One Sofa, Three Pillow Options

  Hi everyone.  I hope your Monday is going dandy and that you are doing good things.

Today I wanted to share some thoughts on what can sometimes be one of the most challenging aspect of designing a living space…..pillow selection.  The good news is that there are so many stylish pillow options available from every home décor, big box and online retail shop.  The bad news is that there are so many stylish pillow options available from every home décor, big box and online retail shop.  Sometimes having more options available to you can make the decision-making more difficult.

When I’m designing a living space, pillows are one of the key elements I use to pull the room together.  They add color, softness, pattern, texture and visual interest and will instantly add a feeling of comfort and coziness to a space.

ConfettiStyle Interiors

My formula for creating a pillow grouping is pretty simple.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m buying off the shelf or having them custom-made, I always START WITH A DOMINATE PATTERN.

From there I look for a DIFFERENT PATTERN VARIETY  ( animal print, stripe, chevron, plaid) in a larger scale and something that ties into my color palette.

And finally I round out my grouping with a pillow in a GEOMETRIC PATTERN, ideally in a smaller scale.

If I were placing this grouping on a sofa, I’d use a combo of two animal prints as the end pillows and add a floral to one side and an Ikat dot to the other. This will give my sofa a uniform but personalized feel.

If this grouping was to used on a bed, I’d use two of the floral pillows as the back pillows and place one animal print and one Ikat as a group in front of those.

These are pretty tried and true formulas for workable pillow combinations but I’ll be honest, sometimes it takes lots of mixing and matching to come up with the right solution.  It’s really about what looks good in your eyes.

One of my favorite sources for affordable pillows is Etsy.  You can find just about any look you want and you can often find many of the popular designer fabrics available in pillows too.  To give you a visual of the art of pillow mixing,  I pulled together a board showing how you can create different looks for one sofa with Etsy pillows.  Each of these looks will give a  living space a different style and feel.

 

WHAT EACH LOOK SAYS:

Grouping #1:  A classic floral pattern sets the tone with more modern patterns adding an updated feel and a sense of  causal comfort.  Shop the Look:  PopOColor

Grouping #2:  The more contemporary scatter pattern is a bolder look and offers a bolder color statement.  The accent patterns are more traditional and classic and help keep the overall statement balanced.  Shop the Look: ElemenOPillows

Grouping #3:  The modern floral takes on a more classic feel because of the muted colors.  The traditional stripe and dot patterns add both whimsy and structure.  Shop the Look:  WhitlockandCo

Another tip: 

Whenever I’m out pillow shopping for myself  I always add a fourth or even fifth pillow to the mix which allows me to change out my looks seasonally.  My stash of pillows looks a little something like this.

via

The Art of Pillow Mixing, just like any other element of designing of a room starts with a vision and builds from there.

Happy Decorating!