Setting up a beautiful loungescape requires thoughtful consideration. To achieve an underlying aura of luxury for your space, mindful choices of fabric, quality, shape, size, colour and pattern in cushion covers are paramount. But because most of the focus is placed on cushion covers, we often tend to overlook another vital detail of cushion scaping: the cushion inserts.
Not many people pay attention to cushion insert selection. The truth is, cushion inserts play a foundational role in how a vignette of pillows will ultimately look. Much like the right fit determines an outfit's appearance, a cushion insert defines how a cushion stands to visual impression.
Many of the questions we get are from customers who need help on size and type of filling best suited for cushion inserts. These two factors occasionally determine each other.
Sizing Up Your Cover
The general rule of thumb for achieving the look of luxurious, plump-looking pillows is to choose one that’s a tad larger than your cover. Choosing a 55 x 55 cm. insert will fill out a 50 x 50 cm. cover right up to its edges to render a very neatly edged, sumptuous looking cushion. Conversely, settling for a same-sized insert as your cover or one that’s slightly smaller may display a lackluster look, one that cheapens and deflates its visual value. This could especially be true for inserts filled with duck feathers.
Polyester fiberfill is an option now for those who want to cut some spending corners. For this kind of filling, we recommend getting cushion inserts in the same size as the covers they would fill. Compared to duck feathers, polyfibre tends to be quite bulky. A larger polyfibre insert for your cover would simply be too big to stuff in. So in opting for polyfibre-filled inserts, match their sizes close to or equal to those of their covers.
Choosing the Fill: Polyfibre or Duck?
Again, think of lingerie. Would you buy a beautiful, expensive designer outfit only to support it underneath with cheap, low-quality lingerie? There is a reason why you need to invest in high-quality underclothes. These shape your body well so outfits fall trimly and beautifully on top. You get to wear a look properly...the way it was designed to be.
As with luxury cushion covers, these need to gorgeously display as they should. So nothing less than high-quality cushion inserts are worth filling well-designed and well-crafted covers.
Our fill of choice is duck feathers. Many decorators would agree. Feather inserts feel naturally soft and plump. They mould to your body when you sit or lean on them, requiring some fluffing up from time to time. More importantly, duck fill is durable and gives enduring poise to cushions so they display stunningly. Duck fill also keeps a cushion’s shape up to form for a long time. All it needs is an intermittent fluffing up to renew that good-as-new huggable pudginess and shape.
Feather cushions lend themselves exceedingly well to “karate chop” styling, holding that chop attractively. Bringing down the edge of your palm on top of a cushion creates a wedge that manages to convey a welcoming, lived-in yet elegant look. To accomplish this with panache, you may need to eschew sizing’s general rule of thumb and opt for a smaller insert than its cover. To illustrate, a 45x45 cm. duck-filled cushion insert stuffed in a 50x50 cm. cover allows for a looser cushion that takes well to a good-sized chop. The indented top edge adds a cozy, comfy vibe. If the cushion cover is too tight on the feather insert, you may end up with a small, inadequate chop which looks anything but adorable; rather it may even come off as “trying too hard.” But if you’d rather have traditional, filled out cushions, then back to sizing’s golden rule.
Now what about polyfibre? Admittedly, this filling type is much less costly but not necessarily cost-effective. Although brand new cushions with polyfibre feel nice and plump, the fibre will tend to clump over some time. In a few months, you may begin to feel disappointed over a cushionscape exhibiting flat, lumpy pillows with a cheap feel.
Fibrefill also absorbs and retains body heat; so, you may not want to cozy up with your pillows in hot weather. Instead of saving money on cheap pillow inserts, you may find yourself shelling out again for a whole new purchase of cushion inserts after a considerably short period.
Because duck feathers are far superior to polyester fibre in our opinion, Mirage Haven only stocks duck feather inserts.
Duck feather inserts make for a sound investment by ensuring our luxury cushion covers’ picture-perfect looks for many years.
Our cushion inserts are all made in Australia.