• Home Design and Decorating – Tips

  Pillow Styling Guide

Part 1

Are you looking for a way to spruce up your decor? A new arrangement of pillows on a sofa or bed is an inexpensive and easy way to add color, texture, and most importantly, style to any room. Whether your style sense is modern, traditional, or bohemian, there is an infinite selection of pillows out there to cover all of the style bases.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun when adding a little character especially if you like the cool factor. Try something a little unexpected when a pattern or colour combination catches your eye.

Size and placement can make a big difference in how cozy and put together your room looks. Here is a primer to help you style your pillows successfully and avoid ending up with unhappy choices that simply didn’t meet your expectations.

BASICS – FORM & FUNCTION

It’s important to blend form and function. You may want your space to look like a magazine spread, but let’s face it, you and your family will be living there and most of us are not designers nor do we have stylists at our beck and call. Consider the main purpose of the room. If you are talking about a space where your family gathers, watches TV, or considers their main living space, then think of durability and comfort.

Let’s style a sofa or sectional. To make life a little easier, we have created a Pillow Styling Guide or Cheat Sheet for beds and sofas which is available in full at Pillows By Dwellissimo

DECORATIVE THROW PILLOWS

The sky is the limit when it comes to picking out decorative pillows. However, there are a few things to consider when choosing pillows. Number 1 – remember the basics of form and function.  The function should always be the first consideration.  With Instagram and Pinterest at your fingertips start a little scrapbook full of your favourite colours and designs. To help with your decision-making, rate choices from 1 to 10 and discard anything below 7.

Creating a mood board either digitally or manually may seem like a lot of work, but it really helps to avoid the frustration of wrong choices. Designers very frequently adjust their decisions this way.  I am a big fan of test runs.  Remember many retailers offer sample services which is a great assist when there are so many textiles to choose from.

We’ll talk more about quantity, size, and an easy-to-remember formula for selecting throw pillow combinations in the next post, but right now let’s focus on colour.

Colour

Creating a color story is just about deciding on a selection of colors you would like to use to make a certain style statement throughout your space. There are several ways to do this, but the best way is to pull 3-4 different colours from other parts of the room such as carpets, curtains, furniture, bedding, wall color, or artwork. Pick these colours up in the fabrics and patterns you choose for your pillow selection.  Unless you like bohemian styling, stick with this limited palette of 3–4  colours.

Creating this colour story will help to keep the look cohesive even if you choose different patterns, textures, and pillow sizes.