Kirkby Design cushions

The Kirkby Design cushions are the small-format end of a British design house that normally works in velvet and wallcovering. Kirkby Design started in 2009 as a modern label inside The Romo Group, a family business that has run from Nottinghamshire since 1902. That background is visible in the cushions themselves: graphic repeats, a color range with some nerve in it, and a hand that comes straight from the fabric side of the house.

London Underground patterns, reworked in velvet

The Underground collection came out of work with Transport for London, taking patterns from the London Underground that the network had used across many decades and reinterpreting them as geometric velvets. A number of the archive drawings trace back to designers working for London Transport in the previous century. Anyone who has ridden the Tube on a trip to England tends to recognize the rhythm of them at once.

Eley Kishimoto graphics, and the wall version

The label also has a body of work made with the British design duo Eley Kishimoto: playful graphic patterns that carry across more than one product type. That work runs on the wall as well, in the Eley Kishimoto Edition II wallcoverings, while the house wallcoverings continue in Wallcoverings Vol. 2, so a wall and a seat can be tuned to the same key.

How the color range is built

Kirkby Design keeps a balanced palette. Sand, taupe and jute tones carry the quiet end of it; cobalt, magenta and orange handle the other. That split is useful in an American room, where a wide sectional in gray or oatmeal usually needs one loud object rather than more agreeable neutrals. The designs run from geometric prints through to quieter textures, so the volume can be set where you want it.

Layering Kirkby Design cushions on the sofa

These are made to be stacked, not lined up. On a sofa of roughly 84 inches (213 cm), three tends to read better than two: a strong geometric in the corner, a plain velvet next to it, a smaller pattern pulled forward. Our geometric cushions and plain cushions pages help you find that counterweight, and velvet fabrics take the same texture further into the room.

Related Kirkby Design collections and personal advice

There is a wall program under the same name: see Kirkby Design wallpaper. Inside the cushions there is a dedicated Cushions collection, and the parent house is worth a look through Romo cushions. Not sure which pattern fits your room? Mail or call us and we will go through your colors with you before you order. Shipping to the United States includes duties and taxes.