My husband loves all my throw pillows

I saw a funny meme the other day:

“Throw pillows are the stuffed animals of grown women.”

How true is that? I can’t quite understand it, but men just don’t seem to value pillows like us women do :)

I recently added a whole stack to our couch.

Ryan, of course, was super pleased.

This family room is our most used room in the house. We bought the sectional first thing when we moved in because we knew we wanted a big, cozy couch for all of us to pile on for reading, gathering, watching movies, football games, Survivor marathons and lately, anything and everything Olympics (see details about the couch and why we chose this particular one here).

I painted the walls and trim this past summer to clean it up a bit (read about that chore here).

Someday we’ll change out the floors to a warm hardwood and add beams and woodwork to the vaulted ceiling. We’ve thrown the idea of a wall of built-ins around and I’m on the hunt for a great piece of artwork to hang above the couch.

Those changes all sound great and I feel slightly impatient about making this room into what we know it can be, but this house is an act of patience. We’re not quite ready for those more time-intensive/cost-intensive decisions and so for now, it’s all about the little things I can do to make the room look cozy, welcoming and pretty.

The last time you saw this room, it looked like this:

You know I have a thing for neutrals with lots of black and white, but this room was feeling a little blah. Maybe even cold. I am so afraid of committing to a color because I know I’m such a seasonal color person (warm colors in the fall, green at Christmastime, peaches and pinks in the spring). But this room – the whole house, actually – is craving some color. Until we have the warmth that wood floors will bring, I need to put it in the house with color.

There was a design show on years ago where the host decorated the room based on favorite items from the owner’s closet. I always loved the premise and the rooms felt more personal to the owner than other design shows on at the time.

When I looked at the family room – with all its black, white and beige, it dawned on me that I should take a cue from our closets.

Everyone in our family looks best in blue. Ryan passed down his bright blue eyes to each of the kids any shade of blue makes their eyes stand out.

As for me, I basically wear jeans everyday so if I am to take inspiration from what I wear, blue is definitely the color of choice.

Since blue is a go-to for both me and the rest of the family, and is a color that feels neutral, one that looks great in our house (like in our bedroom and up in the studio last summer) and is well represented in all of our closets, I decided I can commit to it for the family room. At least for now :)

I saw this denim blue throw blanket on sale at Anthropologie a few weeks ago and that is what started things. (The blanket is unfortunately no longer available. The key, though, at least for me was finding something in the perfect shade to be the jumping off point).

Then I popped into a few stores (HomeGoods, Pier One and Target) to grab a few new pillows to pull together my new blue + neutral color scheme.

I ended up bringing home a couple of blue pillows, a few white, one taupy brown and a woven stripe with a hint of blue. I wasn’t planning on keeping all of them, but once I put them on the couch and mixed in a few pillows that I already had, I actually liked the combination.

I mean, yes, the amount of pillows on the couch might be slightly excessive. But it’s a huge couch that is super deep and can handle loads of them. You actually do need a pillow or two behind you if you want to sit up straight (at least that’s how I justify it).

As I look at all these pictures, what I’m realizing is that I have a thing for texture. Every single pillow has some sort of interesting texture – stripe, woven, chunky, pom poms, faux fur, geometric.

We also switched out the tufted ottomans for our old wood coffee table and I think it helps add depth to the room.

And of course, no room of mine would be complete without fresh greenery :)

This iteration of the family room feels good. Fresh, light, happy.

And while Ryan and the boys have yet to come on board with my pillow-affection, Audrey seems to appreciate them :)

SOURCES

couch | rug | coffee table (similar) | floor lamp | curtains

pillows on couch from left to right:

woven stripe | stripe pom (no longer available) | woven chevron | white pom | blue geometric | faux fur | basketweave pom | mohair stripe | leather (hidden but wonderful!)