After a few years of your last refurbishment of the living room, it is quite natural that it would be looking somewhat tired and dull. Living rooms take a lot of beating because of the high traffic and the furniture, furnishing, as well as the floor and paint, can start looking dowdy and worn out. Before you hunker down to the typically mammoth and expensive task of refurbishing the living room you could consider giving it a fresh lease of life with the strategic use of cushions. When chosen with care, cushions can bring in harmony into mismatched or cluttered rooms by pulling in all the elements together. However, while the task of choosing cushions can seem to be quite simple, it can be really difficult in reality as getting it wrong is actually quite easy. Some useful tips:
Size, Placement, and Other Important Elements
Cushions come in different sizes and it is quite easy to disregard the effect of the size. However, while the standard 18-inch squares work very well on the normal sized sofas, you can create a more casual feel by using the 24-inch oversize cushions. If you have one of the contemporary design sofas that sport low backs then use 16-inch pillows for best comfort. The most important factor that makes cushion comfortable is the fill. Softer fills like feather will definitely be squishier but tend to be priced far higher too. The usage of synthetic fills like foam and polystyrene makes for a cushion that’s firmer but the shape is held better for a longer time. If the furniture has a lot of depth then you can pile another cushion on top of the first one for added effect.
Mix the Pillow
You can resort to some simple yet very useful tactics of arranging the pillows so that the room décor gets an added punch. Try and place the pillows in such a way so that the number is odd; three, five or even one can look very striking depending upon the furniture size. For a chair, you can just use one but for a standard sofa that’s about 88 inches long, you can use three or five depending on your preference.
You can create very interesting arrangements not only by using contrasting colors of the interior furnishings fabric but also by using different pillow shapes. For example, try placing a couple of square cushions that contrast with the sofa’s color and a single oblong pillow in between the two at the center. While the pillows at the corners can be solid colored the center one can be patterned or even embellished in a way that references either the solid colors of the pillows or the color of the sofa fabric itself.
When selecting the fabric for the cushions remember to check for the texture as that is very important for the feel against your skin. If you sofa is shiny and slippery be sure to select a rough texture fabric for the cushion as that will prevent them from sliding off to the floor. Also don’t look upon cushions as standalone objects for the sofa only. See if you can extend the use to other chairs; you don’t have to match the color or the texture but you should think of making them relate with the others so that the space takes on a unified look.
Resist the Tendency to Match Cushions to the Sofa
Many times when you buy a sofa set it comes with matching cushions but you should immediately discard them because using matching pillows means you are losing out on a wonderful opportunity to add texture and color to your living room. If you use matching pillows these will blend in with the color of sofa and would not be noticeable at all. Using cushions that have a contrasting color and complement the rest of the décor of the room is the same as hanging some new art on your walls to add some freshness to the room.
By using cushions strategically you can change the ambiance of the living room to quite an extent and lend an added dimension to the space without having to spend a lot. Done with a little bit of care and aesthetic sense cushions can indeed be a lovely idea to extend the life of a room.
