Pillow Styling Guide – Part 2

 

Home Design and Decorating – Tips

Pillow Styling Guide

 

Part 2

 

 

Mix and Match Pillow Arrangement

Now that you have your color palette ideas, it’s time to start choosing patterns and styles.

Pillows do not have to match perfectly. To achieve that curated look you don’t want them to be too matchy-matchy.

Think about using vintage or handmade pillow styles where each piece may be unique. Often, since they are aged or hand dyed the colors are not identical and this brings a warmth and character to the space not always found in industrially sewn pillow covers.

Solid + Texture + Pattern

For ease, we have created the styling guide or cheat sheet in Part 1 of this post and which is available in full on our website at no charge. As an example, we will use the pillows shown in the sofa guide.

For most sofas and sectionals, style in multiples of 3. Depending on the size of the sofa to form your group of 3, choose 1 – 20” to 22” square, 1 – 18” to 20” square, and 1- 14” x 20” or 22” lumbar or 1 – 12” x 24” lumbar. If you have a particularly large or deep sectional or sofa you may want to increase the size of the largest pillow to 24” and graduate the sizing downward by 2” from that shown in our guide.

Using your colour story narrow down pillow options based on the following formula:

Solid – Solid colour pillows. Carrying the colour of the wall, or the most prominent color in the carpet palette whether it’s white/off-white or neutral, use a solid in any of the pillow sizings, but try the smallest pillow as a solid first.

Texture – Textures are a great way to add subtle interest and depth to your pillow arrangement. You can choose from different textiles such as velvet, linen, wool, faux fur, boucle, or even silk. Hand-woven textiles or a pillow with fringes, shells, or embroidery for example may be all you need to add textural interest.

Pattern – The sheer number of patterns out there can make decision-making difficult but patterns can also be the most fun to play with in your colour palette. Add a pop of color or bold graphic element to the overall design by pulling from your colour pallet. Whatever the style of the pattern, ensure that one or more of the colours in your colour story is prominent in the design.

You can even substitute small-scale patterns for texture if you prefer. Just make sure to have both a small-scale pattern and a large-scale pattern in the mix.

Follow this simple formula and refer to our cheat sheet for sizing and placement. You will be styling your pillows like a pro.