Safest “Nugget” Styled Non-Toxic Play Couches for Kids & Modular Foam Couches

Are you interested in purchasing the safest & non-toxic “nugget” styled play couch or modular foam couch for the kids? Now the question is which ones are the safest for your child from toxic off-gassing and hormone-disrupting chemicals? Mamavation evaluated 18 different “nugget” styled play couch products and is making recommendations based on materials, certifications, and email conversations with those brands. You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like safest cookware sans PFAS and nanoparticles, safest “breathable” crib mattresses and mattresses for children, and safest period underwear sans PFAS, now join us for an investigation on most of the play couches and modular foam couches for children.

Disclosure: This post was medically reviewed by Sondra Strand, RN, BSN, PHN. This post also contains affiliate links.  

There is No Such Thing as the Perfect “Nugget” Styled Non-Toxic Play Couch and Modular Foam Couch for Children

Let’s get this part out of the way first–there is no such thing as the perfect “nugget’ styled play couch or modular foam couch for children. This is because it’s typically made with polyurethane foam, which off-gasses VOCs over time and is incredibly flammable. The certifications out there to evaluate the off-gassing of polyurethane foam & the couch itself presently are very weak. Therefore, it’s very hard to evaluate what would happen with these products are used over time and how it would impact your indoor air based on most of the certifications.

So without sending each and every product off to an independent lab, we relied on the materials they used, sent emails to each brand when we had questions, and looked deeply into certifications. We evaluated eighteen different brands and realized very quickly that there isn’t a perfect solution in this category. (Crib mattresses, however, you can find perfection and I’d recommend you go looking for that here.)

What we did find were products that may off-gas certain contaminants into your home or expose your children to things like PFAS over time. But it’s very hard to nail down these companies on issues, and none of them do independent organic fluorine testing to independently spot-check for PFAS, so it’s buyer beware. Having said that, we’ve done the best we can given the situation and still can recommend brands and categorize them into the following categories: “not our favorite,” better, & best.

Children’s “Nugget” Styled Play Couch Furniture & Modular Foam Couches Can Expose Children to Fire Retardants, PFAS, VOCs, & Heavy Metals

The truth is it’s not illegal to expose children to fire retardants, PFAS, VOCs, and heavy metals like antimony in consumer products. Although there is some movement in certain states to reduce these exposures, overall, making purchases like these can be problematic.

There’s also some confusion with the terms that are used and their legal definitions. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces consumer protection laws, doesn’t define “natural” with regard to mattresses & furniture, so a mattress or play couch that’s advertised as “natural” could contain almost anything, including polyurethane foam, adhesives, chemical flame retardants, etc.

Since 2013, California updated its Technical Bulletin 117 to enable manufacturers to choose not to use fire retardant chemicals to meet smolder requirements. The new standard TB117-2013 requires manufacturers to pass flammability tests involving smoldering ignition sources instead of “open flame.” The outcome of that means far fewer fire retardants are used today in furniture, especially children’s furniture. (However, this isn’t the case with mattresses.)

However, that does not mean ALL furniture brands are using fewer fire retardants. We did find some like antimony in “fire barriers” which is still concerning. It just means they have the ability to use fewer fire retardants if they can engineer their furniture to pass the new flammability requirements set forth.

One thing to note is that polyurethane foam is incredibly flammable, so caution must be taken when stuffing it into furniture. This is why brands use fire-retardant chemicals. But now that California has allowed brands to avoid doing that, alternative methods are being used such as:

• Using material that is less likely to burn and catch fire, like vinyl, polyester blends, or microsuede
• Wrapping the polyurethane foam with a “fire barrier” and adding fire retardant chemicals, like antimony, to that wrapping.
• Adding different types of fire retardant chemicals directly to the outer layer of the fabric.

And finally, to convey water resistance and stain resistance to the outer layer of fabric, some brands are adding chemical treatments that may be PFAS in nature. When you see this, sometimes they get that chemical certified, but when we reached out to these certification agencies, they let us know that not all PFAS chemicals were restricted or tested for by their certification process.

