Ultimate Home Accessories

Making new throw pillows is an easy and inexpensive way to give your decorating scheme a fresh updated look. I use lots of pillows throughout my home and find them to be one of the best home accessories for the following reasons:

Homes are full of hard building materials, such as wood, stone, brick and tile. They also have many hard architectural features, such as windows, doors, cabinets and fireplaces. In addition, many furniture pieces in our homes are hard and boxy. Because pillows are made of fabric and have a soft appearance, they help to break up the hard elements and give your home a cozy feel.

Pillows are a great place to repeat colors found elsewhere in the room. Repeating colors can help to unify a color scheme and create eye movement throughout the space.

Pillows can lessen the impact of a very large furniture item in a room. For example, a large sofa or bed could seem overpowering for a particular space. By breaking up the large item with a scattering of throw pillows you can help keep eye movement flowing throughout the room, and prevent a large piece of furniture from becoming too dominant.

When the pillow covering becomes worn out, you can replace the outer pillow cover only and reuse the old pillow form, making it inexpensive to freshen up your decor.
To make a basic pillow cover, follow the steps below:

- Measure the pillow form in both directions and cut two pieces of fabric 1 inch larger than the form in each direction to allow for 1/2 inch seam allowances all around. For example, for a 12 x 16 inch pillow form, cut two rectangles of fabric 13 x 17 inches.
- Pin the fabric rectangles right sides together and stitch 1/2 inch from the raw edges all around, leaving an opening on one side for turning and inserting the pillow form.
- Trim the seam allowances to 1/4 inch all around and clip across the corners. Turn the pillow cover right side out and press.
- Insert the pillow form and slipstitch the opening closed.