Why are they called 'throw' cushions?
Throw cushions are named for the fact that they routinely get thrown off beds and couches when people want to actually sit there. (My husband would add that they are called 'throw' cushions because he would like to throw them in the bin. Maybe someone in your house can relate.)
So really, I've never understood why they are so popular as a decorator item. Expensive AND they spend most of their lives cast on the floor. Art seems to me to be a far easier way to bring a room together (and you're most unlikely to have to pick it up or readjust it on a regular basis.)
Most of us collect furniture and homewares as we go through life which can often lead to an eclectic mix of treasured items on display in any given room. The simplest solution to tie all your furnishings together is with art that picks up some of the key colours already in your home. If, like me, you have some 'shabby chic' or French provincial furniture, look for art with subtle lilac tones to tie in. Lots of natural or stained timber? Look for artworks with touches of similar brown tones so that you achieve that magic 'matchy but not' look that glossy magazines somehow make look unattainable. Have a pink bedspread? Choose art with a bit of pink (or a lot of pink) to really bring the room to life. The goal for you when looking to decorate your home should not be about 'perfection' but about functional, relaxed elegance. By that, I mean a style that YOU love and that makes you feel happy to be home.
I used to be pretty fussy about having a neat home. Everything was always tidy, junk was sorted and put away or discarded appropriately and all was well. Then we had a year where my husband had knee surgery to remove a tumour and subsequently suffered a seizure and around the same time I was pregnant and on bed rest and then recovering from a c-section and driving across town to hospital every day to visit our sick baby in the Special Care Nursery. Our home's 'neatness' level spiraled out of control and for a long time, I just left it. It was in the 'too hard' basket and my priorities had changed. I didn't want to spend time tidying. I wanted to spend time cuddling my family. Two years later, I'm finally in a place where I feel committed to organising a room a week. I'm 3 rooms in and the result are easy to achieve, cozy and pleasant to live in. In each case, I'm focusing on choosing the right art to draw focus in the room. This 80x100cm Finn canvas print in the boys' room was an obvious choice. As is the original artwork (Muguet - currently available online at time of posting) in the nursery. I'm not saying I'm an expert at home decorating and you certainly won't find 'perfect' rooms that look vaguely unlivable in my updates. The rooms are functional and styled to a point for the purpose of a nice photo, but in every case our 'real life' is maintained...because decor inspiration, in my opinion, should be by real home dwellers, living in real homes, with home dwellers living in real homes in mind.