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Surely it must have happened to you, too, but it happens to me very often that I feel like a desire for change in the home. It happens that I look at the furniture and objects that I loved until recently and feel bored and in the mood for change.How can we do in such cases to give a new style? Today let's see together how to give a completely new style to the living room and especially the sofa with just a few tricks, using decorative pillows..
Renovating the Home With Little Touches: how to arrange decorative pillows.
It's not always possible to make radical changes in the home, and so over the years I've developed little tricks to freshen up the decor without turning everything upside down. One of these tricks concerns the sofa, which can be revitalized thanks precisely to cushions, and which in the living room and in a house in general often plays a very important role: it is a large piece of furniture, which is often placed in the center of the living area and involves a significant expense.
That is why I digress a little to give you some advice on choosing a sofa, which can become a great ally in home furnishing if you have purchased a good one.
Choosing The Sofa: Ideas And Tips.
Comfortable sofa or designer sofa?
When it comes to buying a sofa, my advice is to always prefer comfort and quality, without getting caught up in transient lightning strikes, dictated perhaps by the desire to own a wonderful designer item that will give your home the look worthy of being featured in a home decorating magazine. Look for a sofa that lasts, that will stay with you through the years, and when in doubt, opt for a model that is not too affected by fashions. In fact, the sofa is, in my opinion, a piece of furniture that, if well chosen, can last for many years and can eventually be moved from house to house with little intervention. Therefore, it is always a good idea to choose a sofa that is a good compromise between style and comfort, preferring a model with a seat that has an aesthetic that we like and that fits our lifestyle. In fact, we should not make the mistake of evaluating only the color and lines, but it is important that you evaluate your use of it. Consider, for example, the fact that you have pets and children-or want them in the near future-to choose a stain-resistant sofa or one in a color more suited to being scrambled or even, more simply, a large comfortable sofa with footrest if you love to spend long evenings watching movies at home.
There are sofas that are comfortable and simple in their form, but so solid and well-structured that they are even passed from generation to generation, with a little care and periodic maintenance I am an example of this, because I have a sofa in my house that belonged to my grandmother that I love with all my heart and that only needed a little work to fill in the seat cushions that had become a little empty after years. Sometimes, however, even a sofa that we love dearly needs ,as I said, a touch to give it a new look. What to do then?
Certainly if the upholstery is ruined or you just can't see it anymore, you can have it reupholstered by a trusted upholsterer, but from one season to the next, there are much less expensive and drastic little interventions that I am sure will make you happy.
One of my favorite seasonal tricks is to change the decorative cushions on my sofas. Especially if the color of your sofa is neutral, you will have an endless number of possibilities of new pillows, patterns and fabrics to use to change the face of your sofa. The seasonal variables, will not only be the colors of the pillows, but also the shape, number and arrangement.
How many pillows do we put on the sofa?
The number of decorative cushions to put on a sofa depends first of all on the structure of the sofa. If the back of the sofa is quite simple and the seat deep, you can enrich your sofa with several cushions. Decorative cushions not only change the look of your sofa, but also make it more comfortable to sit on because you can arrange them as you like, to support your back or as very comfortable pillows for lying down and resting, so it is always a good idea to put a couple more cushions than the sofa seats, so if you have a two-seater, you will use five standard cushions. Custom dictates that you always use an odd number, so start with a minimum of three, but do not set a maximum number, which varies greatly from situation to situation.
Even if the temptation to get carried away and use a lot of them is strong I advise against overdoing it and going over five: it is important not to exceed the number, if sitting down you are forced to move them means there are too many. The discussion of the number of cushions is then closely connected with their size, shape and, above all, arrangement.
What Shapes And Sizes For My Pillows?
The most popular decorative pillows are square in shape and measure about 45 x 45 cm, this is because square ones are the passepartout of lines, since they fit effortlessly on virtually any sofa. You can use several pillows of identical size and color or instead you can arrange pillows of different shapes and sizes on your sofa.
