Custom cushions for Dutch canal houses, houseboats and balconies

Damp before cold

KNMI, the Dutch meteorological institute, keeps its main station at De Bilt. The 1991–2020 averages are mild. January reaches 43.0°F (6.1°C) by day and 33.6°F (0.9°C) at night. July reaches 73.6°F (23.1°C).

The water is the story. Precipitation falls on about 186 days a year, 33.6 in (855 mm) in all, spread fairly evenly across the months. Relative humidity averages 81 percent and reaches 89 in December. The prevailing wind comes from the southwest.

Daylight runs from barely eight hours in December to nearly seventeen in June.

For a cushion, this means three things. Covers that come off. Foam that dries through. Color judged in gray light.

Five meters wide, and one staircase

A canal house, a grachtenpand, is slim, high and deep. In 17th-century Amsterdam the plots started at 18 feet, with an Amsterdam foot of about 11.1 in (28.13 cm). That is about 16.6 ft (5 m) of frontage. Custom cushions for Amsterdam start with that width.

Look up at the gable. The beam with a hook, the hijsbalk, was built to hoist trade goods into the attic. Dutch sources note that houses with narrow stairs still use one. These days it mostly lifts furniture.

A cushion should not need the beam. Ours travel vacuum-compressed, so a 4 in (10 cm) bench cushion arrives as a flat parcel that goes up any stair. Open it within a few days. Most cushions recover in 24 to 72 hours; the vacuum-packed Pattern has the details.

Long benches are better in pieces. A buyer in the Netherlands with a built-in sofa bench 173 in (440 cm) long and 22.75 in (58 cm) deep asked for two cushions of 86.5 in (220 cm) rather than one. Two pieces turn on a landing. One does not. The long bench Pattern weighs the choice.

Tall windows, deep ledges, a low seat

In a narrow house the light comes in at the ends, front and back. The window is the room's lamp. Under it there is a ledge, a sill or a built-in bench.

Keep the seat low. Height is a feeling. On a deep ledge, 1.5 to 2 in (4 to 5 cm) reads as part of the window. On a bench where someone reads for an hour, 3 in (7.5 cm).

In winter, cold glass meets damp air here. If the glass sweats, wipe the ledge and lift the cushion to breathe. A zip-off cover in linen-look fabric or bouclé washes at 86°F (30°C). Measure with the Pattern on measuring a window seat.

The light is close kin to the Pacific Northwest and to Denmark.

Houseboats: every seat is built in

About 2,400 families live on Amsterdam's inner waters. Around 2010 the country had roughly 12,000 houseboat berths, most of them in the Amsterdam area. Some boats are converted working vessels; others were built as floating houses from the start.

On board, benches taper, curve and meet at odd angles, so houseboat cushions are made to measure: - Draw it. A sketch with every side labeled beats two numbers. The boat cushion Pattern shows how. - Plan for damp. Zip-off covers, and a spare cover to rotate while one dries. - On deck, use water-repellent fabric. Standard foam is not a quick-dry grade, so after rain stand the cushion on edge until it is dry through. - For guests, a doubled floor cushion is a seat by day and a bed at night.

Calm rooms: one warm neutral, one bolster

Dutch light is gray for much of the year and comes in sideways through big glass. It cools every color. Beige leans gray. White leans blue.

Choose one warm neutral for the seat: oat, taupe, clay. Let the brick outside be the color. If you want more, add one bolster, not five pillows.

Brick outside. Oat on the ledge. Rain on the glass.