Decorating with outdoor cushions

 

Balancing practicality with style can be hard, so we’ve given you a few tips on how to use cushions to decorate your external living space.

 

Outdoor cushions provide a low cost, simple way to decorate. Outdoor areas such as a patio or verandah are often where families spend most of their time. Particularly in the warmer months in Australia, sitting on a verandah with a cool breeze is far more preferable than being holed up in your living room with the air conditioner blasting.

In Australia, our outdoor areas or outdoor ‘rooms’ as they are often referred to, are just as important as our living rooms. As a result, decorating these areas for style and comfort has become a major consideration for many of us.

 

Use cushions to brighten outdoor furniture

Outdoor furniture is often chosen for it’s durability as much as it’s style. There is no use having a fabulous table set or sofa in your outdoor room if it’s going to fade or fall apart with the first gust of wind. Unfortunately, to gain the benefit of durability, you sometimes have to forgo style.

Luckily, it is not difficult to add colour or texture to your outdoor seating area, all you need to add is a few cushions. Some well placed outdoor cushions can draw the attention away from the actual piece of furniture and become the centerpiece of any room.

 

How to select your outdoor cushions

Selecting your outdoor cushions is a very different process than selecting them for a room in your house. The purpose of cushions in a living room or bedroom is to pull together all the different elements in a room.

When selecting your cushions for an outdoor area, quite often there aren’t many existing colours or textures and the very purpose of outdoor cushions is to add these to your external area.

Colour

If your outdoor area is lacking existing colours and textures then you can have a lot of fun with outdoor cushions. We suggest choosing two main colours that your would like to use to in your outdoor area.

Choose bright vibrant colours if you don’t yet have any colour in your outdoor area. Often, outdoor cushions with contrasting colours can work excellently in an external space, for example a deep blue and a warm red can create a vibrant space.

Style

While it can be tempting, we suggest that you don’t choose one type of cushion for your whole outdoor space. If you put the same cushion on every seat around a table setting, for example, you lose a good opportunity to add some depth and texture to your outdoor living space.

Instead, choose two or three styles of cushion that you like and buy a few of each. Don’t restrict yourself to the same size and shaped outdoor cushions either, a mixture of squares and rectangles can be a great combination in any outdoor setting.

Placement

Scatter your cushions around different elements of your outdoor space. When using cushions for an outdoor setting, place your them on an angle to negate the symmetry of chair and cushion.

If you have a sofa or bench seat, then try using a combination of square and rectangular cushions for a more modern look. A simple rule when adding outdoor cushions to any sitting area is to choose an even number for a more traditional look and an odd number for a more modern or eclectic look.

Comfort vs longevity

One of the biggest decisions you will make when selecting your outdoor cushions is that of comfort versus longevity. You can get outdoor cushions made of hard and durable material but these can sometimes be less comfortable than their indoor counterparts.

The benefit is that they will last longer and can handle a lot more wear and tear so they can often be a good option. If comfort is your main agenda, or your outdoor area is well covered, then you can choose regular cushions for your outdoor space.

If you do choose this option then it’s best to choose cushions with replaceable covers so that if and when they do tire from the elements, you can keep your inserts and just replace the covers.

 

Happy styling!

Simply Cushions Team