Custom cushions for Austrian corner benches, chalets and Vienna flats

26.8 hot days in Vienna, 136 snow days in Seefeld

GeoSphere Austria's 1991-2020 normals describe two very different jobs. Vienna's Innere Stadt averages 26.8 days a year at 86°F (30°C) or more and 79.9 days at 77°F (25°C) or more; July's mean daily high is 80°F (26.9°C). The city gets 2,047.9 hours of sun and 26 in (669 mm) of precipitation.

Go up and winter takes over. Seefeld, at 3,878 ft (1,182 m), has snow on the ground about 136 days a year and 167 frost days; St. Anton am Arlberg, at 4,278 ft (1,304 m), about 132 snow days. Even Vienna's Hohe Warte averages 31.8 days of snow cover.

Altitude adds UV. WHO puts the rise at roughly 10% per 3,281 ft (1,000 m), and fresh snow almost doubles exposure, so a sunny balcony above a snowfield works a fabric hard. We apply the same rule on our Colorado page.

For custom cushions in Austria that splits the work three ways: fade resistance for balconies, winter storage for anything outside, and exact geometry for the benches indoors.

The Eckbank: two runs and one honest corner

In older Austrian houses the Eckbank sits under the Herrgottswinkel, the corner with the crucifix that you see from the Stube table, and tradition puts the family on that bench. Structurally it's simple: two runs at a right angle, meeting at one corner joint.

Angles are just lengths in disguise, and a right angle is the easy case. One run claims the corner and goes full length; the other is shortened by the seat depth so the two butt together. For runs of 63 3/4 in and 63 in (162 and 160 cm) measured from the back corner, 15 3/4 in (40 cm) deep, that's one cushion of 15 3/4 x 63 3/4 in (40 x 162 cm) and one of 15 3/4 x 47 1/4 in (40 x 120 cm). My routine:

• Measure each run along the back wall, from the inside corner to the open end.
• Measure seat depth at both ends of each run; under 3/4 in (2 cm) of difference, average it to a rectangle.
• For an angled corner piece, give all four sides, including both short end sides. Those are the ones people forget.
• Backrest height = frame back height minus the seat cushion's thickness.
• Mark radiators, pillars and table legs, and label which face is the top.
• Write the real measurements. Don't shave anything off; allowance is handled in production, within about ±3/8 in (1 cm).

The corner joint guide and the bench cushion builder do the drawing, and L-shaped cushions shows finished sets.

Vienna box windows: the inner sash swings over your cushion

Vienna's Altbau flats are full of Kastenfenster, box windows with two separate sashes and an air space between them. In the Viennese type both sashes open inward, and the outer one is built smaller so it passes through the inner. The Graz type opens the outer sash outward, which leaves the inner reveal free and the niche easy to use.

So check your window before you choose a thickness, partner. If the inner sash swings in over the niche, the cushion's height limit is the gap between the niche board and the underside of the open sash, cover included.

Very thin is possible. The workshop makes 3/4 in (2 cm) cushions for exactly this, without piping; 1 1/4 in (3 cm) can carry piping. At that height the foam has to be cut evenly and a touch under the limit, or it bulges. More in the thickness guide and window seat cushions.

Balconies and garden benches: summer seat, winter guest

Chalets carry wooden balconies and city flats have balconies and loggias, and both get used hard from late spring into autumn. A covered loggia can take the regular indoor fabric, since rain doesn't reach it, though that fabric isn't waterproof. An open balcony wants outdoor fabric that resists UV and repels water.

A buyer in Austria sent the plan of a custom garden bench with seat and backrest cushions, the backs roughly 71 x 16 and 84 x 16 in (180 x 40 and 213 x 40 cm). The first question was whether the indoor bench-with-bolster fabric could live outside. It can't, so the order moved to the outdoor line, and the backrests were made foam-filled like the seats rather than soft like pillows.

That's the right order of decisions: outdoor-rated fabric first, foam or pillow backs second, and only then compare quotes. When the first snow comes, the whole set comes in. See outdoor cushions and back cushion height.