24 April 2016

Decorating with Pillows

Tucked Under

Whether they act as the finishing touch on a well-designed room or are truly transforming a blank-slate space, pillows are never an afterthought for us!

Pillows are every decorator’s secret weapon. They can act as the finishing touch on a well-designed room or truly transform a blank-slate space. We love designing custom pillows for our interiors, so today we are sharing some recent pretties we’ve made. As you can tell, we take our pillows very seriously! In our clients’ home office, below, we added graphic elements to what was otherwise a very serene, blue and off-white interior.

Strong indigo pillows made from fabric from Peter Dunham's textile collection mix well with a pair of vintage pillows.

In this sun lit conservatory/family room, Lauren designed pillows that added a modern punch to compliment the traditional chintz with corresponding colors and bold geometric patterns.

A favorite Hollyhock chintz always feels right.

In this rather serious library, we added a vintage pillow and two traditional but dressy pillows with a pop of color on the custom tape to throw things off.

Brown silk walls and curtains made of a handsome Bennison floral print give this room a cocoon like feeling day and night.

Planning the pillows for any project is always something that happens at the same time as we are designing the upholstery pieces and selecting the fabrics. They are often what gives cohesion to a fabric scheme and help to move color and pattern around the room. This 3-D rendering for a project in Tribeca shows how we map out our pillow placement. We take a very studied approach given the impact custom pillows can have on the overall look and feel of a finished room. They might be called “throw” pillows, but nothing about them is “thrown together”!

On the custom banquette (1), we designed two whimsical pillows decorated with palm branches paired with one soft brown velvet pillow to add some relief to the strong indigo of the banquette.

The colors are all perfectly complimentary.

For a luxurious green velvet sofa in the living room (2), we designed two strong blue silk pillows with a chic stripe pattern by Oscar De La Renta. A dressy green velvet needs to be paired with equally dressy pillow fabric — silk.

Silk always makes a wonderful companion to velvet.

For two club chairs (3) decorated with beige tape on the arms and skirt, we created these pillows with a small framed floral pattern.

Note the strapping detail on the arms and tailored skirts to add some additional interest to plain linen chairs.

(4) To add an unexpected color into the room, we designed two rectangular pillows out of a gorgeous dark violet wool, and added a tape with brown and blue accents to speak to all of the elements in the room.

We upholstered the bolsters in an elegant chocolate brown suede.

The fabric on this tub chair (5) was the starting point for the fabric scheme of this room, we made a pillow out of the same fabric to keep the look seamless and more modern.