Mad About Cushions

It’s definitely a girl thing. I mean you can rant and rave all you like about equality between the sexes and non-gender specific roles and all that, but there is one thing that really is never, ever going to change. Cushions. Boys just reall seem to hate them.

Now I’m quite anti that hotel thing (oft copied in magazines) where there are so many cushions on the bed that it takes you half an hour to remove them so you can get in. And then, presumably, someone has to put them all back on again in the morning. I’m guessing this is a look that only hotel and people with staff are in to.

But I don’t mind the odd cushion. Breaks up the expanse of sofa. Props you up in bed for reading. Gives you a chance to add a bit of colour and personality to a room. But the boys, they don’t get that.

I was at a business meeting the other day to discuss refurbishing the reception and cafe area of an advertising agency (I know -nice gig eh?). So, together with my business partner, we showed them the moodboards and the sofas and explained how they were going to be arranged. There was a small pause and the project manager said (and, yes, it was he): “This is all great, we love it. We won’t bother with the cushions though.”

Cue stunned silence from my partner. I had to elbow her in the ribs to stop her saying something she might regret. Normally, I should add, she has to do that to me. Fifteen years of working from home and I’m a bit feral when it comes to business meetings and office politics.

We agreed that we would proceed without the cushions but that when it, inevitably, looks a bit bare at the end we can have a discussion about adding them in afterwards. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime look at these beauties of cushions. Surely even the boys would like these. They’re from the newly redesigned Design Vintage and if you’ve been in any doubt about how important a well-designed site is then take a stroll round here. I liked it before and it made regular appearances on these pages, but now? It’s all even more inviting and gorgeous. I particularly love all these monochrome cushions.

This is exactly how to do cushions – keep the colours minimal but vary the materials and designs. So the one at the top is velvet, then there are cotton, linen and waffle designs. Stripes, diamonds and geometric. Throw in a couple of plain ones and, whoops, suddenly it’s turned into a hotel bed…

We must exercise some restraint. Or this happens: