Once the Christmas festivities are over and the decorations are taken down, home can start to look a little empty and the warmth of the season feels as though it’s wearing off. However, there are small things you can do to embrace the look of a new year while keeping your home cosy. One small, but lovely, interior design hero that ticks every box is the cushion - both a quick interior scheme booster and a cosy winter addition that doesn’t need too much thought. Read on for our creative scatter cushion ideas to help restore well-being at home this month.
Coordinate sofa cushions with your existing décor
When on the lookout for new living room cushions, a common misconception is that you must match the colour of your sofas or armchairs, when in fact this will result in a flat, uninteresting colour scheme. Instead, remember that contrast doesn’t always mean clash and look outside your seating for inspiration. Pick out shades and textures from nearby wall art, rugs, blankets or ornaments and reflect these in your new cushions.
Mix and match cushion patterns, textures, sizes and colours
In the interests of keeping your soft furnishings interesting to the eyes and refreshing for the mind, build up from a base of one or two neutral cushions, then mix a block colour or two with texture and pattern such as sheepskin or a Berber style motif for a warm yet modern look. Choosing cushions in different shapes also makes for a varied scheme, and layering them up will create depth and a characterful, lived-in look.
“For the layering, it’s important not to match every cushion in the scheme, mix up the fabric textures and add one pop – for a neutral scheme I like to throw in one pop of black.”
DANI TAYLOR
Be bold with your living room cushion choices
The more neutral your room, the bolder and more patterned your cushions can be, as they will serve to accent the space and give it definition. Select soft furnishings in a couple of richer shades and arrange them around your living room to inject a little playfulness and fun into the space, while maintaining an overall feeling of paired back serenity. Alternatively, if you have a maximalist living room, opt for cushions in neutral shades and with little texture to balance your scheme, for example from our velvet and linen range.
Play around with sofa cushion arrangement ideas
Here at Cox & Cox, we believe in letting texture and pattern speak for themselves, so we tend not to play around with the orientation of our cushions – for us, straight on is the best way to showcase scatter cushions. If layering from the back or working in from the edges of your sofa, begin with a neutral base, then a pop of colour and finish with your most textured or patterned cushion in the centre of your arrangement to draw the eye.
“The fashionable ‘chop’ can suggest a hotel luxe feel, but we favour a shake and plump. Daily plumping is the price of a feather fill, but since a feather cushion feels and looks more luxurious, it’s a price worth paying.”
DANI TAYLOR
Experiment with bed cushion ideas
We like to keep things symmetrical and stick to no more than four scatter cushions – enough to add pops of colour and texture to your bedroom and turn your bed into a focal point, but not so many that it takes you ten minutes to make your bed every morning. Start at your headboard with the pillows that match your duvet cover, then place a pair of matching cushions side-by-side in front of those, then two different and ideally smaller cushions in front of those for a neat, inviting bed. Try picking cushions that bring out the colours in your bedding or décor for a coordinated yet homely look. Pictured above is a shining example of how this methodology works in practice, styled by the wonderful JP Clark. For more of his inspired interior design work, head over to his Instagram account, @jpslifeandloves.