So this category is kinda messy and very confusing for the average consumer to navigate without sophisticated knowledge of consumer products, certifications, and flammability testing procedures.

Types of Certifications You’ll Find For Popular “Nugget” Styled Play Couches & Modular Foam Couches

Here are most of the certifications you will run into and what we found their challenges were. None of these certifications are going to cover all the problems we are looking for like fire retardants wrapped in “fire barriers” or all PFAS chemical treatments. But here is a breakdown of what they don’t help you with.

CertiPUR-US Certification for Polyurethane Foam 

The CertiPUR-US^® name and logo are registered trademarks of the Alliance for Flexible Polyurethane Foam, Inc., a business league founded by polyurethane foam producers. They state that this certification was created by the foam industry “in close collaboration” with environmentalists, chemists, and research scientists, but any changes to the certification program can only be made with the consent of its board of directors.

As of 2017, its tax filings indicate that every single member of its board is directly involved with the polyurethane foam industry. This makes it appear to be the industry creating a standard for themselves.

CertiPUR-US is a certification program that you will see frequently when brands are using polyurethane foam. The most important parts to understand when evaluating this certification in terms of how it helps you keep your children safe is the following:

• This certification only applies to the polyurethane foam in the product. ANYTHING else will not be evaluated and therefore the outer casing fabric or “fire barrier” used could have chemicals that are restricted in this certification and it would still pass muster. In other words, they can have this certification and still put those nasty chemicals in the “fire barrier” of the product.
• CertiPUR-US prohibits certain substances that are in many foams (such as polybrominated diphenyl ether, or PDBE, flame retardants) and requires testing for formaldehyde and other chemicals. However, the chemicals they are restricting are very rarely used by brands in the United States and Canada, so it’s not really saying much other than they don’t use chemicals and materials that are already on the outs.

GREENGUARD Gold by Underwriter Laboratories (UL) 

GREENGUARD was recently acquired by Underwriter Laboratories (UL) and has changed the parameters of their standard. They no longer carry the lowest emission “Select” category and have introduced a more watered-down “Gold” category instead.

GREENGUARD is an air quality environmental testing company. They are looking into the off-gassing of specific contaminants at a higher level than what Mamavation is comfortable with (cause we preferred their retired “GREENGUARD Select” version which is no longer available.) Today, they are no longer considering flame retardants, PFAS chemicals, phthalates, and microbes. This standard does test for about 350 common VOCs. We just wish they went further to get some of the worst offenders.

This standard requires testing of a finished mattress for specific emission limits of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds. However, the testing does not take into consideration important things:

• Off-gassing for the entire lifecycle of the product. In other words, off-gassing overtime is not considered. So if the product has a tendency to off-gas over years of breakdown of materials following the purchase, that will not be considered in this certification process. It’s more likely to be tested at the very beginning and passes.
• This standard also does not look into whether the product sent to them is EXACTLY what the consumer receives, so it’s possible for some funny business to go on and they would not spot it. The brand only has to declare that it’s the same products.
• This certification also does not restrict the use of phthalates, PFAS, or VOCs that could be trapped in a “fire barrier” and can break down over time and use.

UL Formaldehyde-Free

This certification from UL is stronger and not as common in the “nugget” styled play couch industry at all. In fact, only one brand has this certification that we could find. It starts with the brand already having the GREENGUARD Gold certification as a backbone. (Basically because they are owned by the same parent company.)

The product samples must have a measured formaldehyde emission factor of less than or equal to 5 µg/m2•hr at 24 elapsed exposure hours or 3 µg/m2•hr at 336 elapsed exposure hours.An emission factor of 5 µg/m2•hr, corresponds to a measured chamber concentration of 2.5 µg/m3 for a typical loading ratio of 0.5 m2/m3. Here are both the formaldehyde emission ratios with GREENGUARD Gold & the Formaldehyde-Free certification.

