A Room Without Pillows is Not Finished Yet

This is my client's beautiful wool oriental carpet, which anchors a small seating area at the base of a three-story spiral staircase.  I have literally been crawling around the floor of my office for the past three hours, digging through piles of trim samples and fabric memos, to come up with the perfect combination of fabrics and trims to imbue this small space with warmth, personality, sophistication, and elegance.  Also fun.  Red fun!

The camel mohair chairs with nailheads are new, but they need to be enlivened with custom throw pillows, as will the teak bench on the opposite wall.  So, after obsessing about pillows for three hours, here's what I'm excited to show my client tomorrow:

 The teak bench will get two square throw pillows in this Patchwork Damask Silk in Russet from Lee Jofa, with Samuel & Sons Boulette Fringe in Cherry Bomb sewn in-seam.

This cut velvet bamboo fabric is also from Lee Jofa, and it's slated for the pillows that go in those mohair chairs.  In person, this fabric is exactly the same shade as the chair fabric, but its shimmery pile will give it enough oomph to hold its own and not disappear into the chair fabric.  This red and gold brush fringe from JAB Anstoetz will go in-seam, and the coordinating Stresa braid will be inset about 2" from the edges of the pillow, mitered at the corners.

 Another fabulous Lee Jofa velvet!  Fretwork in Claret/Chocolate is for two more throw pillows on the teak bench, and these will have knife edges, but they will be anything but ordinary with JAB key tassels on the corners that are embellished with Swarovski crystals and cultured pearls.

Last but not least, the teak bench will get a custom boxed seat cushion in this F. Schumacher & Co. bamboo Deco Velvet fabric.  This Samuel & Sons hand-embroidered ribbon will completely cover the 2" boxing, and solid black silk chair ties will secure the cushion to the bench at the front corners.  I love mixing the contemporary geometric patterned velvet with this vintage-looking ribbon trim, and the metallic embroidery reminds me of the gorgeous antique Asian textiles my client collects (several of which will likely be displayed on the walls of this space).

Okay, I lied -- there's one more pillow.  We carried this Calvin Klein ribbed ottoman fabric swatch around for months, loving the texture and the myriad hints of color that made this anything but a basic black, and finally we discovered that it complements this carpet beautifully.  So this will be one small rectangular pillow on the teak bench, with this Stroheim & Romann silk pom braid inset a few inches from the edges.  The bench cushion is gold with black, so this pillow is black with gold. 

Considering that I exhausted just about every resource imaginable, and auditioned hundreds of possible fabric and trim combinations, and didn't like ANYTHING else until I came up with this plan, I really hope my client likes it as much as I do!