Plain Cushions

The quiet foundation everything else is layered against. Solid tones and honest texture, weighty wool and linen, deep velvet, nubby boucle, in a palette from soft neutrals to a single anchoring colour. Feather and down inners, sized full, so a plain cushion reads tailored rather than flat and lets the pattern and the throw do the talking.

An all-plain scheme can look calm and considered when you vary the texture, pairing a smooth velvet with a nubby boucle and a crisp linen in tonal colours. If a room starts to feel flat, one patterned or fringed cushion lifts the grouping without breaking the restraint.

Tonal layering works well: build up two or three shades from the same family, such as oatmeal, stone and taupe, for a soft look, or introduce one deeper accent like rust or forest green to anchor the scheme. Keep the accent repeated somewhere else in the room.

Texture does the work that pattern would. Mix pile, weave and sheen across velvet, wool and linen, and choose a feather inner sized slightly larger than the cover so the corners fill out. A gentle karate chop to the top edge gives the tailored dip stylists favour.

Standard sofa cushions run 45 to 55cm square, with a 30 by 50cm lumbar for the classic long rectangle. Deeper sofas take a larger 60cm cushion, where a 45cm can look undersized. Mixing sizes within one sofa reads more collected than a matched set.