• Formaldehyde-Free max concentration of formaldehyde is 2.5 µg/m3 (1.9 PPB)
• GREENGUARD Gold max concentration of formaldehyde is 9 µg/m3 (7.3 PPB)

This chamber concentration is comparable to, or below, typical outdoor air concentrations. This demonstrates that formaldehyde exposure from products labeled as formaldehyde-free will not contribute airborne formaldehyde at a level greater than found in the natural outdoor environment.

Here are some drawbacks:

• These off-gassing rations are allowed to be higher than what you would find off-gassing off a GOTS certified organic mattress, but those materials are not available in this industry.
• This standard also does not look into whether the product sent to them is EXACTLY what the consumer receives, so it’s possible for some funny business to go on and they would not spot it. The brand only has to declare that it’s the same products.
• This standard ONLY looks to formaldehyde off-gassing at the very beginning of the product (or whenever they send a sample) and does not look to the entire lifecycle of the product. Therefore, if materials break down over-usage over time, it does not cover that.

OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 Certification

The OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 Certification is a European certification that verifies textiles are free from certain harmful substances like allergenic dyes, bisphenols, heavy metals, & formaldehyde.

We interviewed Ben Mead, Managing Director of Hohenstein Institute America, which is a company that manages the OEKO-TEX® standard in the United States in 2019. Ben made it clear to us in an interview over the phone that OEKO-TEX® tests for only 30+ the most common PFAS chemicals directly like PFOA and they do not test their fabrics for organic fluorine at all.

• Because OEKO-TEX® does not test their approved chemicals for organic fluorine, we cannot be sure they do not contain any of the other thousands of PFAS chemicals they are not testing for. 

It’s like a “test no evil see no evil” type of situation.

OEKO-TEX® has added some additional “PFOA-like” chemicals to their testing in 2021, but we are still not convinced they are looking for every possible PFAS chemical, especially the “short-chain” ones. Therefore any brand that is relying on OEKO-TEX® to make a PFAS-free claim, may actually be in for a big surprise. Sadly, It’s not fool-proof when you look at the results we got on our period underwear investigation from OEKO-TEK certified brands.

BlueSign Certified

Mamavation reached out to BlueSign Certified asking whether they restrict all PFAS chemicals and the answer was no. They approve C4 and C6 in their certified chemicals, which are PFAS chemicals that confer water and stain resistance to the fabric.

Some brands that are selling “nugget” styled play couches are saying they are “Bluesigned certified” when asked about PFAS chemical treatments. So, unfortunately, for those brands, because we could not be sure, we assumed they were using either C4 or C6 chemicals treatments because they would not tell us what those treatments were.

Mamavation’s Featured Brand: Brentwood Home Play Couch for Kids

Brentwood Home Play Couch for Kids ($279): This play couch was exceptional in lots of ways. It’s Certi-PUR certified polyurethane foam, GREENGUARD Gold certified, and also “Formaldehyde Free by UL” certified. It also has some unique features that don’t really convey it’s non-toxic but are more environmentally minded. The polyurethane foam is made greener by using 20% BioFoam®, which is a type of polyurethane foam made from corn, sunflower, castor oil beans, and soybeans instead of petroleum. (This does not mean it off-gasses less or is better in terms of toxicity, but it contains less petroleum.) The fabrics are made from recycled plastics. The outer cover is made from 63.5% polyester, 29% REPEVE® made from recycled plastic water bottles, and 7.5% nylon. This product does not contain any “fire barriers” or PFAS fabric treatments. It also meets Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification and is Climate Neutral Certified. It also has a one-year warranty and is assembled in Los Angeles, California.

Mamavation’s Investigation on Play Couches for Children & Modular Foam Couches

Mamavation evaluated 18 different play couches and modular foam couches for children for fire retardants, VOCs, and PFAS chemicals. We contacted most of the brands to ask them questions that we could not tell the answers to based on their certifications. Then we ranked each product into categories of “not our favorite,” “better,” and “best.”

Please note, we did not test any of these products in the lab to verify the claims made, however, we did ask them very specific questions about issues that are known to be a problem in the mattress industry.

