Throw Pillows: It's All in the Mix

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So as you may or may not know I've been slowly but surely fixing up our living room. Here are some progress pics:


Initial Plan

Some Progress:

Curtains & Credenza

Coffee Table & Rug

The last big thing I need to do is reupholster the orange chairs in a neutral beige fabric. In the meantime I bought some throw pillows that were on super sale on Fab.com for the couch. 

I like how they break up Big Brown (AKA our couch) and I'd like to add a few more. I also want to get some for our lounge chairs. My problem is that I would like to bring in another accent color so everything isn't either brown or blue.

So I've been debating what sort of fabric. Another large geometric in another color? A colorful pattern? A solid? WHAT?! With so many choice and patterns it's a hard decision to make. So I found some guidelines and thought they were helpful. Turns out there are a lot of ways I could go about this.

1. Large Geometric Pattern + a Solid. The neutral background helps break up the bold pattern and color.

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2. Theme- here the theme of Tribal brings the look together. 

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3. Mixing small and large patterns. In this room they used the same large geometric in 2 different colors, and used a smaller geometric pattern to bring them together. Then the same colors are placed around the room.

Or below a large pattern is paired with a neutral, more textural pattern.

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4. All different patterns, all same color. Here different patterns are mixed together but because they are the same color with a neutral background it works.

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5. All Florals, all the time. Somehow mixing lots of floral patterns together seems to always work.

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6. Opposite colors and bold patterns. Here we have contrasting colors of blue and gold. The bold black and white pattern along with a neutral background helps bring the two together.

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7. Just make it work- as Tim Gunn would say. I'm not sure how these people made these patterns and colors work together but it sure does look good. So I guess when in doubt just break the rules and go with it!

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Now that I have lots of ideas and dream of a throw pillow wonderland- I still have one issue. My husband loves to but his big dirty man feet on my nice pillows! And sometimes even take naps on them if I can't catch him in time. So while I want to add a few more nice pillows to our room I still have a husband and child to contend with.

My best solution has been to keep an old pillow close at hand and try to remind them to dirty that one up instead of our nice ones.

Do you contend with "others" messing with your design plan? How do you feel about throw pillows? Are you minimalist- one or two does the job or maximalist- the more the better?