10 Tips for Styling Cushions
Styling cushions is a creative pursuit any interior designer will take on with unwavering energy. Here are our favourite tips.
1. Try ‘the chop’
You have probably run into this fan-favourite already – the swift, precise, and infinitely effective karate chop that gives cushions the perfect artful nonchalance.
It’s a little like finding a healthy mix of styled and un-styled, there for decoration and there for use. It’s a little like the goldilocks of cushion styling, since it stops things feeling ‘too staged’ or, at the opposite end of the scale, ‘too used’.
2. Or ‘the punch’
For the more aggressive homeowner, giving your cushions a decisive punch at their plumpest point will probably represent the ideal pastime.
Similar to the chop, the punch achieves the best of both worlds. It’s styled, but not too styled; casual, but not too casual. Like placing an open magazine on the coffee table, or draping a throw over the arm of the chair in that faux-laissez-faire way, it creates a sense that ‘people live here’ without it feeling chaotic and disorderly.
We find this generally works best with feather or feather down pillows, which are airy enough to hold their shape even after a punch or two.
3. Place them on their points
This is, in many ways, the polar opposite to punching or karate chopping your pillows. Getting them to sit on their points is delicate work, and won’t work with softer, squishier cushions.
It’s also higher maintenance, since they’ll need to be ‘re-pointed’ every time someone gets up off the sofa or armchair.
The effect is, however, pretty attractive, and suits the well-kept, tight-ship interior design styles to a T.
4. Combine shapes
This one is a lot easier, since there’s no maintenance involved. Simply by uncoordinating the shapes and sizes of your cushions, you can enjoy their individual beauty more.
Think about it. If every single one of your sofa cushions is the exact size and proportion, they’re far more likely to blend into one another than they would be if they were each surrounded by contrasting shapes and sizes.
5. Mix prints like a pro
This is one of our favourite things to do around the home – not least of all because it offers more scope to explore textile and print, colour and style, across the soft furnishings. It creates depth and dimension and a unique palette that, once again, keeps any home from feeling too ‘matchy matchy’ and staged.
We have written an entire article on pattern mixing your cushions already, so take a look at that for more ideas.
6. Vary weight
Some cushions suit being incredibly plump and full, while others work better with slightly reduced stuffing. It makes for more comfortable seating, with some cushions ready to conform to the body, and some capable of ‘pushing back’ a little more.
7. Intentional crowding
Clutter often has negative connotations for the home, but it needn’t do. As with most things, there is a sweet spot to be found between genuine, unruly clutter, and intentional clutter that’s as much a treat to the eyes at it is to the senses.
Intentionally crowding ‘too many’ cushions together, and almost over burdening a sofa, bench, window seat, or armchair with soft accents is a great way to create a plush and welcoming scene.
So, if your numbers are letting you down, take a look at our accent cushions.
8. Alternatively, channel your inner minimalist
If that doesn’t do it for you, then going underboard on your cushions can be just as effective.
To really pull this off – and avoid the sofa simply looking gappy – you’ll want to go as far as you can in the opposite direction, and place, say, one or two cushions at polar ends of the sofa.
How many cushions you’ll need will depend on the room, and how many seats you have to fill, but it can be effective (if not quite as cosy).
9. Don’t commit yourself to anything too high maintenance
No one, except perhaps a true cushion aficionado, wants to spend their life plumping, re-plumping, and re-styling their sofa cushions. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t embrace the plump, maximalist look of a well-scattered sofa in favour of just one or two favourites, but that it’s best not to cling too tightly to one particular arrangement.
Sometimes, the best results can be found from simply letting a beautiful collection of cushions fall where they may.
10. Stack a few extras in a crate
Surplus cushions? They can still be aesthetic features in their own right. An upcycled apple crate or decorative box can be piled high with extras, and offer as much a practical purpose (ready for floor sitters and extra guests) as they do a decorative addition to the room.
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