10 Pillow Decoration Ideas for a Perfectly Styled Couch
Easily one of the most exciting stages of decorating, decorating your couch with throw pillows is what can make or break your space. With so many options on the market and so many beautiful pillow decoration ideas to explore, it’s no wonder so many people get overwhelmed by choice.
At LULE + CO, we specialize in beautiful handmade pillow covers, decorative pillows, and throw pillows, and we know how to arrange pillows on a couch. Whether you’re looking for a small pillow or two to liven up a space, or if you’re on the hunt for some spectacular couch throw pillow ideas to add to your Pinterest board, here is our easy guide on decorative pillow ideas for your couch.
1. Design With The Room In Mind
Your sofa lives in a lively part of your home alongside other furniture, decor, and other architectural features. It’s important to keep the goal of your space in mind and aim to choose couch pillows that complement the overall look and feel of the room. By carefully choosing colors, textures, and sizes of decorative pillows that tie in with design elements in the wider room, you’ll be able to make the space feel more cohesive and intentionally styled.
Our tip is to style your living room with decorative pillows in an accent color to highlight or draw attention to another feature in the space. Soft textures can bring warmth to an industrial aesthetic, while bold patterns will inject instant fun and personality.
The key here is to be mindful in deciding what elements in the room you want to accentuate. Try to select just one to two key features—whether that’s a color, a texture or a specific design aesthetic—and use these as the starting point for your sofa pillow decor.
2. Pick Your Palette
Color is crucial in evoking the right mood and feeling in your space. That’s why it’s important to carefully pick a color palette for your sofa pillows and stay within the palette space. Keeping to a consistent palette goes a long way to creating a cohesive and stylish aesthetic and, even better, gives you the freedom to play around with size, patterns and textures.
Palette combinations are endless, but we usually suggest choosing one anchor color and building the rest of your palette around it. When selecting decorative pillows for your couch, try a combination of neutrals and supporting tones that amplify your anchor color to achieve a classic aesthetic. Or, for a unique take, stick with different shades to create an ombre effect.
Either way, ensure the colors you use work with your existing furniture and decor rather than working against it.
3. Stick to Neutrals
When it comes to couch pillow decoration, neutrals are anything but boring. If your room already has a lot going on—colorful rugs, bold sofas, or vibrant artwork—neutrals will bring a sense of balance to the space. Rather than competing for the eye, neutral colors let the other items in the room play a starring role while amping up the comfort and style factor of your sofa pillows.
For a perfectly or a perfectly balanced neutral pillow combination, why not be inspired by our LULE Harlow Pillow Cover Combo? It could be just the accent your space needs to feel like home.
4. Be Bold with Color
Vibrant colors can be daunting to introduce into your interior styling, especially with larger pieces like sofas or rugs. Bold-colored sofa pillows are a fail-proof way to add pops of color to your space and can help draw the eye to other design elements in the room. Our much loved LULE Melissa Pillow Combo is the perfect example of bold color in action.
Using a single bold color in your pillow decoration lends an air of classic sophistication while pairing it with a complementary color will take your palette to the next level. Complementary color combinations are bold and highly contrasting but oh-so-beautiful and will add depth and interest to your pillow styling.
5. Mix-Up Size and Shape
Once you’ve settled on the color palette for your throw pillows, it’s time to play around with different sizes and shapes. The general rule of thumb is that a smaller sofa calls for smaller cushions and vice versa. Comfort is the end goal, and while your cushion decoration might look great, it will be hard to appreciate properly if there’s no room to actually sit on the couch.
Styling different sizes of cushions can add a new dimension to your space’s aesthetic and has a functional role to play in terms of comfort, by offering different options for getting cozy on your couch.
Try experimenting with different shape combinations, such as square, round, or lumbar. If the room has a more formal feel to it, styling different shapes and sizes can add warmth and create a welcoming atmosphere.
6. Experiment with Patterns
Bringing patterns into your sofa pillow decoration will bring instant energy and personality to your space. With so many pattern options available, it’s easy to land on one that works for your room.
