Want a cozy, comfortable and yet light and sophisticated chair or couch to put in the living room? Buy a beanbag. Today beanbags are the rage coming in stunning range and attractive colours and sizes as big as to accommodate your entire family. Bean bag furniture can be used to furnish almost any room in your home, from the family room or den to a kids’ playroom.

They are incredibly comfortable and soft, providing a great place to relax and unwind. Whether you’re enjoying a drink with close friends, watching a favourite show on TV, or reading the kids a bedtime story – a bean bag is a wonderful place to sit and be snug.What’s so great about bean bags? Bean bag chairs were the craze of the 70s. The reason they have made such a big comeback recently is really a nobrainer.

Versatile, long wearing, ‘child proof,’ portable, practical and fun are keywords used in describing bean bag chairs, and why they remain popular in so many households – especially those with children. Though initially a favourite, the old Styrofoam beans/pellets filling became a safety issue especially for children and people avoided buying them.

But now with improved designs, made of fashionable material, with polyurethane shredded foam/memory foam – which adheres to all safety standards – beanbags are staging a grand comeback. Bean bags vs traditional furniture With most traditional furniture you couldn’t dream of sliding them outside to lounge by the pool (if you are strong enough to), as some sofas can run up to thousands of rupees and you wouldn’t dare think of ruining the beautiful leather.

A convenient and easy way to take a comfortable and lightweight chair is to make a bean bag chair your new best friend. They will help you relax and are especially great for easing back or neck pain. Think of it as your own personal masseuse. Kids rooms Great for kids as they provide a soft place for your children to sit while watching TV, reading or playing a video game.

Things you need to know about bean bags As great as they are, there is also a safety issue to be addressed when using bean bags in your home. If you do decide to by yourself or someone else a bean bag chair, make sure you remove the pull tag once the bag is filled with polystyrene beans. This is done to prevent a choking hazard for children.

A liner that slides between the bag cover and the beans can also be purchased as extra child hazard prevention. Shapes There are typically four shapes of beanbags – teardrop, armchair, cylinder and a sack. Sack, the beanbag couch, is now the most popular beanbag – finding favour with young and old alike. Now that beanbags can be customised, you can get it to exactly match the decor of wherever you are going to put it. Size When looking for a bean bag chair, look at the shape that best suits your needs.

Bean bag chairs with a pear shaped design offer better back support because they are taller and cover more of your body. The flatter pancake shaped bean bag chair works great for two people or as a coffee table substitute. The pancake works better as a lounger than as a chair. Fabric With the wide variety of bean bags available in the market, there is a wide variety of fabrics available.Vinyl is very common in bean bag chairs, although some people feel that vinyl is too sticky and not as comfortable as cloth bean bag chairs.Vinyl is easy to wipe up and keep clean which is a definite advantage.

When selecting vinyl ensure the fabric uses leadfree vinyl inks. Other bean bags come in leather, fun fur, microfiber, denim and cotton. If possible when choosing a fabric, look for a bean bag chair that has a liner so that the cover can be removed and washed periodically. Microfiber, leatherbased, cotton and denim are the most popular materials used for covering. Fill Bean bag stuffing is cheap to buy and offers a simple way to refill your favourite bean bag arm chair with fresh beads, plumping it up and giving it a new lease of life. When choosing the fill for your bean bag chair, look for high quality recycled polystyrene fill.

You want a bean bag chair that has enough fill to offer support but soft enough to be comfortable. Polystyrene fill is the best as it is soft enough to provide great comfort but is also strong enough to withstand lots of compression without losing its sponginess. For the benefit of the environment, choose 100 per cent recycled polystyrene. When choosing fill is sure to look for polystyrene that is fire retardant or complies with flammability standards. Make your own bean bag chair filler Why not make your own filler. It is appropriate, isn’t it? You can find some dried beans or rice and fill your bag with them – of course, these food items might attract some pests. Also, you need to watch out for moisture. Something else that you might consider is wood shavings.

Perhaps you have seen the pet beds that come filled with wood shavings. Cedar shavings have a very pleasant smell, as well. For some added fluff,why not use feathers from old feather pillows? Or you could try nut shells, Styrofoam or plastic pellets, or polyester stuffing. Be creative with your bean bag chair filling! Brilliant colors. These days the bean bag is available to you in myriads colour combinations that you cannot even imagine. You will get options that are very different from the normal and plain looking ones.

Some shops are also providing great patterns to the customers like polka dots, stripes and various other selections that are great for your office as well as home. The colours are very vibrant and they would look good in any home. If you are looking for a particular colour combination then you can purchase your own material and get a customised sofa.

Portable Bean bags are lightweight and easy to move about, so it’s easy to rearrange your seating. For instance, if you got friends around and you’re playing a board game at a coffee table and you need to sit closer than your other furniture allows, then bean bags are the perfect solution. They are perfect to take along to a picnic, while visiting distant relatives, for enjoying a firework display outside, or to bring along for small children to nap on while visiting friends.

What about while camping, to relax in after a long day of hiking and campfire cooking? Bean bag covers Bean bag chair covers come in a huge variety of colours, patterns and fabrics, so you can choose whatever will match your decor or add a splash of colour to a room. Beanbags put up with a lot of rough use. Removable covers are a good idea so that it is easy to clean when necessary.