Pillows

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email newsletter.

Making pillows is one of the easiest craft projects you can do. Take it from me — I’m no seamstress or crafter, and even I can do it. For me, the tougher challenge has been finding eco-friendly pillow inserts. There’s always the option of using your existing throw pillows as inserts, if you have them available. The added benefit of doing that is you don’t have to find a place to store your old pillows. But if, for some reason, you need new inserts (ie. you don’t have any old pillows to use, you’re making the pillow as a gift, or some other reason), you’ll want to try finding eco-friendly fiber fill or a green insert.

After months and months of wanting to do a crafty project, my visualizations turned into action in a few short days. This past weekend, 2 things made this happen: I saw an easy project on an episode of HGTV’s “Myles of Style” and Goodwill had a 50% off sale.

Designer Kim Myles created a throw pillow for a homeowner’s living room from a vintage sweater. When we moved, I didn’t bring any clothes but the necessities, so I didn’t have a sweater on hand to use for the project. But thanks to Goodwill’s monthly sale, I snagged a couple of great sweaters very inexpensively, and my mother-in-law has about a zillion throw pillows and gave me free reign to use as many as I wanted. So here are the simple steps for making a decorative pillow like (or better than) the one shown above.

Yesterday afternoon, I was treated to a beautiful song from the two little birds that like to sit up under the roof of our front porch. I like to think it was a good omen for things to come later on election day, but for those birds, it was just business as usual. When I sit in the house alone and everything is quiet, those little birds give me something to smile about.

My daughter loves stuffed animals. Seriously, she has in excess of 20 plush friends of all species — dogs, cats, rabbits, bears, dinosaurs, and even a beluga whale. That last one was a memento from a trip to the Georgia Aquarium a few years back when she became fascinated by the giant, gentle creatures.

She’s free to keep all the plushies she already has, but now that I’m much more enlightened about the chemicals in the plush fabric and fill used to make said animals, I won’t be buying another traditional one. I may, however, get her one of these Critter Pillows from Garnet Hill to act as a stand in.

Pillows are one of my favorite ways to refresh the look of a space. I know I’ve said before, but I really mean it. You’d be surprised how switching the pillows on your neutral sofa to a new color scheme can totally reinvigorate the look of your room. Short of painting, replacing pillows and curtains can give you a whole new look.

Every time I find a new company that makes eco-friendly home furnishings, I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a hidden treasure. A little dramatic, I know, but true. Although the market for green products is growing, it can still be a bit tough to find products I haven’t seen before. Wabisabi Green’s line of EcoArt pillows made my week.

Available in a great variety of styles, there are six pillows each in the Shore, Zen and Leaf collections. They are covered in 100% bamboo twill, and the insert is covered in unbleached cotton. You can also choose between recycled polyfill or sustainable Kapok fibers.

Thanks to one of my favorite green blogs, EcoSalon, today I discovered a website that made my morning. EcoEtsy is a collaboration of all the artists on etsy.com who are dedicated to the three Rs we all know so well — reducing, reusing and recycling. They categorize all the shop owners who sell green products. I feel like I’ve hit a green jackpot!  There are so many wonderful items and sellers, and now I won’t have to spend hours on end trying to find those that make use of sustainable practices. I’ll do my best to feature as many of them as I can.

As much as I love animals, I’ve never been partial to prints that include photorealistic images of horses, dogs or even dolphins. I prefer them in silhouette, much like the birds prominently displayed on so many of the items I’ve featured at Green Your Decor. There’s something about the hint of an image that appeals to me.  What I’ve been drawn to more often lately is animal illustrations and caricatures. It’s fun to see artists’ interpretations of nature’s creatures.

I know some people whose throw pillows are used only for display purposes. They lay them on their bed while it is made, then put them in a chest or in the closet when they’re ready to go to bed. Or they’ll put the pillows on their sofa, only to move them every time someone sits down.

In my house, throw pillows are there to be used. We lay on them, cuddle with them and, occassionally, my daughter makes forts with them. This means two things: I want them to be made of a material I’d be comfortable (and safe) snuggling up with, and I don’t want them to be very expensive.

I have a newfound love for wool felt. Not the synthetic, acrylic stuff you’ll find at most craft or fabrics stores — the honest to goodness, straight from nature wool felt that is naturally antimicrobial. Combine that with a beautiful pattern and colors, and I’m sold.

This wool felt pillow cover from Shop Equita is gorgeous, and the hand cut pattern makes me want to scoop up a couple of them right now. I have the perfect place for them — my mother’s couch. She loves all things red, and I think I’d have to agree with her in this case. The cover is also available in a couple of other colors schemes, so if you’re more of a coffee and cream type and not so much a firecracker, you can still get one that suits your taste.