If you’re feeling adventurous, try combining different patterns for added intrigue and fun. The easiest way to find a winning combination of decorative pillows is to find variety within your chosen color palette. This will ensure that decorating your sofa with pillows doesn’t become too chaotic, and you’re more likely to find a pattern combination that works.
When varying patterns, try opting for one large, bold pattern and one smaller pattern, all supported by solid colors. Large or busy prints usually set the tone for the whole design, so opt for using these either on your biggest pillows or on a smaller pillow that will sit front and center.
Stripes and checks are a great alternative to more intricate patterns for your cushions. Both bold and simple, they can be paired with solid colors for a classic aesthetic or used to highlight colors in other patterned pillows.
7. Introduce Different Textures
If mixing patterns isn’t your thing, try including textures in your sofa cushion decor instead. A neutral color palette can become just as interesting and exciting as a bright color combination once some interesting textures are thrown into the mix.
Using a variety of textures in your pillow decoration can also introduce visual interest for those trying to stick to a certain color palette or create a softer contrast and feel. Try our Hunter Corduroy Pillow Cover in an earthy hue to really up the coziness factor of your room, or throw in an Ellis Linen Pillow Cover for a weave with sophisticated elegance.
The texture of a pillow goes further than just the cushion's material. Why not explore fun features like tassels, pompoms, hems or embroidery for a little visual interest in your space?
8. Remember the Balancing Act
To keep your space feeling organized and calm, your pillow decoration must strike a balance between colors and patterns. When it comes to decorating with throw pillows and other pillow decoration ideas, it’s easy to overdo things.
Use color as a focal point to balance out any variations in patterns, textures and sizes of cushions. Try keeping neutral cushions at the back of your arrangement and let any bold patterns or bright colors come to the front.
Selecting the perfect combination of sofa pillows can be overwhelming, so we’ve made it easy for you. Check out the LULE signature set of 5 pillows for a stylish combination that will take your living room decor to the next level.
9. Have Fun with Pillow Placement
Now that you’ve chosen the best color palette and combination for your pillow decoration ideas, it’s time for the fun part: arranging the pillows on your couch.
Some people find this step a little overwhelming, especially when it comes time to decide exactly how to style throw pillows on a couch.
The good news is it’s incredibly easy to arrange decorative pillows.
Begin by creating a height or size hierarchy of your pillows. The larger pillows should sit at the back of your couch and towards the sides, and the smaller or shorter pillows should stack in front of them, moving towards the middle.
That way, your couch will never feel overloaded, and you’re sure to have the right-sized pillow no matter where you’re sitting on the couch.
If you’ve opted for different colored pillows, ensure they’re evenly distributed across your couch. Grouping throw pillows of the same color to one side looks unbalanced and will also dim the effect of your carefully chosen color palette.
10. Opt for Classic Symmetry
Arranging and layering sofa cushions of different colors, patterns and textures can start to look messy. Balance this out by opting for a symmetrical pillow arrangement on your sofa with equal numbers of cushions at either end. This stops your couch from looking chaotic and lets the decorative cushion designs take center stage.
For a simple and classic aesthetic, arrange a neutral cushion at either end of your sofa, place a bold solid in front of each and then balance your pillow arrangement with a small patterned cushion in the center of your sofa.
If it’s a more effortless look you’re after, try an asymmetrical cushion arrangement. Style your cushions randomly, mixing and matching patterns, sizes and colors along the length of your sofa. This pillow decoration idea works particularly well in a space that’s already polished and cohesive, creating a lively aesthetic.
If you’re still a little overwhelmed by all the pillow choices on the market, we have an easy solution for you: LULE + CO. stock curated pillow sets if you don't want to choose your own combo.
Shop our LULE Combo, which is our signature set of five pillow covers. Not only do these beautiful covers come in a variety of colors and shapes, but you can also purchase additional coordinating pillow covers to add to your space.