Sofa Pillows 
of Character 
■■■ EVEN IN HOMES WHERE GOOD TASTE IS 
EVIDENT IN EVERY OTHER BRANCH OF IN¬ 
TERIOR DECORATION THE CUSHIONS AND PILLOWS ARE TOO OFTEN 
BANAL-SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM 
by Birdaline Bowdoin 
Photographs by the author and others 
A ROW of sofa pillows leaned against the window. From 
the coverings of intensest blue, red, yellow, green, violet, 
looked out upon those who passed in the street, a “Christy girl'' 
in golf clothes, a “Gibson girl” with tennis racquet, Holland's 
Queen in Friesland head-dress with real gold design, a still-life 
group of briar-wood pipes floating through gray clouds of em¬ 
broidered smoke, the burning cinders bright with reddest silk, 
a box of safety matches following in its wake with a few ciga¬ 
rettes sprinkled here and there to fill in, with words of playful 
encouragement to smokers. For the rest the wearied observer 
only caught a glimpse of bunches of violets and interminable 
fluttering ribbons with hows and ends. 
What of inappropriate inconsistency awaited the visitor with 
temerity to venture within, who can tell: 
And yet it is not always safe to judge by the sofa pillows, as 
to what the room contains, be¬ 
cause often people who have good 
taste in all other things will allow 
the sofa cushions to proclaim in 
loudest terms of discord that here 
the owner has lost all sense of 
harmony, order or fitness, and ac¬ 
cepts whatever the trade-designer 
offered. 
In this one small thing art 
suffers more abuse than in any 
other part of the house furnish¬ 
ings. 
The sofa pillow! A room may 
be perfect in every other particu¬ 
lar, but glance at its sofa pillows, 
and generally speaking, what a 
jumble of inharmonious colors, 
what execrable designs, what 
scrappy materials abound even 
upon one small divan! 
One vital law of design that 
ought never to be lost sight of, 
but which so often is disregarded 
in building sofa pillows, is this : — 
No realistic motif (as birds, but¬ 
terflies, flowers, human beings, ani¬ 
mals) should ever be used where, 
if it were as real as it looks, it 
would be hurt, broken, crushed or 
killed; or where in its turn it 
would cause any discomfort what¬ 
ever. 
To paint natural butterflies 
upon a tile where a hot tea-pot is 
to stand, to have human beings, 
too frail to hold upon their shoul¬ 
ders heavy masonry, placed as 
columns to buildings, to have animals or flowers on carpets 
where heavy furniture would crush them, to have golf balls 
and clubs, lighted pipes, sharp-pointed or hot things on places 
where one wishes comfortably to rest one's head—and many 
others, are all instances where this law is ruthlessly broken. 
Any of these motifs could, however, be used if they were 
so conventionalized that the real feeling of life and throbbing 
vitality is overcome. The queer square animals and men and 
flowers the rug people use in their designs never would cause 
anyone to feel that they are aught hut amusing flat masses. 
Even their coloring is conventional, for the color and the form 
are considered so closely together that one departs from nature 
in just proportion to the other. 
Sofa pillows are very important factors for comfort in the 
informal rooms. In these contradictory days of hardest en¬ 
deavor and welcomed relaxation, 
when we sink gladly into the soft 
depths of a cushion-covered di¬ 
van, the sofa pillow can hardly be 
too much emphasized. 
The ideal divan should con¬ 
tain one or more long, firm cush¬ 
ions, enough to extend along the 
back for a substantial prop. These 
would hardly need decoration, 
hut might be simply covered like 
the divan itself. Then have the 
softer cushions, stuffed with 
feathers, to pile under the head 
and elbows; and finally, the soft 
down pillows of various sizes to 
just fit under the back of the head 
or wherever weariness or indul¬ 
gent luxuriousness suggests. 
For those who love sweet or 
strong odors the pine-stuffed pil¬ 
lows, not too large and not too 
tightly filled, lend an added charm 
connected with the memories of 
the past summer and dreams of 
the woods. 
Or there are moments when, 
only partly reclining upon the di¬ 
van, one wishes a foot-rest, and 
here the floor cushion is more 
than appreciative. Round or 
square, made of a beautiful ta¬ 
pestry or heavy upholstery ma¬ 
terial, and stuffed firmly with 
hair or excelsior, felt or cotton, 
these are beautiful and of the 
greatest comfort. The side which 
rests on the floor is made of 
Choose your sofa pillows with a studied regard for what is 
suitable in design and harmonious in color with the setting, 
not forgetting also to select material that will be durable 
(298) 