Not Our Favorite Play Couches for Children & Modular Foam Couches

These were not our favorite play couches and modular foam couches. They were problematic for different reasons. Some used antimony-based fire retardants as a “fire barrier” over their CertiPUR certified foam core, while others used materials like PVC (or vinyl) that are naturally waterproof but not recommended for the environment. This category also includes brands that do not have transparent information on their sites and are not responding to consumer questions when asked.

• Lucid 4 Inch Folding Sofa & Play Mat ($248): Made from gel memory foam. It contains inorganic flame retardants called antimony oxides (toxic heavy metal retardants) and phosphate-based compounds inside a “treated cotton fabric fire barrier.” Polyester cover so no PFAS on outside. CertiPUR certified foam core.
• Cake Sofa Design Skins Transformable Play Furniture ($199): This brand did not have any 3rd party certifications. It’s made from 80% inner castella block foam/20% polyurethane memory fabric. Made in Korea. No other information and do not return inquiries.
• Costzon 2-n-1 Kids Double Sofa ($135): This product uses PVC as a surface, and is filled with “soft sponge” and is ASTM certified. We did not find any additional non-toxic 3rd party certifications looking at other attributes. We did not hear back when we inquired about “fire barriers” or stain-resistant treatments.
• ECR4Kids Fun Foam Blocks for Kids ($59): They’re made from dense foam that’s been covered with colorful soft leather material. Phthalate-free and GREENGUARD Gold certified for minimal emissions into the indoor air. We emailed questions about whether they had a fire barrier and what it was made of and if they have any treatments used on the fabrics and they did not get back to us.
• Factory Direct Partners SoftScape 10 Inch Butterfly Stool Modular Seating Set ($126): Made from polyurethane foam, GREENGUARD Gold certified, and CertiPUR-US Certified and complies with CAL 117 flammability regulations. Made in Mexico. Did not return our questions about “flame barriers” or stain-resistant treatments.
• Huddle Play Couch ($299): This brand has very little information about materials on their website and does not return inquiries.
• Jaxx Zipline Modular Kids Loveseat ($158): This brand is made from CertiPUR certified polyurethane foam and has microsuede covers. No other information is given on the website and did not return our inquiries about “fire barriers” or additional stain-resistant chemical treatments.
• Pottery Barn Foamnasium Play Couch ($259): This product has an outer casing that is made of vinyl that is supposedly “phthalate-free.” Using high-density polyurethane foam and is GREENGUARD Gold certified. American made in Indiana.
• Serta Delta Children Perfect Sleeper Convertible Sofa & Play Set for Kids ($169): This brand claims “all of our products are free from added toxic fire retardants, lead, and phthalates” on their websites. We sent inquiries about “fire barriers” and stain-resistant treatments and did not hear back. Made in Taiwan.
• SoftScape Novelty 4-Piece Soft Seating ($130): Made in China. Uses CertiPUR certified polyurethane foam and GREENGUARD Gold certified. The surface material is a “phthalate-free” soft leather-like outer layer, so it’s easy to clean. It also says it’s BIFMA compliant. They were not able to answer our questions when asked about “fire barriers” or stain or water-resistant treatments.
• WestElm Foamnasium Play Couch ($259): This brand has an outer shell made of vinyl with a polyurethane foam fill. It’s GREENGUARD Gold certified. This is likely the same product as the Pottery Barn one. Likely American made. 

Better Play Couches for Children & Modular Foam Couches

These products we are unsure of because the certifications do not tell the entire story. Some may treat their products with “water-repelling” chemicals that could contain PFAS, but are not really aware or transparent about what they are. We did appreciate the brands that received GREENGUARD Gold, OEKO-TEK Standard 100, & Bluesign certification, but none of them have restrictions on all PFAS chemicals or prevent them from using “fire barriers” that may off-gass over time. We also put into this category brands that could have made it to our “best” category, but they only had Certi-PUR and no other certifications to verify low VOCs.

