Building a Non-Toxic Sofa

Here is my chemical-free new sofa!

We used maple because it is a hard wood that is non-aromatic (it does not have a strong terpene smell). 

The stain we used was Naturhaus Harmonic, which will soon be available online. The ingredients are: beeswax, carnauba wax, shellac, and a cosmetic emulsifier. It had a very sweet smell for the first two days. 

Other options for stains are AFM Safecoat WaterShield or Ecos.

The glue used was Titebond. 

Sketch of my sofa

The Foam is a piece of 3" natural latex. This has a natural rubber smell (which doesn't fade completely with time) but does not give off VOCs at the level of conventional foam, nor does it contain flame retardants. (I no longer recommend natural latex to sleep on and I am not sure if it is suitable for a sofa - here is my warning).

Metal brackets reinforce the frame so that the side piece can be leaned on. The inspiration picture had low sides that would not be as comfy; I didn't think I'd be able to curl up on that sofa.

The dimensions are 28 in depth (standard sofa depth), height from seat 16 in (fairly standard), length 5 feet (length was made to fit in my tiny house).

The inspiration

The costs were:

Maple               468
Metal Brackets 200
Labour               40 hours
Foam                804 (from a local shop. Much cheaper on Amazon)

Fabric               150
Sewing             237

The total was around $3500.

This is expensive, even for a chemical-free sofa.

Another option is to buy a sofa from a company that makes non-toxic upholstered furniture. I have looked into and compared these companies in this post. 


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