The festive season is here. Rakshabandhan is tomorrow. Friends and family will be frequenting often. You want to make your home look nice and all, and of course cushions and pillows are a great idea to breathe new life into your home. But do you know how to make them work? How to create a pillow vignette so the cushion situation in your home is lust worthy?
Allow me to introduce you to pillow vignetting
Vignette in the decorating world refers to a small, curated set up; a tableau made from a variety of decorative items that speaks about your home, the season, and your perception of it. For example, every fall season I bring out my wheat sheaf and amber bottles and put them on display because to me that is the very essence of autumn. Burnt orange leaves and harvest.
Similarly, you can group cushions and pillows in a certain way to evoke a certain ambience in your home. That is pillow vignetting and today, I’ll tell you a little about how to go about styling your pillows so you can up your pillow game.
I’m not getting into the whole angle why pillows are one of the most effortless ways to breathe life into your space. It is much spoken about and I am assuming you already know this. So I will start from the point where you are convinced that pillows are always a great idea!
1. Color is a great place to start
When decorating with pillows and cushions, think in terms of color. What you want is to create a color story through out your home with cushions, throws and pillows and for it to express who you or your home is all about.
This is how I typically go about choosing cushions when im decorating a space
Consider the palette and color of your room, note down whether your home has light or dark tones, note what are those 3 major things in your room that draws attention immediately and lastly, look outside your window to see the kind of surrounding your home is in.
For example, if you have white walls, dark stained furniture with beige upholstery and a big sage armoire, with a vast expanse of green outside your window- your color palette is white, brown, beige, green and sage. Once you have the color palette sorted, you want to deep dive into colors a little more by thinking which colors do you want included in your home through pillows.
2. Expand the color palette with contrast and/or neutrals
My living room is very tonal while my studio has a bit of contrast. I have used denim with blues and navy for our living and used a bit of crimson with the same for our studio. So whether you want tonal or contrast is upto you. Also, is there a color you really want incorporated in your home? After all, our homes are who we are and restricting oneself to a particular color palette that doesn’t have room for your favorite color, is a bit too much to ask from anyone.
Say you want orange with sage and browns. How do you do it? You choose a few piece in orange and then pare it back with neutrals and nudes that will help bind orange to a green-brown heavy color palette. You can toggle within the orange family to find an orange that compliment your palette. Pillows expand the color palette of your home beautifully without much hassle.
3. Add visual interest in your vignettes with various patterns and heights.
Just solids or loads of patterns can make your space look flat. Make sure your pillow covers vary in application so you can add rich dimension to your pillow vignette. Mix solids and patterns, add print and textural details. I love using solids with a bit of design detail like quilting or frills and patterns like country checks or french tickin that add to our vintage, cozy farmhouse inspired home. During summer, I love solids with a bit of block prints because it infuses intricacies. In the winter months, I love knitted details or faux fur along with checkered and solids. The idea is to make sire your pillows reflect your home, the season and add to your overall color palette of your home.
In terms of size, your sofa can have two sizes and your bed upto 3. Varying heights and sizes also add visual interest and depth to your pillow vignettes.
4. Get good fillers
Your cushions and pillows are only as good as your fillers. If your fillers are flat and lumpy, no matter how beautiful your cushion covers are, it’ll not look good at all. For plump, cozy and beautiful looking pillow vignettes, get good fillers. I use fillers from StudioCovers and they have the best fillers ever.