Pillow Talk
In a recent design meeting, I was chatting with my clients on a few “rules” I like to follow to create the perfect pillow-scape. It’s actually rather simple, yet so many people get it wrong! Either too many pillows, not enough pillows, or the pillows are too small for the piece of furniture. Let’s break it down into three parts for a simplified and classic pillow-scape.
Color + Pattern
When it comes to color and pattern it goes hand-and-hand with how you’ll layer them. The largest pillow is in the back and smaller in the front, got it? The largest pillow should be a nice contrast to whatever the pillow sits against, also, if you’re into patterns this is pattern should be a larger print with lots of color variation. This gives you the most flexibility with your other finish selections as well as a nice palette to bring in a secondary or tertiary color into the space. The middle pillow is best as a solid that’s heavy in texture, and pulling a color from the last pillow. Lastly, the smallest pillow should be a small pattern in a different color from the large pillow. So let’s break it down, large pillow = large colorful pattern, medium pillow = texture, and small pillow = small monochromatic pattern.
PROPORTIONS
This is where I find many people get their pillow-scape “wrong”. The pillows are either too large that you have no space left to sit, or too small they look lame and don’t provide any comfort. So how do we get it just right? The general rule of thumb, the largest pillow should be ~2” smaller than the sofa back, let’s say its 22” square, allowing a little bit of the sofa back to frame the pillow. The medium pillow is about 2” less than the largest, 20” square. Now for the smaller pillow… it really depends on the width of the sofa and personal preference. If you want to keep it clean + classic make it an 18” square. For a wider sofa you can make the smallest pillow a standard lumbar or bolster, whatever you do, don’t keep adding pillows and filling the seat completely. A little empty space is okay, plus it’s less pillows to fluff and karate chop!
INSERTS
The fill is very straight forward - first, always opt for a hypoallergenic fill (aka not real feathers). The insert should be 2” larger than the pillow, a 24” square pillow gets a 26” square insert. This way the pillow is full and fluffed, ready for a light karate chop if you please.