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Looking to add interest and a bit of a personal touch to your home decor or living area? Upgrade your throw pillows with easy, weekend DIYs that will help you unleash your inner artist. Whether you’re starting from scratch or elevating a thrift store find, we offer several ways to add color, texture, and a bit of personal flair to your favorite home decor accessories.
These easy throw pillow embellishments are a great way to get creative—all you’ll need is a throw pillow, scissors, and a few simple craft supplies. Look for inspiration on your favorite home decor sites and bring your vision to life with our simple tips and 11 different ways to decorate with throw pillows.
Decorate Your New Throw Pillow
Unique throw pillows are a great way to elevate the style of your room—and they’re easy to mix and match, too. Whether you can’t find what you’re looking for at your home goods store or just want to break out your sewing machine, we offer several ways to decorate your throw pillows to make a statement in your home or living area.
The possibilities are endless—you can decorate them with fabric embellishments, fancy trim, or even paint them! Get inspired by our ideas below.
1. Customize Your Pillow
Houses become a home with meaningful personal touches—and adding your favorite photo or special memory to your throw pillow is a great place to start. Photo customization sites make it easy to create your own decorative pillow and offer a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials to get started.
Just choose a photo, upload it to the website, and they’ll take care of the rest! Soon you’ll have a beautiful, custom-made decorative pillow delivered right to your doorstep.
2. Add Tassels and Other Trim
Applying decorative tassels, rope braids, or other trim is a great way to breathe new life into old pillows—or simply take a new favorite to the next level. You can also use a satin ribbon to give your throw pillow an extra delicate touch. To get started, all you’ll need is some hot glue, scissors, and your favorite trim!
You can also hand-sew your trim to the pillow if you are sew-savvy.
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3. Tuft the Pillow
Tufting is a great way to decorate a pillow and add visual interest to an otherwise basic piece. Tufting is meant to hold the filler of a pillow in place and prevent it from becoming separated.
Of course, decor enthusiasts and crafters know that tufting also creates beautiful dimensions and detail on an otherwise plain surface. You can embellish your tufting with buttons or tassels or simply use tufting string, narrow cord, or ribbon to get the job done.
4. Add Appliques
Appliques are easily found at your favorite craft store and can be arranged any way you like on your throw pillow. Keep things simple with a peel and stick applique, or get crafty and hand sew your applique to your pillow.
This is a great place to show off your personal style—choose from patterns or designs that tie in with the rest of your living area, or get creative with your favorite words or sayings.
5. Use Sequins
Sequins are a great way to embellish and decorate a throw pillow. Besides adding visual shimmer, they also add a pleasing texture that’s fun to touch. You can choose to order a custom sequin pillow or hand sew your sequins for a homemade look. Get inspired by glittering sequin designs on your favorite home decor sites, or pick up a bolt of reversible magic sequin fabric from your local craft store.
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6. Embroider Your Pillow
Embroidery looks beautiful on pillows and is a quick, simple project that can be completed in a weekend. Find your favorite pattern and grab your supplies or repurpose an embroidery panel you’ve already made.
Make sure to iron it before you attach it to your new throw pillow to avoid wrinkles. You can also purchase pre-made embroidery panels if you have a particular style in mind.
7. Paint Your Pillow
You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy painting a throw pillow. Painting your pillow adds artistic flair and can provide a personal touch to your home decor accessories. Opt for a simple chevron pattern, or get creative with a painted landscape.
Try to tie in your pillow with your existing home decor, using similar color schemes for a cohesive look. Finish it off with added embellishments like crystals, sequins, and trims.
8. Add Crochet Elements
If you enjoy crocheting or knitting, you can also consider adding a yarn embellishment to your pillow. There are plenty of free patterns online, but you’ll likely find bright flowers, romantic hearts, or simple tufted pom poms.
Adding knitted or crocheted elements instantly gives your pillow a vintage, bohemian vibe and are great for beachy or desert-inspired spaces.
9. Create a Raised Fabric Element
You can also create a centerpiece decorative pillow with a simple raised fabric motif. It’s great for children’s pillows, and you can get creative with your favorite animals, flowers, and more. To create a raised fabric element, cut out designs and shapes from simple cotton or quilt fabric and sew them onto your throw pillow, leaving space for stuffed batting and finished edges.
10. Quilt Your Pillow
Quilted pillows have made a comeback in the home decor space and are a popular find at your favorite home goods store. But if you can’t find the perfect piece or just want to make your own, they’re pretty simple to DIY.
Consider a circle quilt overlay by using gathered circles sewn together on top of your pillow. You could also create an easy-to-make basket weave with hemmed strips of your favorite fabric for a vintage, homemade look.
11. Dye Your Pillow
Dying a pillow is an easy and simple way to get a unique color or hue to your pillow. Use fabric dye and soak or get creative and tie-dye your pillow for a statement centerpiece. You can also create an ombre or dip-dyed effect—the possibilities are endless!
There are plenty of ways to elevate your space with throw pillows. Hopefully one of these 11 decorating options will inspire you to get crafty!
You might also be interested in: Sew Simple: DIY Face Mask Project for Elementary School Kids
11 Ways To Upgrade Your Throw Pillows:
- Customize Your Pillow
- Add Tassels and Other Trim
- Tuft the Pillow
- Add Appliques
- Use Sequins
- Embroider Your Pillow
- Paint Your Pillow
- Add Crochet Elements
- Create a Raised Fabric Element
- Quilt Your Pillow
- Dye Your Pillow