If there’s one fabric pattern that never goes out of style, it’s the stripes. Truly evergreen and timeless enough to appeal to contemporary sensibilities the stripes are a well-loved cushion pattern that can be styled in many ways.
If you’ve got a furniture piece that requires accenting, then here’s how you can spruce it up with striped cushions and all the various designs that they can be paired with. Let’s take a look at some of our favourites:
Jo @coastalhomelove (cushions from Willow Home & Living)
Florals and stripes are an uncanny combination, if you’ve seen any. But they definitely work wonders together if you know how to style them right. Since floral fabrics are often bright-hued, bold, and fun, they always tend to take centre stage. In comparison, stripes are underrated and understated.
Therefore, pairing them up can make for a surprisingly pleasant aesthetic combination. Although there is no right or wrong answer, we found that it is more effective to have the floral designs at the front or as a featured cushion while the stripes cushions are layered at the back. It’s a basic foreground-background technique where bright hues with more visual weight and pretty patterns should be styled in a way where they stand out, so the understated stripes should be put behind the florals.
Willow Home & Living Navy Collection
Mixing and matching striped cushions is a lot of fun and we highly recommend it. To create a stunning cushion set, consider the size, scale, and proportion of each design. Mixing and matching works best by the “rule of three” where you divide all your available cushions in sets of three and arrange them strategically.
Typically, each set of 3 cushions should contain one striped, one patterned, and one solid cushion cover, but there’s no hard and fast rule that you must follow. Sometimes, designers also create a cluster of two striped and one solid-hued cushion, granted that one of the striped fabrics features a narrow aesthetic while the other one features a bolder, bigger, striped inversion. Alternatively, you can also mix vertical and horizontal stripes with a solid cushion and it’ll look great.
It’s all about visual eye-balling and making sense of what looks best where. However, if you need a thumb rule to go by, these three never fails.
Pro tip: Note that this arrangement looks best on corner or L-shaped sectionals, as they are larger and have much more room for you to experiment with solids and patterns.
Willow Home & Living
If timeless neutrals is your style, then you should select your striped cushions and pillows in shades of grey, dove, tan, and sandy browns. They have a certain upscale refinement about them that will make your furniture feel posh, elegant, and sophisticated.
When it comes to styling such striped cushions, it’s very simple: just pair them up with solid designs. You can put them either at the front or at the back of the striped cushions. You can even put them side by side. The important thing to remember is that the background should be solid as well. It’s preferable if the background
upholstery is in understated shades of white, cream, sand, ash, etc. but it can be bold and jewel-toned as well.
Willow Home & Living
Striped cushions are best paired with solid designs. Styling them both together is quite easy because you can have the solid cushions at the back and layer the stripes at the stripes at the front or vice versa. The important thing here is making sure you have different cushion sizes.
Note that solid fabrics have a gravitational visual weight - they tend to catch the eye, even when they’re obscured by the stripes. This charismatic pull makes them the perfect medium to emulate a dash of bold colour (think: magenta, pink, rust, emerald green, sapphire!) in your furniture scheme, especially if your sofa or armchair upholstery leans on the lighter side.
Pro tip 1: While all stripes can break up the force of a solid fabric, it’s best if you select understated neutral tones for the best impact.
Pro tip 2: You can put a vase of colourful flowers that match the solid-coloured cushion on the nearest landing surface (e.g. end table, nightstand, etc.). This will help create a nice visual harmony within the ambiance and make the room feel holistic.
Willow Home & Living
Striped cushions are largely considered to be geometric and straight-laced in nature, but you can certainly style them to create a sense of whimsy in your spaces. The trick is to find the right colours and companions for the stripes.
To get that aura of fantasia, it’s best to pick hues that are on the fanciful side - think pastels: soft blue, pink, lavender, canary yellow, etc. You should pick out a striped pattern for your cushion in one of these hues and pair it with one plain and one patterned (floral, swirl, polka dot etc.) cushion. Put the stripes and pattern side by side and style the solid-hued cushions on the edges to create a nice visual end cap.
Pro tip: To add extra layers and texture to a room, use a rug and or a throw. Rugs and throws are not only beautiful, they are also practical to add warmth.
These are some of the most prominent and well-loved ways that you can style your striped cushions. We hope this guide helps you make the most of your home styling.
