US3380777A - Upholstered furniture - Google Patents

Description

A ril 30, 1968 D. M. BENNETT 3,380,777

UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Filed Sept. 6. 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 DOUGLAS M. BENNETT INVENTOR- ATTORNEYS April 30, 3963 M. BENNETT 3,380,???

U?HOLSTER ED FURN ITURE Filed Sept. 8. 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @fiENEYT INVENTOk @Y'YORNEYS United States Patent 3,380,777 UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Douglas M. Bennett, 332 2nd W., Seattle, Wash. 98119 Filed Sept. 8, 1966, Ser. No. 578,084 8 Claims. (Cl. 297-440) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Upholstered furniture is constructed such that reversible seat and back cushions may be secured to the furniture frame. Removable upholstered side and back panels may also be provided to facilitate their cleaning apart from the furniture itself.

This invention relates to upholstered furniture and more particularly to the construction of such furniture.

One of the major problems associated with upholstered furniture is that seat and back cushions do not remain in place under conditions of normal usage. This problem is compounded when the furniture is intended for use in dormitory lounges where loose furniture cushions are removed for a variety of reasons.

Another problem is that the upholstery on upholstered side and back panels, especially in commercial furniture, often becomes soiled and cannot be cleaned separately from the furniture itself.

A primary object of this invention is to provide upholstered furniture having seat and back cushions that are normally held in place and that can be removed for cleaning or removed and turned over when one side hecomes soiled. Another object is to provide an upholstered furniture frame adapted to have seat and back cushions attached thereto. A further object is to provide upholstered furniture having removable decorative side panels.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sofa;

FIG. 2 is a blown-apart perspective view of the FIG. 1 sofa illustrating features of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section taken along the line 33 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a detail cross-section of one of the removable side panels of the FIG. 1 sofa.

In brief, this invention comprises an upholstered furniture piece, that is to say an upholstered chair or sofa, wherein the various upholstered sections are removable separately without appearing to be removable. Furniture constructed in accordance with this invention comprises 1) a frame structure having two open-center side sections, a back section and a base section, (2) an upholstered back unit supported by the frame base section, (3) an upholstered seat unit removably supported by the frame base section, and (4) a side panel for each of the frame side sections having both faces decoratively finished and being adapted to be fitted into the respective side section and detachably connected thereto. Further, the frame back section may also be open centered and a back panel, having a decoratively finished outer face, adapted to be fitted into the back section and detachably connected thereto.

FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a two cushion sofa constructed in accordance with this invention. A chair of the same style would have essentially the same construction but of lesser width with a single cushion.

The FIG. 2 frame 1, whether for a sofa or a chair, comprises four upstanding legs, 10, 12, 14 and 16, arm rails or rests, 18 and 20, each interconnectably joined to the upper end of the forward and rearward legs on the 3,380,777 Patented Apr. 30, 1968 'ice respective side in a suitable manner such as by finger joints. The frame 1 also comprises forward, rearward and side rails, 22, 24, 26 and 28, respectively, interconnectably joined to the four legs in a suitable manner such as by mortise and tenon butt joints. The frame further comprises a stretcher rail 30 interconnectably joined at its opposite ends to the side rails 26 and 28 forward of the rearward rail 24. The frame comprises two upstanding back rail supporting posts 32 and 34 connected to the inner focus of the rearward legs 14 and 16, respectively, above the rearward rail 24 in a suitable manner as by wood screws. Finally, the frame comprises a back rail 36 interconnectably joined to the upper ends of the posts 32 and 34 in a suitable manner such as by finger joints.

For a purpose to be described subsequently, end and center support blocks 38, 40 and 42, respectively, may be positioned between the ends and center portions of the rearward and stretcher rails 24 and 30 as depicted.

In terms of the functional sections of the frame, one frame side section is formed from legs 10 and 14, arm rest 18 and side rail 26; the other frame side section is formed from legs 12 and 16, arm rest 20 and side rail 28; the frame base section is formed from the forward, rearward, side and stretcher rails 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30, respectively, and the support blocks 38, 40 and 42; and the frame back section is formed from the rearward rail 24, the posts 32 and 34, and the back rail 36. It is to be noted that certain components of the frame are parts of more than one of the above-described sections but it should be easily seen from FIG. 2 that such components do in fact serve multiple functions. If desired, one skilled in the art could devise a frame wherein each component serves only one function without departing from the scope of this invention.

An important feature of this invention is the provision of side panels 44 and 46 having both faces decoratively finished (in the embodiment shown the faces are upholstered) and adapted to be inserted into open center portion of the respective frame side sections and detachably connected thereto. In the embodiment shown the open center portion of each frame side section is peripherally defined by the respective forward and rearward legs, side rail and arm rest. The side panels are designed to closely conform to the periphery of the open center portions. Either the underside of the arm rests, or the top edges of the side panels are provided with dowel holes and the other provided with snugly-fitting dowels (the side panels being depicted as having the plurality dowels 48 and 50, respectively). The side rails 26 and 28 are provided with countersunk holes for screwing wood screws 52 or bolts into the bottom edges of the side panels to connect the side panels to the frame after their insertion into the frame side sections. The height of the side panels is just slightly less than the height of the frame side section open center portion such that the side panels can be fitted into the open center portions with the dowels mating in their respective holes. By the use of upholstery welting around the periphery of the side panel faces, as shown in dotted line in FIG. 4, it will be difiicult, if not impossible, to detest the fact that the side panels are not integral with the frame side secions and, further, that the panels are detachable simply by removing the bottom screws 52 or bolts and by then shifting the panels outward and downward to release the dowels from their respective holes.

