Made to measure cushions for Northern Ireland homes and coastal cottages

About 31 in of rain by the lough, 63 in the hills

The Met Office sums up Northern Ireland's climate in one word: equability. The Atlantic keeps winters mild and summers cool, and it keeps the rain coming.

The driest ground, around Strangford Lough, the east coast and the shores of Lough Neagh, gets just under 31 in (800 mm) a year. The Sperrin, Antrim and Mourne hills get about 63 in (1,600 mm), and Killeter Forest in west Tyrone about 79 in (2,000 mm). Everywhere, October to January is the wettest stretch, and even the driest areas count about 35 wet days in summer.

Sun is modest. The County Down coast averages over 1,450 hours a year, the northern and western uplands under 1,100, and July and August often cloud over. Most coastal sites see fewer than 20 air frosts.

So made to measure cushions in Northern Ireland live indoors most of the year through a long damp season. Fading is slow; mildew is patient. Build for washing and airing first. The rules that apply across the UK are on our United Kingdom page, and south of the border see Ireland.

Red brick, bay windows, and the bay that isn't square

Belfast's red brick came from the soft clay under the city, and whole districts went up as red-brick terraced streets. Add the Victorian and Edwardian villas and you have more bay windows than one tailor could cover in a lifetime.

A confession, dear: years ago I cut a bay cushion from a front edge, a depth and a guess about the angles. It went back. Side walls in old bays are rarely equal, and the angles are rarely what the builder intended.

Measure the bench, not the cushion you used to have. Write every edge of the seat in order: each run against the glass, the front edge, the depth at the center, and both angled sides. Then check one rule: a slanted side is always longer than the straight depth. If yours isn't, a number is wrong.

The three-sided bay guide walks through it, the bay window calculator checks the geometry, and bay window cushions shows the finished shapes. What does your bay measure along the front?

Linenopolis, and the linen-look cover

When Belfast was made a city in 1888 it was the world's largest center of linen manufacture, nicknamed Linenopolis. People here ask about real linen, and fairly so.

The standard linen weaves are blends, but there are 100% linen and 100% cotton charts beside them. Natural linen is lovely and honest about dirt: pale colors show it, and the workshop's advice for a grubby linen bench is a soapy cloth, not a soak. For a hard-working family bench it recommends its sturdy acrylic linen. The difference is laid out in real linen vs linen-look, with both families in the linen-look and linen and cotton-linen swatch pages.

Then spend your attention on the piping. A navy or brick-red welt on an oatmeal seat is what makes a bay cushion look tailored rather than bought.

Conservatories: sun through the glass, water on the inside of it

The conservatory is the one room here where sun and damp both work on a cushion. Glass gathers heat by day and condensation by night.

Indoor fabrics have some UV resistance, but long, intense direct sun will fade them a little over time. If the bench sits in full sun, use an outdoor fabric; those are made to be UV- and fade-resistant. Either way, turn the cushion now and then so one end doesn't bleach.

Wipe condensation off frames and sills in the morning and don't let a cushion lean on wet glass. If one does get soaked, dry it within 24 to 48 hours, the window the EPA gives before mold starts. More in sunroom cushions and sunroom fabric in humidity.