your patio cushions from sliding!
I used my very basic hot glue gun from Michael’s and applied a circle of glue to each corner of the wicker seat. Then I placed the cushion on top and very elegantly got on all fours to press the cushion down in each corner. It has been a couple weeks now and the cushions have remained in place beautifully!
Now, you may be worried about damaging your wicker or your cushions. If you have ever used hot glue, will know it can actually come off pretty easily depending on the surface. Since the “wicker” furniture is really some kind of plastic, the glue will pop off pretty easily when forced. As for fabric, hot glue is tougher to remove but can usually be ripped off with a little force. If you have a high end set or need to flip your cushions often, you may not want to try it—or maybe try it in one corner first. For me, it was worth a shot because that’s how much it drove me insane that the cushions were all over the place. Now when I step onto our patio to relax, I can actually relax instead of picking up cushions!
