You guys are HUNGRY for some interior decor based content. Honestly, interiors are hard to post about for several reasons. The first is that I’m not changing things up around my house enough to provide tons of inspirational photos. The second is that interiors are as subjective as art. What works for one person’s style, doesn’t for another. The third is that interiors are specific. There is only so much help I can give you without seeing your space specifically. I can give you advice, but I don’t know if it actually applies, unless I’m there.
But I’ll sure as heck try to give you guys as much information as I can, when I can. I can hit the basics and give you some rules and tips to help you get started. Keep in mind that there is ALWAYS an exception to every rule. And these aren’t hard fast and set in stone. Different designers follow their own set of trade secrets and rules. But hopefully, this will help you guys make better, informed decisions about your home!
If you’re in the market to have someone redesign a room in your house, I’m actually a designer through Havenly.com. You can actually book with me and I can redesign your home room by room! The cost for a full package is as low as $169, and a mini package is only $79. Plus, if you have a quick question about your layout, or a rug, or whatever, we also offer consults for only $19!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT HAVENLY & BOOK WITH ME!
OK! On to the goods. Today I’m going to chat about throw pillows. I got on IG stories last week and chatted about these a good bit, but I wanted to put everything into one place so that you can reference it whenever. I also added a home highlight to my Instagram so that you can see me talk about stuff like this!
I’m going to throw all of the shopping links in at the end!
Rules to Follow when it comes to Throw Pillows:
1| FEATHER FILLERS. This is going to be rule #1 because it SUPER important. The difference between those gorgeous pillows that you see on instagram and the ones in your house are likely the substance that fills them. Most pillows that you pick up from Home Goods, Target, etc are filled with a cotton POLY filler. This is the same stuff that you’d find as stuffing in a stuffed animal. It works fine, but it doesn’t create that V shaped indention that makes things look professional.
What you want is DOWN or FEATHER filled pillows. They’re overall much nicer, and more professional looking. Be careful when something says ‘down alternative,’ Make sure that it’s still a feather because sometimes companies will disguise their poly as ‘down alternative’ – those sneaky little devils. If you’re not sure if a pillow is down or poly, karate chop it between two corners and if it holds that deep V, it’s likely down or feather. If it pops right back up to a perfect square, it’s poly!
The exceptions here are larger lumbar pillows or round pillows. Like the yellow and white lumbar you see in the photos above. It’s about 36″ x 14″and because of the style with the tassels, it works that it’s a bit more stiff. If it was a solid velvet lumbar, I’d want it to be feather filled.
2| ONLY BUY COVERS. From now on, make a promise to only buy pillow covers. Skip the pillows that you find that don’t have removable covers. Typically those pillows without removable covers are the ones that are filled with poly anyway and as we already discussed, we’re avoiding those! When you’re browsing places like Home Goods, check to see if the cover is removable via zipper, if not, move on. Now, if it’s a cover that COMES with a removable down filler – that’s what I call a WIN WIN! You can sometimes find these at Home Goods and for an awesome deal too! A cover AND a down filler for $20 is a steal!
There are several reasons why, but here is the big one. Switching up your decor is 100000x easier if you can just grab new pillow covers instead of having to buy whole new pillows. I have a little box in my linen closet labeled ‘decorative pillow covers’ that holds all of the covers that I’ve used in the past, just in case I want to bring them back. And for those of you who love to decorate for holidays, this is a great way to save storage space on fall and winter decor by just sliding a new cover on existing pillows.
It also means buying less fillers. Since down/feather is a bit pricier than poly, it helps if you only have to buy a limited amount and they can be reused many many many times!
3| OVERFILL. One of the biggest questions in design is how to get that gorgeous, plump pillow. Some people think its the quality of the filler, and while that can help, the real culprit is the size of the filler. For instance, if you have an 18″ x 18″ pillow cover, your gut would tell you to fill it with an 18″ x 18″ down filler. INSTEAD, fill it with a 20″ x 20″ filler (they typically go up by 2″)! That’s going to give you a really full, gorgeous look. I have 1 pillow in my house that isn’t overfilled and it KILLLLLLSSS me. I’m wanting to switch it out, BAD.
The only exception here, would be Euro pillows. Those are the really large square pillows that you see on people’s beds behind all of the small throw pillows. They measure 26″ x 26″ and that’s the biggest filler I’ve ever seen so you have to just accept it!
4| SIZE MATTERS. This could be a whole blog post in itself, so I’ll just give you a quick overview. For sofas, a typical size is anywhere from an 18″ square to a 22″ square (sometimes 23″). A 16″ pillow is too small. Maybe if you have a child’s chair! For a lumbar on a sofa, I typically say that you need 4 square pillows (2 on each side) and THEN you can add a lumbar pillow. You can do something a bit wider here but not taller than the square pillows. If you’re smallest square pillows are 18″, then a lumbar between 12″ & 14″ tall is great. And it should be wider than your square pillows. So maybe around 24″ wide.
As I said before, there are always exceptions. Trial and error is the best way to find out what works. Keep your receipts, folks and return if you don’t love them!
Where to Shop:
For pillow fillers – Amazon, Ikea, Target, Pottery Barn
I’ve linked some great down/feather options below.
For Pillow Covers –
Budget – H&M, Amazon,Target, CB2, Etsy
Normal/Higher End – Willa Skye, Caitlin Wilson, Little Design Co. (my go to always), Anthropologie, Lulu&Georgia
