It would be pretty easy to fill a whole book with thoughts about throw pillows and how they are used/placed on a sofa:
1. Perfectly symmetrical
Miles Redd
Nate Berkus
Phoebe Howard
Nuevo Estilo
Gil Schafer
design*sponge
Melissa Rufty
Timothy Wealon
Tobi Fairley
2. Coordinated, but not exactly symmetrical
Can House and Home
Summer Thornton
3. Free style
House Beautiful
Domino
Windsor Smith
What school of thought do you subscribe to?
It sort of depends on the room for me, but often I like a pair of big matching pillows on the ends and one or two odd ones in the middle. I usually like to keep it to four pillows per couch. Five is the absolute MAX for me.
What about you?
P.S. Karate chopped, perfectly fluffed, or casually smooshed?
I WISH I could freestyle, but I always perfectly coordinate. (5 pillows in a couch, two pairs and an odd one) And I definitely don't carate chop – hate it! I fluff mine :)
I love pillows, especially the ones with a big item. What a coincidence! a dedicate my last post to it.
I read you everyday, but is the first time I comment (sorry about my english).
Congrats for your blog!
Kisses
Asymmetry used to freak me out but the therapy is helping… HA! I've even managed to stifle the urge to 'fluff, fluff, karate chop' all of my pillows. My little place looks alot more casual and lived in now! Love this post!
-ME
One question…. Can I move into your blog? I think I could happily live in these pics here! LOL!
Toma
Oh, I do love throw pillows! I like symmetry, for sure. I can't handle the karate chop…mine are fluffed!
On one blog, the "husband" was sitting on the floor so as not the "mess" with the perfectly poofed pillows, and thet made me laugh….I think there is a happy medium.
Did you see Kelli Benisimon Hermes Pillows – made from scarves—I love itty bitty pillows for ring bearers or really posh oversized pillows, like the Euro Squares, and bolsters…oh they are so chic.
I bet you love bolsters, piped…Bolsters just look neat.
pve
the casually tossed ones look the most comfy, don't they?
I can do asymetrical on the ends, but I have to have five so that I can have an odd man out in the middle. Never karate chopped, always mooshy and sink-in ready!
I'm all about coordinating but not matching. Although I like to have at least two pillows that are the same fabric. Thanks for posting these – we just moved to a white apt with our white couch and I definitely just got inspired by the blue/orange pillows in one of the photos!
I like 5 pillows. Matching ones on the ends then 2 on one side (one a lumbar) and one on the other.. does that make sense? I personally love the karate chop!
I love your blog btw and I don't think I've commented before now:)
I love the coordinated look….and I must admit, I LOVE the karate chop, but mainly just because it's fun to do. Does that mean I have agression issues? : )
Love love these pics because they show rooms that are not beige monochrome. So many of the styles featured in shelter mags are becoming so plain & sterile. The photos you show are colorful, bright… and brave about mixing patterns & styles. Thanks!!
Fellow pillow junkie here…I adore deco pillows, the easiest way I know to add a pop of color and style. I'm more of a fluffer…but the kids make me look like I prefer the tossed look! ;)
Great images Jenny. I love when bloggers introduce some fresh images. Great subject matter to tackle, I've often thought about how there were many options. Right now I like symmetry.
I love pillows too. I like them in odd numbers best, with 2 or 4 matching and one wild card. But at the moment I am looking pretty symmetrical (in my living and bedroom)! And the pillows are always smooshed! I like a lived in free style feel for sure. Karate chopped pillows drive me crazy. Lol.
I could really use a book on pillow arrangement on a sofa so I hope you write it or at least address my big issue – sectionals! I see lots of info on how to artfully arrange pillows on a standard couch but no one seems to mention the sectional and what happens then? Need help!
i'm not going to lie…i fluff and then i karate chop…..
I absolutely have to have them symmetrical. Five at the most, filled with down/feathers (I do NOT like polyfil), and perfectly karate chopped. :)
i don't make mine perfectly symmetrical. i have a huge L-shaped couch, so i utilize a lot of pillows that go together well, but only a couple match.
i also like them perfectly smooshed – not fluffed. :)
but that's where the more eclectic side of me comes out, in my decorating!
symmetrical, perfectly fluffed. can you tell i'm OCD?
So hard to pick a favorite LR…
Symmetrical and perfectly fluffed! As Blueprint Bliss said … Yep, I'm a bit OCD!
I like coordinated but not symmetrical. I think it looks a bit silly when they are all perfectly set and karate chopped, like you can sit down with out 'ruining it'.
Random question for you, how do you organize your inspiration pictures on your computer? I'm having a hard time deciding how to file. Thanks!
I like an odd number of pillows in a given "arrangement" over an even number, usually. The one very strong opinion I do have is that the karate chop needs to be retired. What a terrible thing to do to a pillow! :)
Symmetric and karate chopped! :)
One bolster pillow on each end (in the same velvet as the sofa) and a single needlepoint pillow in the center: there's so much going on in the (tiny) living room with an oriental rug and bookshelves, etc… that I try to keep the sofa and its accoutrements simple.
