What kind of cushion is right for my home?

Lily Cichanowicz Lily Cichanowicz
Floor cushions, bluebellgray bluebellgray Bedroom design ideas
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Redecorating your home is a step-by-step process. Once you’ve chosen the right furniture for your interior, it becomes time to move onto a design element that can be a bit trickier to manage: the décor. These items can be purely ornamental or decorative additions to the room that also serve a functional purpose. Because they aren’t necessarily the most fundamental aspect of the space, they can actually become more difficult to choose. 

Luckily, we at homify have dedicated plenty of guides to decorating various areas in the home. There’s one thing in particular, however, that we think could use a bit more explanation. As you’ve probably guessed by the title of this Ideabook, we’re referring to cushions, of course! Cushions can actually add enormous decorative flair while also making your interiors cosier and comfier. Plus, there are so many possibilities to choose from! Here are six simple tips to choosing the right cushions for your home.

Assess your home & define your style

As we’ve mentioned a bit above, the first step in decorating is to take some time to reflect on your personal tastes. This can often be as simple as looking around you and observing which styles of furniture and colour schemes are already at play within the given interior. As long as you already like what you see, it’s simply a matter of building on it. 

Take this room by Caxton Rhode for instance. It is chic and contemporary in style. The muted grey and white colour scheme predominates here, and the focal point is the fireplace. The owner of this interior found some artwork that she loved, and decided to add it to the space. If you imagine the room without the accent cushions, the artwork would not fit nearly as well. This is just one example of the transformative powers cushions can have within a room once you identify your style and the ways you’d like to use cushions to enhance your look.

Where do you need cushions?

Along with understanding your aesthetic tastes, it’s important to take practical needs into account as well. Cushions are unique decorative objects in that they are not strictly ornamental. 

Cushions can make a sofa or love seat far more comfortable, thus allowing you to get more use out of your furniture. They can be useful for creating a small reading nook on a window seat or area for the kids to watch TV on the floor. Some cultures also use cushions for sitting at the dining table. In this case cushions are an utterly essential element of a functional home. Before investing, we suggest you take a moment to write a list of the practical needs you hope to have met through the introduction of new cushions.

Decide about the colour palette

In addition to fulfilling practical needs, one of the best ways to utilise the cushions you introduce to your home is to help enhance the colour palette. Cushions are often used as accents to add a pop of contrasting colour, but you can certainly add cushions in the same colour family to strengthen the aesthetic continuity in the space. 

For example, the orange-brown cushion used here helps to create cohesion between the various warm-toned wooden pieces of furniture. The olive green cushions mirror the feature wall and help anchor the presence of this contrasting colour within the room. Meanwhile, the white cushions draw continuity between the walls, furniture, and curtains. The possibilities of using cushions as a way to manipulate the colour palette in your interior are truly endless so have fun with this part!

Decide on the size

On another practical note, it’s important to think about the size of the cushions you purchase. Cushions truly do come in all shapes and sizes! Whether you’re looking to set up a hangout space in your living room like we can see in this example, or would like to add cushions to your patio furniture, it’s best to take some precise measurements. 

You may even consider investing in some customised cushions to avoid the hassles of finding the right ones commercially. One elongated cushion works nicely on a sofa or love seat, but you can also mix and match with cushions of different sizes to make the look more dynamic. Accent pillows are a bit easier to purchase on a whim because they don’t need to fit perfectly against the back of the sofa. In addition to taking note of the size you’re looking for, the level of firmness used in the cushion is a significant factor.

See if you can use old ones with new covers

DIY design and deco is becoming quite popular for good reason. It is a fun way to get more engaged with the design process as well as a chance to express your creativity and learn new skills. What’s more is that it can ultimately save you a ton of money with regard to adding new cushions to your interior. 

This room has some distressed leather furniture that looks great, but its cushions needed a facelift. Simply taking measurements, purchasing some nice fabric, and spending an afternoon at the sewing machine was all it took to transform the aesthetic details of this living room. This is an excellent way to get a little bit more life out of some worn, threadbare, or stained cushions as long as their firmness is still intact. If DIY decoration isn’t your thing, this is a pretty routine task for upholstery professionals and seamstresses.

Search the internet before buying

One final tip to impart with regard to purchasing curtains is not to forget the wonderful tool of the Internet. Spending a bit of time on the web will help you to compare prices and give you the most access to different styles, brands, and design. Of course, homify is also an effective tool for getting aesthetically inspired. For instance, click the ‘Rooms’ tab and go to the ‘living room’ section to check out the latest looks in cushion décor.

If you need inspiration for finding a sofa, be sure to check out our guide to the best sofa trends of 2016!

How do you use cushions to accentuate your existing decor? Let us know in the comments section!

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