Toss the Pillows!

Every now and then I hear "professional design advice" that just makes me cringe. That's what happened when I heard a salesperson say (not an exact quote): Let's select pillows for the sofa in the sofa's fabric so the pillows look "tied" to it. I'm sorry, what????????

As an Interior Designer, that just won't do. Just like jewelry, pillows can help or hurt the look of the sofa - and ultimately the room. You want the pillows to make sense in the room but not be identical to the sofa. Hmmm . . . . . . that sounds Intentionally Random? YES! It is!

Here's my advice: TOSS THE FREE PILLOWS!!!! If you are going with a ready-made sofa that comes with matching pillows, use them on accent chairs or give them away. Typically the free pillows have no fringe or embellishments and are otherwise just plain boring. Think of what these sofas (below) would look like with pillows if they were simply the same fabric and their sofas. NO BUENO!

Pictures from Pinterest and Houzz.com

The best way to make a sofa look LESS ready-made and more custom is to use coordinating and contrasting pillows. If you are choosing a custom or semi-custom sofa ASK if you can choose another fabric for pillows. The answer may be: YES! This will save you the expense of buying what you don't need. If you can't choose another fabric, consider using the stuffing (aka: the pillow inserts) from the free pillows in your new pillows for a GREEN design option. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Have questions? I'm here to help! Email me at twingatedesigns@verizon.net