Semi-symmetrical with a Karate chop does it for me. Fabulous post!!!
Oh, how I hate the Karate-chopped look! So cheesy. I just put them on until I like the way it looks. But I still love that orange and blue room, even though they are 'chopped'. ha
casually smooched
Love your blog, Jenny.
5 pillows max, then of course there are exceptions to the rule. :)
Usually symmetry at the ends, then it varies in between. Finding that just right wrong thing for the middle or in front of the big cushions is always good. Sometimes perfect symmetry is just right.
No extreme pillow stylings usually, especially that chop (although on rare occasions it suits). I like them relaxed looking and only from down.
I have been pondering this exact thing for the past week! I think 4 is the max on a sofa unless one of them is tiny. I like it to be assymetrical and fluffed. Lots of colors on a solid couch.
I like at least two that match, and then fill in randomly. I am also an obsessive pillow fluffer! I don't karate chop, but a little dent in the top is nice — can't handle them to be too "straight up!"
I love pillows and have to restrain myself with how many I want to use. On a sofa, it's matching pairs on the outside ends and mixed up in the middle. Never karate chopped, but rather, "fluffed" !
These days it's free style and karate chopped.
Love this post.
With two small children, free style is what we are going with these days. Just getting the pillows to stay on the sofas is a good day.
I can't help myself – I have to have them coordinated. I also am definitely a fluffer.
p.s. Thanks for telling us about the GAP Always Skinny Mid-Rise Jeans. I did a post about them here http://gracie-senseandsimplicity.blogspot.com/2010/04/taxes-and-my-new-jeans.html and just got myself a pair in black. I feel very Audrey Hepburn.
love your post, once again!
just like "mer" above, what a coincidence! as i also recently did a blog entry about throw pillows (same title too – "pillow talk"!)
im more of the coordinated but not exactly symmetrical type. although i'd like to try karate chopping (is there such a verb?:) someday….
wow, the blue/orange pillow pair in one of the photos is very pretty! i've always wanted to do orange in my living room…
lastly, been wanting to thank you for posting your infamous pelmet project. i know it's been posted some time ago and im probably the last to make one, but just sharing with you what i did:
http://madge-fudge.blogspot.com/2010/04/guest-room-make-over-finally.html
thanks Jenny!
sometimes flipping through your blog is like flipping throuh the pages of a new magazine for me…some images i've seen before but am noticing different things thanks to you :) i'm free style and karate chopped!
LOVE all of these! I've got to get some new pillows! And I'm going to try to recreate your entry table skirt with a console I have….any tips?
I usually prefer symmetry with an accent pillow, but am stumped by what to do with the "dead corner" of our sectional??
Symmetrical! I think it's the left-brain in me. If it wasn't for you, I'd never know how to do anything that wasn't symmetrical. HA!
Etsy has the best pillow covers right now.
And no to the karate chop, ugly!
I perfectly flugg.
Throw pillows are all so nice..they do change the look and add style and color but if you actually sit on the couch, they wind up on the floor or as a place for my furry friends to sit in extra soft comfort on the couch….
Your blog has become a "must read" for me… just thought I'd tell you! I love symmetry so I do a matching pair (one at each arm of the sofa) and a lumbar. Just recently, I've started karate chopping the two on the ends and keeping the lumbar pretty plump. Thanks for all the inspiration!
Cordially,
Ms. Manor from mindingthemanor@blogspot.com
Aahhh, I LOVE your blog! I'm symmetrical to balanced, never freesytle. Definitely a karate-chopper (my kids are even picking it up from me). And most of the time, the more the better!
I love all of those rooms. I have never really thought too much about my throw pillows… I actually just kind of throw them on. One of my best friends is an interior designer and I asked her how many times a day she chopped the pillows. SHE SAD 5! I could not believe it!! She said she just went through the house 5 different times fixing the pillows and couldn't relax until they were perfect. Can you believe that? I actually wish I were a little bit more like that. I actually bought burlap pillows just so they didn't have to be chopped to stay in place!
My sofa is most like the Nuevo Estilo sofa, but I just have the two big sofa back cushions with 2 raw silk bolster pillows that are the same width as the large rectangular back pillows.
I am planning to re-upholster ( maybe in velvet) .. with down added.
The sofa is very tight, there is no plumping to be done, but the bolsters do get squished.. I don't care. :)
Love it! This is a great series of photos. I am like you, a bit of balance with maybe a few mismiatched in between. And I LOVE a karate chopped feather filled pillow, I do it all the time!
Nancy
I HATE carate chopped pillows! It drives me crazy. I have five pillows on my sectional but since it's leather half the time its 5 pillows on the floor!
I'm a "coordinated, not symmetrical" kind of gal. And I'm not a fan of the karate chopped pillows, but in the right room, I'll forgive a lot. Great post.