Have you ever struggled with how to pull all the elements of a room together? Hint: Custom pillows can often be the answer.

Start with Your Inspiration

Choose the one thing in your room that you love, or you feel is your inspiration point. Use that as the guide for other soft goods like pillows to help create unity in your design.

For one customer, it started with a fabulous piece of art in the dining room of their Hillcrest condo. They wanted to add custom pillows to help pull all the colors and elements together. It’s not just about color, which is important, but the contrast of the rich velvet with the silver silk.  The contrast works well to combine the color in the art to the luxurious elements of leather, metal and sleek lines that make up the room. Without the pillows, the room might feel cold with just a single punch of color from the art. The pillows bring life and warmth to the cool neutral palette.

Pillows Add a Visual Cue

The other way pillows work hard for your room’s design is as a visual cue for comfort. An invitation to sit down and relax. They tell your guests that you want them there. That you want them to make themselves at home and to engage with you. Home is your safe place, your respite from the world, a place to connect with family and friends. Adding simple design elements like pillows, can make the room seem unique and inviting, creating a sense of well being and calm.

Express Yourself

Pillows are also a great way to express your personal style throughout your home and bedrooms are no exception. A bed provides a great opportunity to layer in combinations of patterns, textures and sizes that a sofa or chair just don’t have the space for.

The Best Pillows

Pillows can be hardworking as well as visually appealing so keep this in mind when choosing the pillow form that goes inside the cover. Polyester is often used by furniture manufacturers as it’s inexpensive and looks good when it’s first delivered. However, the polyester will quickly flatten out and make the pillow look deflated. No amount of plumping will fix it.

The very best pillow forms are a combination of feather and down. These will last for years and only need to be plumped up to look fresh and new again. Because pillows are meant to be used, keep in mind the purpose when deciding on the feather / down combination. A typical combination is 10% down to 90% feathers. This gives a lot of softness that will be comfortable behind your back or under your head, but retain enough shape to be supportive. A combination of 25% down with 75% feathers will be very soft and luxurious but will require a lot more plumping as the down will settle easily and may not offer the support you need.

Pillows are like the jewels of your design scheme, and work in the same way the right accessory elevates an outfit. It may be a small thing but can make a powerful statement in the way it pulls everything together for a polished and cohesive look.

Myrna Everett is the founder of Home Vogue Interiors where we specialize in custom window fashions and other soft home goods. If you have enjoyed this blog post, please share it with others. If you are ready to start a conversation about your next project click on the “Your Project” button above and tell us what you’re working on and we’ll reach out to you and help you get started.