Since polyfill is readily available in the market these days, you can make your own soft cushions. Buy some white or cream-coloured synthetic material that can be easily washed. Stitch it into the shape of a square bag or any other shape you desire. Leave one side open to stuff in the polyfill. Then hem in the open side.

Alternately, if you have a lot of old discarded soft clothes, napkins, socks or satin pieces, you can stuff the cushions with these.

Animal-shaped or geometric-shaped cushions look cute in the children’s room.To make these you can take some bright check or polka dot material, cut it into the desired shape, stuff it with polyfill and then hem all sides with a thick thread in contrasting colour. If you can get material with zebra stripes or the tiger skin look, you create some exclusive, theme covers for your little one. Thus, you don’t need separate covers for these cushions. You can stitch on buttons and dori to denote the animal’s eyes and mouth, respectively.

For the other rooms, you can have varied colour themes. For instance, in the drawing room if your sofas covers are printed , then go in for plain satin or lace cushion covers. To give the cushion covers a fancy look, use thick silken cords on all edges or sew on colourful tassles on all corners. If the upholstery is plain, then you can have printed floral, check or striped cushion covers.

In the bedroom or living room, more informal fabrics and colour schemes can be used for cushion covers. An interesting and economical style can be to use check or striped table napkins to make cushion covers that match with plain bedspreads. Since table napkins come in sets of six, these can be really handy for making the front part of a cushion cover. For the back side, buy a plain cloth in a matching or neutral shade and cut into the size of the napkin. Sew them together with a matching piping to get real trendy cushion covers. Nobody will guess that you’ve not got them from an upmarket interiors boutique.

As for fabrics, first search your home turf for any leftover materials—shirt or suit pieces or not-in-use printed cotton dupattas, et al. Though all these materials may not match with each other, they can make a colourful assortment of cushion covers that will team very well with plain, light-hued diwan covers or bedcovers.

If you need to shop around for the material try unconventional sources. Khaddar, double-shade kurta material, is ideal for living room cushion covers. Shirt material in bold stripes or big checks can do well for the bedroom or living room cushions. Instead of buying readymade Rajasthani or Gujarati mirrorwork cushions, which are usually steeply priced, purchase reams of block-printed suit material in various combinations from emporiums of these states. Stitch them into cushion covers and to impart the ethnic look to them, embellish with stitch-on mirrors.

These are but a few ideas that can go into creating cushiony comforts for your home. If you have an eye for the unusual, you can always pick up unconventional fabrics and make your unique collection of designer cushions.