PILLOWS CAN GIVE SOFA A WHOLE NEW PERSONALITY

Beware too-matchy fabrics; lean toward texture and pattern

Deploying a variety of pillow shapes, sizes and textures is the best way to elevate and personalize the sofa, one of the largest pieces of furniture in your home, according to design professionals.

“Pillows show your personality in a funny way, sort of like art and decorative objects and textiles,” says textile designer John Robshaw, known for his indigo, hand-blocked and ikat print pillows. “A sofa with a pillow on each corner is really boring. Get your personality out there and add in some different styles, colors and sizes.”

Beth Diana Smith, a New Jersey designer, agrees. “The worst is a matchymatchy look, like a green sofa with green pillows,” she says. “It makes it feel lazy and unimaginative and creates a very boring look.”

Group decorative pillows in the middle of a sofa or at either end.

“The right and left side of the sofa do not have to match,” says Nicole Fisher of BNR Interiors in New York. “It’s an easy way to introduce a little bit of pattern without a big commitment.”

Some makers, including Robshaw, offer pillow bundles: an assortment of pieces (often three to five) that a professional has chosen because they work well together. Pillows are available at many retailers and from Etsy makers. You can also buy fabrics and sew them yourself or have them made by a local professional. Smith likes the selection at Jungalow, as well as the vast options from HomeGoods. Fisher likes the off-the-rack pillows from CB2, Crate & Barrel and RH.

Here are five tips:

Treat your sofa like a canvas

A cream or gray sofa is the perfect neutral base. If you like a calming natural palette, stick with the tone of your upholstery, adding interest with various shapes and textures, weaves, tweeds and tone-on-tone prints, Robshaw says. If you’re not afraid to go bold, pick a color, then experiment with multiple shades, or mix several colors that pick up hues of other objects in the room. “The most important thing is to make sure there is one cohesive color throughout all of your pillows,” Fisher says.

Consider the sofa’s function

If the sofa is for relaxing and watching TV, have comfortable pillows with washable covers in cotton or linen. Keep pets and children in mind, too; a chunky knit or faux fur is not ideal for anyone with cats, for example, and silk or velvet is not a good choice if you have kids who eat on the sofa.

Be mindful of scale

Robshaw is a fan of 26inch square pillows.

“Scaling up your pillows on a sofa makes it fun and dramatic,” he says. “It’s more comfortable to have a big cushion behind you.”

If you have a long sofa, vary the shapes. A rectangle or kidney-shaped pillow allows you to “have a change of scale and make it visually exciting,” Robshaw says.

Don’t use the same fabric and color as your upholstery

Smith blames furniture retailers for promoting the matchy-matchy look, because many still include two matching pillows in the same fabric and color with the purchase of a sofa. Smith suggests being more thoughtful about choices and seeking different materials, colors or patterns. For a leather sofa, velvet pillows will soften the look. On velvet sofas, she gravitates toward cottons and woven materials for contrast.

Take your time arranging

Arranging pillows is sort of like creating a gallery wall, Robshaw says. “You put different sizes together and decide what looks dinky next to what or what color looks good next to the other,” he says. “It’s a process.”

Smith says it’s important to test the pillow combos you come up with, especially if you are mixing prints.

“Make sure the size of the patterns vary. They can’t all be big prints; you have to mix up small, medium and large ones,” Smith says. “It’s even hard for a designer to visualize how pillows will work together without trying it. You need to see it with the sofa.”