For example, I love mixing large 60 x 60 cm square pillows with smaller ones of the same shape, or with rectangular ones, such as some 30 x 60 cm, which are very comfortable to put behind your back. In our recent collections you will also find larger rectangular pillows that are 40 x 70 cm and look particularly elegant in my opinion, placed on large sofas with contemporary lines. If you want a reference on which to base yourself, take symmetry as a criterion, an aspect that guides you in creating harmony and an unparalleled sense of order. Precisely in response to this principle, my advice is to always buy cushions in pairs, which does not mean that they have to be equal but that you should have at least two cushions for each size you choose.
Let us now see how to arrange them, and I assure you that there are many different ways in which you can arrange the pillows, completely changing the look of your sofa. I reproduce below some explanatory sketches
How to Arrange Pillows On the Sofa.
Let's make one thing clear right away: as with everything, there is no always valid rule that tells us how to arrange decorative pillows on the sofa; in fact, this depends on personal taste, comfort and the style choices we make. In principle you can stick to some basic patterns and arrangements, which are always valid and perfect for a tidy sofa in style, and make variations depending on your fancy and why not your mood.
Pattern in the center
The most popular arrangement is definitely the one that takes the entire length of the backrest, starting from the armrests and going toward the center. Usually you arrange the largest cushions at the ends first, going down in size as you get toward the center area.
External pole pattern
A daughter of the first technique, the extreme pole pattern is more minimal and simple, suited to clean, elegant lines. In this case we are going to arrange pairs of cushions at the extremes of the sofa to create symmetry between the arms and a rigorous opposite-point pattern.
Grouped pattern
If you have a very large sofa you are often faced with the opposite problem, that of giving it a cozy but at the same time uncluttered look: this is the arrangement I prefer. Choose different groups of pillows, each consisting of two or three pillows, and arrange them in small staggered groups on the sofa, taking care to use the larger ones outward and the smaller ones in the center.
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What colors to choose for decorative pillows.
Since we started from talking about the desire for change, let's say then that color is the most effective way to change the look of your rooms, and the home's textile accessories, such as pillows, curtains, a new bedspread, or a rug, have the power to change the way of your home already a great deal. Therefore, if you are a person who gets bored easily, I suggest you adopt different color palettes to alternate throughout the seasons. As mentioned earlier, if you work on a fairly neutral container, the going will be very easy, and over time you will be able to go from rooms all played out in neutral tones to others characterized by a bold color palette, just by changing a few pieces of furniture. If, on the other hand, you have given your home a personality with the choice of a specific color or color range, I suggest that you change over the seasons the intensity of your range, and also play on different materials. Let me give you the example of my house: I have adopted green in many color gradations, ranging from sage to forest, through different shades of moss green
Well, over the seasons what I can change with the pillows is the intensity of my greens, so for summer I favor shades that descend from sage toward the lighter tones of lime green, ice blue or mint green, while in winter I accentuate the undergrowth green tones and also combine them with warm shades of tobacco and rust. Once you have chosen the colors you prefer, you can think about the patterns, which can really make a difference and do not risk creating excessive juxtapositions thanks to the matching shades. Therefore, do not be afraid to combine solid hues with patterns, as long as it respects a color palette or even better a theme, which as we have seen can be related to the season. Color therefore remains the common thread among the choices you will make in terms of prints and patterns and will also allow you to make bolder combinations, such as stripes and polka dots or highly worked or embroidered pillows with toile de jouy prints. My advice is in any case to always add pillows in solid colors to avoid confusion and create a restful effect for the eye, always using a mix of patterns balanced with each other.
Decorative Pillows: What Materials to Choose
Once the colors and patterns have been chosen, we move on to materials, which not only change the style but also create important tactile sensations, increasing the coziness and comfort of the sofa. To the color combinations I combine a choice of different materials, so if in summer on the sofas, I place only linen pillows, giving the house a really cool and cozy air, in winter I also introduce heavier fabrics, such as velvet, wool, suede, and some heavy and very elegant jacquard fabrics.
If you then add to your pillows a nice plaid to keep on the sofa to snuggle up in the evening, you will have given the room a different, anti-boredom effect! Have fun at this point to add a few details such as a candle, vase or plant, in your new chosen colors and reinforce the effect you have achieved. In this article I have given you some tips on how to renew your sofa thanks to decorative pillows: discover our collection of pillows and accessories for the living room and living area!