Previously familiar to readers through Kitmen Keung’s Dual Cut Foam Sofa, the extraordinarily versatile high density foam by manufacturer Sixinch has a new incarnation—surface coatings. “Innovative, seamless, durable, and waterproof ,” this fabulous foam can be laser cut to nearly any specification, making it work for a wide variety of residential, commercial, and educational venues.

Sixinch Foam Surface Coating. Manufactured by Sixinch.

Sixinch Foam Coating is Ideal for Educational Environments

As Sixinch says, “Forget about paint and paper and have a custom designed Six Inch Wall.” The attraction of this waterproof, washable, acoustical, and aesthetically impressive surface material is manifest. The foam blocks can be molded, cut, and colored—as it were—into nearly any configuration, texture, or color.

The prospects for creative experimentation are great, which makes Sixinch an ideal material for nightclubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants—and Six Inch has authored projects at trendy European locales such as Antwerp’s Cafe Capital and Club Pure. But the surface is also ideally suited to educational locales.

It may be tempting here to make reference to school-age children requiring padded rooms, but I’ll defer on that easy joke and instead extol the functional possibilities. Since Sixinch foam is easy to customize, clients can specify contours that match existing patterns, meaning the school theme could be extended beyond a mural on the gymnasium wall and throughout the entire school.

The application also opens up the possibility to reproduce the textures of classroom or lunchroom furniture, not to mention the option for customized themes to match the subject. I’m thinking of wavy contours in a crescendo of ocean blues (Biology); gridded axes in black and white (Math); and greenish hillocks receding into the distance (English, in the tradition of the Irish greats, of course).

About the Manufacturer: Belgian firm Sixinch has the unlikely lineage of a shared passion for an even unlikelier material: coated foam. Principals Pieter Jamart and Michel Sels crossed paths in 2003, and after exchanging anecdotes about their love for all manner of high density polyurethane, together they founded Sixinch. The company offers a broad spectrum of products in all materials but specializes in coated foam. Sixinch creates all foam products in their own factories, and they can handle any bespoke project you dream up: from furniture to room-sized installations. They offer four customized coating options suited to the nature of the piece, and they can cut foam to any dimension and shape, then coat it in any glorious flourish of RAL, PANTONE, or NCS color.