Our Philosophy
Bean Bags - Made Right - In Nottingham, UK
At GreatBeanBags, we make bespoke bean bag chairs and sofas, by hand, in Nottingham. In fact, we’re one of Britain’s original bean bag manufacturers, making bean bags since 1992. That’s over 30 years!
Every bean bag we make is 100% made to order, from scratch, by skilled stitchers and machinists. Nothing is bought in from overseas!
We’ve built our reputation as market leaders with our commitment to traditional, luxury manufacturing methods and giving you the control to tailor your bespoke piece to your unique tastes and home’s interior design.
Our philosophy is simple: employ skilled people, use high-quality materials and make products that are worth keeping.
Bean Bag Furnishings Made by Experienced Crafts People
Many of our skilled stitchers and machinists have been working for us for more than ten years. We even employ multiple families who, like GreatBeanBags, are steeped in traditional manufacturing traditions and techniques. We believe that matters.
GBB understands that manufacturing bean bags of a consistent quality requires skilled, experienced people who live and breathe their craft, are treated properly, and are genuinely invested in their work and the business.
We keep sensible, family-friendly working hours and have built a team that is fiercely proud of British manufacturing. This pride and experience shows in the craftsmanship of what we make.
Made in Nottingham - Not Mass Produced
Each and every bean bag we make is made to order, in Nottingham, by our own team, rather than taken from bulk imported stock. Absolutely nothing - except the beans inside your furnishing - is made elsewhere.
Manufacturing in-house gives us direct control over the materials, cutting, sewing and finishing. This enables us to create beautiful, refined, bespoke creations. We make no compromises, and every bean bag chair and sofa that leaves our workshop is a high-quality furnishing capable of transforming any home, and meet both British Standards and Trading Standards.
We believe great products are born of skilled making, proper materials, and attention to detail. Cost-saving doesn’t play a role in our manufacturing approach.
Bean Bags Made to Last, Not for Landfill
We are careful about how we discuss sustainability. Broad environmental claims are easy to make and much harder to substantiate.
Our approach is more straightforward: make products that last longer, avoid throwaway quality, and design our bean bags so that the covers, fillings and other components can be dealt with separately where practical.
For us, sustainability starts with making something worth keeping.
Always 100% Made to Order
Most furniture manufacturing relies on producing large quantities of identical products, and keeping a supply of them in stock. We work differently.
As manufacturers of bespoke bean bags, your choice of design, size and fabric becomes a production order in our Nottingham factory. We then cut and sew your customised creation for you and send it out for delivery the next day.
Making our goods to order lets us offer far more choice without filling warehouses with thousands of finished chairs and sofas waiting to be sold.
This approach also gives you considerably more choice, as the same bean bag model can look completely different in corduroy, velvet, cotton, faux leather, our outdoor fabric, and any of our other UK-sourced materials.
How a GreatBeanBag is Made
Making a bean bag might look simple, but there are a surprising number of stages between choosing your fabric, colour and size, and a finished chair or sofa arriving at your door.
- You choose the design, size and fabric - Your order tells us exactly what needs to be made.
- We prepare the pattern - Our patterns allow us to reproduce the shape and proportions of each design accurately.
- The fabric is cut - The individual panels that form the bean bag are cut from your chosen material.
- Our machinists sew the cover - The panels are assembled using industrial sewing equipment, appropriate thread, zips and components.
- The filling is prepared - Depending on the size and product, your bespoke piece is either filled here or supplied with separate internal sacks of filling ready to insert into the cover.
- It is checked, packed and dispatched - The finished order leaves our Nottingham factory and starts its journey to you.
Keeping all these processes under our own roof assured quality and attention to detail, as the designers and manufacturers of our bean bags work closely together to ensure a perfect end product, every time. It also enables us to reactively adapt designs and processes as we go, to consistently improve our furnishings.
A Bean Bag Shouldn’t Have to Look Like One!
Bean Bags can be small, large, upright, laid-back, sofa-sized, suitable for children, suitable for the outdoors, or designed to sit alongside conventional seating and furniture.
Fabric changes them again. The same shape in soft corduroy has a completely different character from the same model made in velvet, faux leather or a woven outdoor fabric.
This is why we have always chosen to make our bean bags in the UK, tailored to your unique specifications. Instead of offering you the same restrictions as traditional seating manufacturers, who ask you to pick from whatever happens to be sitting in a warehouse, we can make the perfect bespoke piece to transform your home.
Still Making Them Ourselves
It’s been 30 years since we began manufacturing bean bags.
The range, fabrics and equipment have changed considerably since then, but the basic principle hasn't.
Make the product ourselves. Employ people who know how to make it properly. Give customers genuine choice. And make something we are prepared to put our name on.
We hope you’ll find the perfect chairs and sofas to transform your home here, with GreatBeanBags.