• KozyCouch Play Couch ($129): This brand owner is very knowledgeable about his product and responds to emails. Made with CeriPUR-US^® polyurethane foam and covered in soft, durable, machine-washable 100% polyester blend fabric with no added chemicals (flame retardant or PFA).  There are no “fire barriers” and no PFAS chemical treatments applied to this product either. However, since there are no other 3rd party certifications other than CertiPUR, we have placed this in the “better” category.
• Nugget Play Couch ($229): This brand uses Certi-PUR certified polyurethane foam and the outer fabric is made from microsuede fabric. They were not sure if the OEKO-TEK approved fabrics used PFAS chemicals when asked and was non-responsive to us when we drilled down to ask that question. They told us to check with OEKO-TEK instead, but we already did and know the answer to that question. OEKO-TEK does not test at all for organic fluorine and only checks for the standard 60+ or so PFAS chemicals in their fabrics. This brand also passes California Prop. 65 standards so no warning is needed for lead or bisphenols. This is the most popular brand, but we believe they can do a bit better by ensuring they are not using PFAS and getting an additional certification like UL Formaldehyde Free.
• Possom Play Couch for Kids: This product uses CertiPUR polyurethane foam and OEKO-TEK Standard 100 certified fabrics. We could not get a clear answer about “fire barriers” and PFAS chemical use from them.
• Puffin Play Couch ($449): This product is manufactured in Canada from Certi-PUR polyurethane foam. The outer fabric is made from soft chenille polyester. This brand claims the product is made without “fire barriers” or any other fire retardants. They also claim there is no PFAS treatment chemicals on the outer fabric. Because there are no other 3rd party certifications, we put this into the “better” category.
• Roo & You Joey Couch ($240): The owner of this brand was very knowledgeable about his product and responds to emails. It’s made from CertiPUR certified polyurethane foam. He has no “fire barriers” and uses no flame retardants and no PFAS treatments on the outer cover. The cover is made from single-brushed microsuede. Even though he did not have additional 3rd party certifications, he knew a lot more about his product than most other brands did, but because of that we have put this into the “better” category.
• Shennanigan Kids The Figgy Play Couch ($309): Made from Certi-PUR polyurethane foam and a microsuede outer cover. Our covers are made from 100% microsuede. We inquired about “fire barriers” and PFAS chemical treatments and were reassured there are none. However, since there is no other certifications for verification for off-gassing, this product goes into the “better” category.
• Stylized Nest Play Couch ($466): Bluesign certified chemical use, which could potentially be PFAS chemicals C4 or C6. “Our organic cotton does have a novel microcapsule water stain repellent that is PFOA free and Bluesign certified.” Made in Canada.

Best Play Couches for Children & Modular Foam Couches

Let me start off by saying that none of these products had materials we preferred because we aren’t a big fan of the off-gassing of polyurethane foam. However, one brand, in particular, was responsive to questions, did not contain any of the major materials and chemicals we were avoiding, and had some additional features and certifications that made them more exceptional. [We are not really a big fan of CertiPUR foam certification in mattresses because we believe there are far better options (like GOTS or GOLS organic), but in terms of play couches, there aren’t better alternatives to polyurethane foam.] We prefer non-chemical treated microsuede or polyester blends here to phthalate-free vinyl and more assurance of the off-gassing over time. This category had an exceptional amount of certifications.

• Brentwood Home Play Couch for Kids ($296): This play couch was exceptional in lots of ways. It’s Certi-PUR certified polyurethane foam, GREENGUARD Gold certified, and also “Formaldehyde Free by UL” certified. It also has some unique features that don’t really convey it’s non-toxic but are more environmentally minded. The polyurethane foam is made greener by using 20% BioFoam®, which is a type of polyurethane foam made from corn, sunflower, castor oil beans, and soybeans instead of petroleum. (This does not mean it off-gasses less or is better in terms of toxicity, but it contains less petroleum.) The fabrics are made from recycled plastics. The outer cover is made from 63.5% polyester, 29% REPEVE® made from recycled plastic water bottles, and 7.5% nylon. This product does not contain any “fire barriers” or PFAS fabric treatments. It also meets Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification and is Climate Neutral Certified. It also has a one-year warranty and is assembled in Los Angeles, California.