Picture your living space.
OK?
Now picture this:

Photographs of real buildings, printed on throw pillows. Line ‘em up along the back of your couch, on a windowseat, or on your day bed (fantastic dorm decor!). There! You’ve got a one-of-a-kind streetscape to style up an uninspiring urban vista.

I love love love all of the imaginative architecture-photo pillows from BuildYourBlock.And the Brooklyn-based company just dropped word they’ve just come out with a Christmas theme collection, all little wreaths and Park Avenue glamour with a touch of nostalgia.

(OK, imagine if a throw cushion could channel a vintage Christmas movie, like maybe Miracle on 34th Street? These festive babies are about as close as it gets.)

Would you believe, they even do a custom bakery pillow? Personalize a traditional NYC pastry shop with the name and date of your choice. Gift idea, I think so!

And for something just a smidgen edgier, see also the abandoned building pillows — perfect with a backdrop of painted brick or subway tiles, or on the sill of a window overlooking something you’d rather not focus on. ;-)

These cool architectural throw pillows might be a bit like potato chips — impossible to stop at just one! In fact, a person could be seriously tempted to collect the whole set, especially to add in that essential note of whimsy in an otherwise austere and minimalist urban apartment.

Fill out your soft streetscape with mini sets of pillow-y urban infrastructure, like a fire hydrant, bus stop, ATM, even a lamp post complete with a bicycle leaning up against it.

Psst! Wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

You’ve just gotta smile.

Holiday entertaining can get a tad complicated, when you’re rushing about to find chairs for all the drop-in guests.

I say, just park all the young’uns on a cluster of happy-coloured floor cushions, and let them sprawl in comfort!

Auto has a great selection of cubes and poufs and floor cushions and beanbags — lots to mix and match — including my favourites, these Dahlia Rainbow floor cushions from the Missoni Garden Collection.

Is it just me, or do these remind you of a 1960s hatbox?

The 100% acrylic covers are removable for cleaning, which I think you’ll agree is pretty much essential in fabric furnishing that you put on the floor!

What I like best about these, however — besides the fab mod prints — is a structured shape that means tidy stacking for storage when the cushions aren’t in use, and that handy patent leather handle for toting them about as needed.

Sometimes simple is best.

Case in point, this friendly elephant crib pillow.

It’s designed to coordinate with dwellbaby‘s sheet sets, but the simple silhouetted shape is just as appealing in any nursery.

No skimpy small pillow, this elephant is a generous 13” x 20” of softly rounded, poly-filled fun. The shell is cotton but it is machine washable — as you’d want any baby bedding to be — so the comforting pillow can last for years, no doubt becoming a playful toy companion as the baby grows to a toddler…

It reminds me of some silhouette animal-shaped toys I used to sew up for craft sales, paying my way through college. Lions, dogs, cats, giraffes, all in simple stylized shapes and bright fun fabrics — a quick sewing project and a good way to use up all those fairly small fabric remnants.

I used to embroider eyes, nose, and something of a mouth on the pillow toys that I made, but I do think I prefer the simple silhouette. What do you think? An embroidered face on your elephant, or a face that the child imagines?

A neutral-colored sofa is the “little black dress,” says Carmen the Decorating Diva, and the decorative pillows are “the jewelry to add the oomph”! … so true!

As we in the northern countries move toward Autumn, Zengirl’s hand-screened copper silk Dandelion pillow fits my definition of “sofa bling” just perfectly.

Just slipping on a new cushion cover is such a quick and pretty way to change up your decor along with the change of the seasons.

For our friends Down Under, who are just welcoming Spring, what could be more refreshing than a pair of bright Summertime Plaid pillows backed with a soft denim shade, handmade of recycled fabric by Darling Company.

I’ve got a piece of deep-rose woven fabric from Guatemala hanging over a chair in front of me right now, in fact. It’s shot through with subtle threads of silver and shadowed with black, really quite unusual. The fabric started out life as a skirt, but I’m thinking that it’s destined to cover a few throw pillows for my own couch…


Technorati Tags: handmade, pillows, decorating, etsy

Feeling rejected?
Here’s a rabbit who shares your pain.

From Beautiful Pillows The Misfits collection, this cuddly bunny is done up in all wool felt with cartoon-like character in its top-stitched detail.

The same delightfully down-at-mouth spirit is also available as a cat, dog, whale, or chicken pillow companion.

So, what if a true-blue Harry Potter fan wants to take a hint of the boy wizard off to college?

But maybe she doesn’t want to flaunt her passion to the whole dorm, right on the first day… but on the other hand, she does want to give off those subtle magical signals to any kindred spirits on the floor…

Toss a rather elegant Fawkes pillow onto that dorm-room daybed, and only the cogniscenti will recognize the literary allusion. Everyone else will just think it’s a really slick bird — Cool, dude, is that a phoenix?

The Fawkes Pheoniex pillow by NECA at Amazon.
Along with the printed-and-embroidered 14-inch Hogwarts School Crest Pillow by Circle Red, what could be a more appropriate gift for a Harry Potter fan freshman just going off to college?

Who knew that the classic pirate emblem of skull and crossed bones could be just so darned cute? The Ahoy line of bedding from Unique Kids is designed for a little boy’s theme bedroom… but c’mon, who’s going to know the difference?

Raise the Jolly Roger and toss a novelty skull throw pillow onto a black leather sofa — yo ho! Board and pillage with the best of the grown-up treasure seekers!

When I came across this handmade monkey pillow by LocoDiego, there was something about the colours and the funky little creature himself that immediately made me think of Tracy Porter’s fabulous Rhapsody monkey bowl. Wouldn’t that be a fun pair, all gypsy-bohemian and surprising, in an otherwise formal room?

Cross-stitch, like other traditional needlework arts, is absolutely huge as a home decor trend right now, of course… but now I’m starting to wonder… Are monkeys the new penguins? (I rather hope so, truth be told, because I’m totally over those ubiquitous tuxedo birds…)

A Snake in the Grass isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not when it’s a luscious rich-coloured cushion cover, nature-inspired with a South African influence.

This brick red and gold cushion cover features a mixed media of surface design techniques:
• shibori stitched resist
• block printed
• screen printed
• hand painted
• vat dyed
• discharge dyed
• applique
16″ square envelope style cover in 100% cotton.

The artist, inkyspider, is a textile artist working in a mixed media of surface design techniques — located in the Kootenay mountains area of British Columbia, Canada (which explains the influence of natural forms and colours!) but trained in South Africa with a focus on painting and print making techniques.

Not in the market for a cushion cover? Check out the inkyspider designs T-shirt collection.