How Can Interior Designers Get the Hamptons Look for Clients With Custom Cushions?

The Hamptons look is one of the most common requests in Australian design briefs, whether the project is a coastal home, a beach house, or a city home where the client wants a brighter, more relaxed feel. Most clients describe it the same way, asking for a space that feels fresh, light, and calm while still looking polished.

Cushions are one of the most useful tools for designers working in this style, because they add the colour, pattern, and texture that make a room feel Hamptons without changing the sofa, bed, or joinery. This blog explains what the look is, which Warwick fabrics to choose, how to style each seat, and how to order custom cushions for every room in a client’s home.

What is the Hamptons look in interior design?

The style comes from the beach houses of the Hamptons, a group of seaside towns on Long Island near New York. Australians have made it their own over the years by adding local timber, plenty of natural light, and living spaces that open onto the outdoors.

A typical Hamptons room includes:

• Walls, joinery and large furniture in white, cream, or soft stone.

• Soft blue, navy and grey-blue as the main accent colours.

• Simple stripes, light checks and plain woven fabrics in place of busy prints.

• Natural materials such as timber floors, rattan, cane and jute that add warmth.

Put together, these elements create a room that feels calm and bright, more like a smart beach house than a casual beach shack.

Why do Australian clients keep asking for the Hamptons style?

The look suits the way many Australians live, since it works well with bright sunlight, open-plan layouts, and living rooms that open onto a verandah or alfresco area. Clients also see it as a safe, timeless choice for a home they plan to live in for years, because it doesn’t date as quickly as bolder trends.

The style flows from inside to outside, so the outdoor seating should match the colours used indoors to make the whole home feel connected. Warwick upholstery ranges are made for indoor furniture, so for seating that sits in the sun and rain, our Sunbrella Cushions are the better choice and can be matched to the indoor scheme.

Which Warwick fabrics suit a Hamptons scheme?

Texture is what makes the Hamptons look work indoors, because smooth, shiny fabrics can look cheap in a light room while a woven fabric with some texture gives the relaxed, lived-in feel clients want. Warwick, the family-owned Australian textile house established in Melbourne in 1966, has a wide range of textured weaves, chenilles, and velvets that suit this style, and we make cushions in more than 900 Warwick colours.

The main seat and back cushions are made of Eastwood textured plain fabric, which is suitable for use on window seats, benches and family sofas, whereas the Jefferson cushion has a linear weave combined with chenille yarn to give sofa cushions a soft and relaxed appearance. As for the scatter cushions and bedheads, Dion features a woven chenille with a velvet-like sheen, and Lovely is a warp-knit plain fabric with a soft sheen that is appropriate for plush cushions.

For white and cream cushions, Camber in Alabaster and Chalk, or Regis in Bone and Birch, give you light shades for the base of the scheme. You can browse every range in our Warwick collection.

Which fabric suits a Hamptons home with kids and pets?

Many clients who love the Hamptons look also have young children, dogs, or busy households, so white and pale blue cushions need to stay looking fresh long after the install is finished.

Warwick Beachcomber is one of the most practical fabrics for these homes. Warwick lists it as one of its best-selling fabrics, and it is rated for heavy-use upholstery, treated with Warwick’s Halo easy-care finish, and backed by a 3-year guarantee. Its blue and grey shades, such as Atlantic and Ash, fit the Hamptons colour palette and sit well next to white sofas, and you can see all 28 shades in the Warwick Beachcomber collection.

For families who want a woven look on the main sofa, Eastwood is rated at 56,000 Martindale rubs, which is well above what a home sofa needs. For pet owners, it also helps to order cushions with zip-up covers, so your clients can take them off and wash them at home without needing to call you.

How do you mix stripes, plains and textures in a Hamptons scheme?

Mixing patterns and textures is what makes a room look designed rather than bought as a matching set and this simple formula works for most rooms:

1. Use white or cream textured fabrics for the largest cushions on the seat and back.

2. Add one blue stripe or check for interest and keep all stripes in a room the same width.

3. Finish with a deep blue velvet cushion to add depth, especially in a living room or main bedroom.

For the velvet cushion, the Warwick Felix collection includes Navy, a plain velvet with Halo easy-care properties that adds a rich touch without losing the coastal feel.

Try to keep each room to two or three colours in total, because too many shades of blue fighting for attention is the most common reason a Hamptons room ends up looking busy. Repeating the same two or three colours from room to room also helps the whole home feel planned as one project.

Which Warwick fabric works best in each room?

Each room in a Hamptons home has a different job, so the right fabric depends on how often the seat is used and who uses it:

• Living room sofa: a hard-wearing woven such as Eastwood or Jefferson for seat and back cushions, with Felix or Lovely velvet for scatter cushions.

