The past few weeks we have been touring a young family’s quaint 1940’s home in Tarrytown. The couple’s design goal was to make their home have a traditional and eclectic feel throughout all the main living spaces. For the family room, the homeowners wanted to incorporate their existing furniture, but needed our design guidance on how to spruce up the space with accessories.

BEFORE:

In this home, the family room is the main area for lounging and TV watching. The couple wanted to incorporate their existing leather chair and sectional. We knew pillows, a rug, and a new media console would better serve the functionality and flow of the design from the other spaces.

AFTER:

Pillows especially helped transform this space to fit the homeowner’s style. The couple wanted the navy blue and lavender accents from their dining room and sitting room to flow into their family room. We introduced pillows with plenty of spunk, texture, pattern and color to give the room a youthful feel.

A larger white media cabinet better suits the space and provides ample storage for toys and electronics. A herringbone navy rug makes the room feel cozy and complete. It is low maintenance and easily cleanable which was a must for this high traffic space.

A L-shape sectional provides a lot of opportunity to incorporate pillows of different sizes and styles. It is also the perfect backdrop for vibrant patterned pillows! Pillows are a great place to experiment with color and pattern. You can also take a lot more ‘risk’ with trendy or bold patterns because pillow covers can easily be swapped out with the seasons or as your style evolves with time.

For sofas and sectionals, a good starting point is to have a pair of pillows at each arm. We incorporated two different patterns at each arm and tied the look together with the identical navy velvet trim on all the pillows. The corner of the sectional can fit one pillow, but we threw in a smaller 14 x 20 lumbar to break up the sizes.

At each arm you can have the same pillow size or can have two different sizes to play with height. For symmetry and balance, we used 22″ x 22″ pillows for all the square pillows and used 14″ x 20″ pillows as accents.

For most sectionals and sofas, you do not want to chose square pillows which are smaller than 18″ x 18″. Depending on the depth of your sofa, pillows that range from 20″-24″ are proportionate with the scale of larger upholstery.

For this space, we found the perfect ikat pattern that brings in a lovely mix of purples and blue to tie in the whole color scheme of the room. The dark navy geometric pillow pops really contrasts against the neutral upholstery.

For the corner pillow, we introduced a lavender velvet pillow with a navy blue velvet trim for consistency. The smaller lumbar pillows in a solid fabric keep the sectional from looking too busy. The mix of all the pillows together softens and brightens the classic sectional.

Accessories can transform a space. New pillows can give a completely new look to your upholstery. For guidance on fabrics, patterns and colors, our team has the expertise to bring it all together! Visit our shop or fill out our design questionnaire for spaces that require finishing touches.