One of the best ways of decorating your patio on a shoe string budget is to match patio chair cushions. These outdoor patio chair cushions can provide the “unifying” theme to the aforementioned space while providing a splash of color as well. And because there are some home depot stores that offer inexpensive chair cushions on an almost regular basis, it can be fairly easy to literally hoard on as much cushions as your home can store.

But are all chair cushions the same? The answer would be a loud, “Most certainly, not!” Here is a buying guide as to what pieces you should get for your patio furniture.

Before you start browsing the stores, it is imperative that you measure the seating area of your furniture first. Very often, you will see ill-fitting cushions about that are forced to fit into a cramped seat or plopped uselessly in the middle of a larger seating area.

You can eliminate these unsightly patio chair seat cushions by simple measuring your furniture. If you are planning on getting several cushions for different types of patio chairs, then it would be best to keep a careful ledger of their individual measurements.

Choose a style or design or theme you want to go for. One very good advice is to get matching cushions if you have matching furniture. Patio lounge chairs, outdoor dining chairs, patio coffee table chairs, etc. are all matching sets, which would benefit greatly also with same colored or same styled cushions.

However, for single pieces like a patio sofa or a rocking chair, you may want to get either a neutral-colored patio chair cushion or cushions that will match the rest of the exterior décor, or something so striking in contrast that it will highlight that one piece of furniture it is “sitting” on.

Overstuffed cushions, anyone? The newest home decorating fad seems to be leaning towards the use of overstuffed cushions, and this works well … on certain types of furniture only. You can use these cushions on chairs that are naturally deep-seated, like lounge chairs, sofas and even rocking chairs.

However, you might want to consider a replacement patio chair cushion or switch to conventional chair cushions for straight backed chairs or chairs on the outdoor dining set.

Lastly, you should consider quality over quantity. There are plenty of discount patio chair cushions that come with inexpensive price tags, but these also look exactly as such – cheap. And this might affect the general look of your expensive furniture. Invest in a few quality cushions instead of buying a multitude of cheap patio chair cushions. These will last longer and look better too.