• Window seat or reading nook: a textured plain like Eastwood for the seat cushion, with Dion or Lovely scatter cushions along the back.

• Dining banquette or kitchen bench seat: wipe-clean Lustrell Charisma, a textured faux leather that suits busy family kitchens.

• Main bedroom bench or bedhead: choose velvet-look Dion, Lovely, or Felix for a soft, hotel-style finish.

• Sunroom or enclosed verandah: use light textured weaves in white, cream and soft blue, as they won't appear too heavy in bright light.

For dining areas where food and drinks are part of daily life, the Warwick Lustrell Charisma collection comes in 66 colours and gives you a leather-look finish that wipes clean with a damp cloth.

How many cushions should go on a Hamptons sofa or window seat?

The look is generous but tidy, so cushions should feel full without crowding the seat:

• A three-seat sofa looks best with four or five cushions, with the two largest placed at the ends. 

• For a window seat, use one full-length seat cushion and add two or three back cushions. 

• A daybed takes one fitted base cushion with a row of scatter cushions along the back. 

• On a bench, a single long seat cushion works well with one scatter cushion at each end. 

Piping is a classic Hamptons detail, where a navy piped edge on a white cushion gives a crisp, tailored finish, and piping in the same fabric as the cushion looks cleaner and more modern.

Built-in window seats and daybeds rarely match stock sizes, so custom cushions are the easiest way to get a neat fit, with every cushion cut to your measurements in millimetres within 6 mm (maximum ±25 mm). You can see the shapes available in our Window Seat Cushions collection.

What kind of curtains would go in a room in the Hamptons?

Curtains finish the Hamptons look by softening the windows and letting in gentle, filtered light. The classic choice is a linen-look fabric in white or cream, hung from just below the ceiling to the floor so the room feels taller and brighter.

The heading style changes how the curtains look, since pinch pleats give a neat, tailored finish for living and dining rooms, while a simple gathered heading feels more relaxed in bedrooms and sunrooms. Sheer curtains work well in rooms that need lots of light, while lined curtains are better for bedrooms where clients want more privacy and less morning sun.

The Warwick Taormina collection comes in 14 colours, including Chalk and Cloud, and is made into custom curtains to your exact width and drop. For rooms that need a lighter sheer, Warwick Antigua comes in 13 colours, including Eggshell, and filters the light without blocking the view.

How should clients care for their Hamptons cushions?

Light colours show marks faster than dark ones, so giving clients simple care tips at handover helps their cushions stay fresh for longer:

• Everyday wovens: vacuum gently with a soft brush and blot spills straight away instead of rubbing them, since many Warwick wovens have Halo easy-care properties that help spills lift more easily.

• Velvets: brush in the direction of the pile to keep the finish even and blot spills quickly.

• Lustrell faux leather: wipe with a damp cloth and Warwick’s care label allows a diluted bleach clean for tougher marks.

• Sun exposure: rotate and flip cushions every few weeks, especially on window seats, so they wear and fade evenly.

What do designers say about our Warwick custom cushions?

Designers often order Warwick cushions for client projects, and their feedback shows how the finished pieces hold up in real homes. Randi, a designer, ordered a Warwick velvet cushion for a client’s project and left this 5-star review:

“This is an excellent quality cover, even nicer than the workroom I have used in the past for my custom cushion work. I will definitely be working with this company again. Make sure to ask for samples. They are so efficient and helpful all the way throughout! Great turn around time. This is my client’s custom closet.”

If your client wants the same soft velvet finish, our Warwick Casimir collection comes in 33 colours and is made to order as custom cushions in your chosen size.

How do designers order custom cushions for a full client home?

When a project covers several rooms, a little planning keeps the look consistent throughout the home:

1. Measure the width, depth and thickness of every seat in millimetres and list the sizes by room. Our guide, How to Measure for Custom Cushions (in mm), covers bench, window seat, chaise and daybed cushions step by step.

2. Order swatches of the Warwick colours you like and show them to the client in the room’s natural light, since coastal light can change how blues look.

3. Pick one main fabric and one or two accent fabrics, then repeat them from room to room.

4. Choose each product, select your Warwick fabric and foam and the price updates in AUD before you add it to your cart.

There is no minimum order, so you can order a single window seat cushion or a full set for every room, and if a client’s foam is still in good shape, you can order a zip-up cover only, cut to the foam size. Before anything is cut, you approve a spec sheet, so every size and fabric is checked upfront. Foam for Australian orders is made in Australia, every cover is sewn in our own workshop, and shipping is free anywhere in Australia.

Working on a Hamptons project for a client? Reach out through our Contact Us page or email business@fabricakraft.com, and we’ll help you choose the right fabrics and get every cushion made to fit.