Cushions & Pillows
Buy and sell cushions and pillows in Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica the cojín lives on the sofa and the almohada on the bed, and they get bought for different reasons: one for colour and comfort in the sala, the other for a decent night’s sleep. Both turn up here new and pre-owned, along with floor cushions, chair pads and the seat and back cushions that make a terrace set on the patio worth sitting on. Most of what a used one is worth sits where the photo cannot reach, in the filling and the foam, so a good listing says what is inside and gives the size of the cover and of the insert.
Sofa cushions and the insert inside the cover:
a decorative cushion is two things, the cover you chose for its colour and the insert that decides how it looks a month later. Polyester fibre is the cheap, washable standard and goes flat and lumpy with use; feather holds a fuller shape and sheds the odd quill. An insert a size bigger than its cover fills the corners, so a cushion sagging on the sofa can often be rescued with new filling. Floor cushions and poufs want a rug under them, and a cover sewn from the same cloth as the curtains is an old way of pulling a room together.
Bed pillows chosen by how you sleep:
side sleepers need a higher, firmer pillow, stomach sleepers a low, soft one. Fibre is light and flattens first. Memory foam, sold here as viscoelástica, moulds to the head and sleeps warm without a gel layer or ventilated core; latex is springier and cooler. A bed pillow is the one thing here that is hard to recommend second-hand, since sweat works its way inside and no wash reaches a foam core. Take a used one only when it is still sealed, a spare from a set or a gift that never left its bag.
Terrace cushions for the patio, under sun and rain:
left uncovered, a cushion takes hard sun in the morning and rain blown in sideways by the afternoon, and the cloth and the foam decide how long it lasts. Solution-dyed acrylic, the kind sold under names like Sunbrella, is coloured right through the fibre and keeps its colour for years, while printed polyester fades within a season of Guanacaste sun. Ordinary upholstery foam drinks water and stays wet inside for days, which is how mould gets in; quick-dry reticulated foam lets the water run straight through. A decorative cushion with its insert runs around ₡5,000 to ₡15,000 new, and a basic fibre bed pillow costs a few thousand colones. Used, a decorative cushion fetches little, since a fresh insert eats much of that price. A full set of terrace cushions made for one sofa and its armchairs is different: an upholsterer’s new set in outdoor cloth and quick-dry foam costs far more than any ready-made cushion, so a sound set keeps real value for anyone with the same frame. When a beach rental around Nosara or Tamarindo refits its terrace, the old cushions tend to come up as a complete set.
Mould in the foam, fading in the cover:
most faults hide under the fabric. Open the zip on an outdoor cushion: black specks or a musty smell mean mould, and foam gone yellow and crumbly at the edges has baked in the sun and will not spring back. Turn the cover inside out too. Printed cloth is clearly paler on the reverse, while solution-dyed acrylic is the same colour on both faces, the quickest check on a listing that claims outdoor fabric. A bed pillow with yellow patches has been well slept on, whatever the listing says.
Measurements and photos that sell a set of terrace cushions:
give the length, depth and thickness of each piece and name the sofa or chair it was made for, because a buyer with the same set is your best customer. Photograph them on the furniture with one zip open to show the foam, and say whether they lived outside or came in when it rained. For decorative cushions give cover and insert sizes separately and keep matching covers together. Pillows are worth listing only new, packaging unbroken. Someone driving over from Grecia for a terrace set wants to hear the cushions are dry, bagged and stacked by the door, not still out on the patio after last night’s downpour.