During our home staging consultations, one of the easiest suggestions to update the living room is to swap out the accent pillows on the sofa or sectional. Accent pillows are inexpensive and are readily available at retailers like Target and HomeGoods, but we tend to neglect them in our everyday living – particularly because they are thrown on the floor, used for pillow fights and generally the dog’s top choice for a nap. In staging, a new set of accent pillows can add a pop of color to the living room, as well as help to mask a dated or dingy sofa, sectional or loveseat. Here are some tips to picking the right accent pillows for your living room:

FOLLOW THE FORMULA: LIGHT NEUTRAL + POP OF COLOR + PATTERN

You can’t go wrong if you follow our formula that combines neutral pillows with pops of color and patterns. Start with a neutral base that compliments the color and fabric of your sofa. Next, add a pillow with a pop of color that works with the rest of your living room décor. We typically recommend that you stick with one or two primary colors in a space and use that color (or varying shades) throughout the room. Or favorite staging color is blue and we oftentimes pull blue throughout a room with pillows, rugs and artwork. Next, add a pillow or two with pattern or texture. You can continue to use your primary color in the patterned pillow or even pull in another complimentary color that again works with the rest of the room. The combination of these three pillows will work every time.

LIGHTEN DARK SOFAS WITH DIFFERENT TONES AND TEXTURES OF WHITES + CREAMS

If you have a dark sofa or sectional, we recommend that you use a variety of light accent pillows to brighten the overall appearance. White and cream accents might be intimidating, particularly if you have pets and/or children, but lighter pillows really elevate the look, particularly if you are selling. Pay attention to the washing instructions and choose fabrics that are family-friendly and durable. We oftentimes recommend to homeowners that are selling to keep new light pillows off the couch during day-to-day living and only throw them on for listing pictures and before showings. Find different patterns, tones and textures to create some visual interest, like these beauties to the left.

USE DOWN INSERTS THAT MEASURE 2” LARGER THAN PILLOW COVER

Many of the accent pillows from the store come pre-stuffed with polyester filling, but we actually prefer to swap out the poly fill for down or down alternative inserts. Whether you prefer to chop your accent pillows or not, the pillows take on a better shape when filled with down. If you plan to purchase a new insert, we recommend that you buy the insert 2 inches larger than the pillow cover. So if you have a 20” pillow cover, purchase a 22” insert. You can find inserts at Amazon, Crate & Barrel and many other retailers.

MIX DIFFERENT SIZED PILLOWS AND SHAPES

To create a cozy and layered look with pillows, use a variety of sizes and shapes, keeping in mind the overall scale of the sofa or sectional. For example, on smaller loveseats and sofas we would recommend using pillows 22” and under so as not to overwhelm the sofa and leave little room to sit. On larger sofas and sectionals, you can invest in larger pillows, 24” or even 26” depending on the size and depth of the piece of furniture. While square pillows are the easiest to find, we also like to mix in lumbar pillows to create some contrast and visual interest.

STRATEGICALLY PLACE PILLOWS ON SOFA, PARTICULARLY ON SECTIONAL

To begin, use your largest pillows in the crooks of the sofa arms and on a sectional, start with your biggest pillow in the corner. Next, layer in the smaller pillows in front of the larger ones, combining two or three pillows of different sizes. The corners of the sectional will have the largest amount of pillows, but make sure not to completely overwhelm the sofa or sectional and leave room for people to use the sofa. There is no magic number, but on a standard sofa we typically use 2-3 pillows per side. And it doesn’t need to be an even number on both sides or even matching pillows on each side.

Here is a round up of some great accent pillows to spice up your living room.