Pillows: It’s All in the Mix

Posted January 13, 2016 by Christina Bryant

When we make our bed, outfit our sofas, and fluff our chairs, we avoid perfection. (Gasp!) Yes, we want a tidy home and, of course, we strive for inspirational design, but we also take an irreverent approach to that – combining modern, traditional, and ethnic elements, and ultimately using pieces that don’t “match.” Instead we opt for a collected home where each piece was carefully added for its own visual story and history and the way it adds to ours. This same principle applies to our pillow assortment. Here’s how we mix it up on the bed, sofa, chaise, or chair and how it can work for you, too:

  1. Keep it tonal. Each piece doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) the same color, but it should fall in to the room’s color story – blue on black on white with a hint of purple, or pink and white and green with a hint of blue, etc.
  2. Use scale. Notice the scale of the pillows’ patterns. Pick pieces with a variety of scales. For example, combine the oversize dots in our Vintage Indigo Pillow II with the miniature arrows of Indigo Dyed Pillow III.
  3. Include different shapes. Rather than lining up square pillows of the same size, combine big and little ones, and/or top off a grouping with a rectangle like our Chintamani or Kuba Cloth II or III or lumbar.
  4. Add texture. A grouping of various indigo dyed pillows can be perfection. That said, one way to bring intrigue into the mix is combining textures – embroidered pieces mixed in with dyed and woven pillows or more extreme patchworked Congolese raffia pillows will enhance depth.
  5. Consider an element of symmetry. While arranging your assortment, use symmetry to add visual intention and pull an assortment together. For example, in a group of 5 pillows on your couch, consider the two pieces second from the outside to match.

Fluff it up!

Here we’ve mixed Kuba Cloth, Mud Cloth, Indigo, and Chintamani pillows with a variety of size, color, and texture to wow.

These vintage Kantha pillows add a whimsical element with their playful patterns and colors. The mini pillow complements the larger piece without coordinating.

Bring this mix to life in your abode.

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