Sofa Cushions & Cushion Covers

Decorating and color ideas for sofa cushions and cushion covers.

We have gone into the question of introducing colour into rooms, and with flowers, china, tapestry, which is extremely costly though very beautiful, curtains and covers for furniture, we have found means of obtaining touches of warmth and brightness to enliven backgrounds that may lack strength of tone. The use of cushions, not only for comfort, but for carrying colour, must be included, and they will come best under this miscellaneous heading.

The days when cushions were regarded merely as stuffed pads of material for the increase of comfort are over. They are designed now, and can boast as much variety of form as the chairs and settees on which they appear. Independent cushions, trimmed and tasselled in velvet, damask, brocade, and every kind of material, can make a divan into a piece of arresting colour, and can be useful in bringing strong hues to dull pieces of furniture and shadowed corners and recesses. A lot of imagination and real skill is given to modern cushion-making and there is much to choose from.

The type of cushion we use depends on whether we decide to employ cushions to help in the carrying out of a colour scheme, or whether they are to be regarded as independent pieces of colour, forming separate features in a room. It is a simple matter to employ materials in hues that will harmonise with existing loose covers, curtains, carpets or rugs ; but if cushions by themselves are to be responsible for the introduction of colour, then strong, clean shades are required. A black ground with brightly-hued applique, or plain black, banded with one strong colour, and trimmed with gold or silver braid or cord with tassels to match, are suggestions that present themselves.

Bright colours are successfully set off by plain, rather solid furniture, and oak or walnut in simple surroundings relieved with touches of clear, vital colour afford very agreeable effects. Mahogany requires softer tones, especially the late eighteenth century furniture with its slender, graceful lines, for it is a period that suggests delicacy both of form and colouring. The firmer mahogany types, the earlier work of Chippendale, and the furniture of the transitional period following the Queen Anne modes, can be associated with vivid colouring in cushions and chair seats.

The divan with its cushions provides the opportunity for colour in modern rooms, and a black-covered divan is one of the best backgrounds for other materials as it lends additional value to their hues.

These notes indicate the part cushions can take in relation to colour schemes ; and in the planning of any scheme all the varied expressions of colour must be considered in curtains, carpets, loose covers, and cushions as well as the treatment of the walls.