As shown in FIG. 4, the side panels are preferably of hollow core construction provided by a peripheral frame 54 faced with face panels 56 and 58. The face panels are covered with upholstery fabric which is tacked to the peripheral edges of the frame 54, as shown in dotted line.

If desired a back panel 60 may be provided to fit within the open center portion of the frame back section and to be detachably connected thereto in the same manner as the side panels 44 and 46. As shown in FIG. 3, the back panel 60 is decoratively finished on the outer face, only (upholstery fabric depicted), the panel contains the plurality of dowels 62 and the underside of back rail 46 the dowel holes, and the panel is detachably connected to the rearward rail 24 by screws 64. The back panel itself is of one piece solid construction as shown.

An upholstered seat back unit or back bolster 62 is designed to fit down between the arm seats 18 and 20 and to be supported by the support blocks 38, 40 and 42. The back bolster comprises a solid base board 64 and a solid back board 66 that has tabs 66a extending below the base board 64 between the support blocks. The bottom of the bolster is connected to the frame by attaching these tabs to the rearward rail 24 by wood screws and the top of the bolster is connected to the back rail 36 by suitable means such as attaching an angle member 68 to the underside of the back rail 36 and to the back board 66 by wood screws as shown in FIG. 3. The base and back boards, 64 and 66, are reinforced by corner blocks 70. The remainder of the bolster comprises foam cushioning material 72, or other suitable material, covered by upholstery fabric.

An upholstered seat unit 74 comprises a spring unit or deck 76 and a seat cushion or cushions 78. The spring deck comprises a peripheral frame 80 with a plurality of convex compression spring strips 82 extending between the forward and rearward sides of the frame 80 and a padded covering 84 extending thereover. A relatively inflexible concave compression spring 84 extends between the forward and rearward sides of the frame 80 to ensure that fiexion of the spring strips 82 will not warp the frame 80. Corner blocks 88 may also be provided to depend from the corners of frame 80 in a manner such that they will bear against the forward and rearward rails 22 and 24 to further ensure that flexion of the spring strips 82 will not warp the frame 80.

The seat cushion 78 and back cushions 96, if provided, have tie-down flaps 92 which extend downwardly between the back bolster 72 and the spring deck 76 and which are attached to the stretcher rail 30 by suitable means such as bolts or screws. These tic-down flaps 92 prevent removal of the cushions.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of my now-preferred illustrated embodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An upholstered furniture piece which comprises a frame structure comprising having two open-center side sections, a back section and a base section and two forward and two rearward legs, forward and rearward rails extending between intermediate sections of the respective forward and rearward legs, two side rails extending between the respective forward and rearward legs, a stretcher rail extending between intermediate sections of said side rails, two arm rails extending between the top sections of the respective forward and rearward legs, and a back rail extending between said rearward legs, the open centers of said frame side sections being peripherally defined by the respective forward and rearward legs and the side and arm rails; two side panels one for each side section, adapted to be removably dowelled to the underside of each respective arm rail and removably attached to the respective side rail; an upholstered back unit supported by said base section and detacha'bly connected to said back section; and an upholstered seat unit removably supported by said base section.

2. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 1 wherein said back section is open-centered and includ ing a back panel decoratively finished on the outer face thereof and adapted to be fitted into said back section and detachably connected thereto.

3. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 1 wherein said seat unit is removably supported by said forward rail and said stretcher rail, said back unit is supported between said stretcher rail and said rearward rail and removably attached to said rearward and back rails.

4. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 3 wherein said seat unit includes a seat cushion having rearward and downwardly extending tie-down flap attached to said stringer rail; and wherein said back unit includes a back cushion having a downwardly extending tie-down flap attached to said stringer rail.

5. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 1 wherein said side panels each comprise a peripheral frame faced with opposing face panels covered with upholstery material.

6. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 1 wherein said arm rails are finger jointed to the respective forward and rearward rails.

7. An upholstered furniture piece which comprises a frame structure having forward and rearward legs, forward and rearward rails extending between istermediate sections of the forward and rearward legs, side rails extending between the respective forward and rearward legs and a stretcher rail extendiig between intermediate sections of said side rails; an upholstered back unit supported by said frame structure; an upholstered seat unit supported on said forward and stretcher rails and a reversible seat cushion with a tie-down flap extending downwardly between said seat unit and said back unit and removably attached to said stretcher rail such that said seat cushion can be reversed upon detachment of said tiedown flap.

8. An upholstered furniture piece according to claim 7 including a reversible back cushion with a tie-down flap extending downwardly between said seat unit and said back unit and removably attached to said stretcher rail such that said back cushion can be reversed upon detachment of said tie-down flap.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,829,707 4/ 1958 Liebson 297440 X 2,907,377 10/1959 Hoven et al. 297416 X 2,913,041 11/1959 Mathison 2991.1 2,979,122 4/1961 Knoll 297-445 3,291,529 12/1966 Straits 297-445 FOREIGN PATENTS 499,162 l/1939 Great Britain.

CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner.

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