How to Use Cushions to Decorate a Room

Most of us have cushions in our living rooms and sometimes in the bedrooms and they can be a real decorative feature or a real pain.  Getting the most from cushions seems to be a bit of a challenge but there are some goodtips to help you conquer the cushion and successfully use them to decorate a room and here are a few.

Colour and pattern

The first tip is that if your sofa or chair comes with matching cushions, toss them into the nearest charity shop.  Cushions should add colour, pattern and texture to a room but if they are the same colour or pattern as the sofa, all they are doing is taking up room.  They will merely spoil the line of the sofa and blend in pointlessly.

The next tip to picking cushions is about your colour palette and is probably the most important point.  The choice of colour for your cushions is far more important than the material they are made from, their size or shape.  You need to look at the existing elements in the room – the walls, the artwork, the patterns on the curtains and the furniture – all of which come with colour and pattern.  The tip to choosing the colour of the cushions is to go for something that ties all those elements together.  Firstly, the colour you pick should already be in the room – it could be the colour of the curtains, in one of the paintings or an ornament, even in the pattern of the sofa.  Secondly, it must coordinate with the other colours in the room.  If you are unsure about the colours, there are some great online colour swatch websites to use that will help out.

How many cushions?

How many cushions to add to a room depends on the overall style of the room.  if your is a traditional style room with deep colours, then go for an even number of cushions, say two per sofa or four.  For a modern room or one aiming for an eclectic look, then go for an odd number, say three per sofa or five.  Of course, this isn’t set in stone but an idea based on other’s experiences.

Another way to look at the number of cushions is by the number of seats on the sofa.  For example, a three-seater sofa can adequately accommodate five cushions and a two seater can work with up to four cushions but on a single seater, one cushion is probably the best.

Picking the cushion

So now, you have the colour or colours that will work in the room and the number of cushions you want.  So off to the shops you can go or hit the internet.  You can see what patterns you can add to the mix and even consider a special personalisedcushion for the single seat chair in the room.  This might commemorate a special event in your history or just be something a little fun.  Even piled among the coloured cushions, this special one can form a harmonious partnership.