Alright y’all it’s time to get down to the best part of a room makeover… the pillows. As y’all know I am ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with anything to do with pillows. They make a room so comfy and cozy… and there are so many to pick from which makes it easy to coordinate with your space.
Of course, with allllllll the different pillows in the world it’s easy to end up with a giant mountain of pillows that don’t quite fit together on your bed or that leaves you with a couple pillows from your pillow mountain that don’t have a home. Pillows are an inexpensive way to change out your room for different months or seasons but as a self-proclaimed pillow hoarder I don’t like to put my pillows in storage.
Why have pillows put away in a closet when you can just have more pillows on the bed?
Either way the easiest way I’ve found to combat pillow fever is to be intentional about picking pillows for your space… and finding an arrangement that works for you. Since not all pillow arrangements are created equal I’ve putt together a little pillow arrangement chart for you to help decide which arrangement is right for you.
See what I mean?! Soooo many pillows! If you’re buying new pillows you can really pick whatever configuration your little heart desires! If you are starting from scratch then we have a little bit of room to play around with.
Typically I love euro shams on a bed… because I love to read in bed or work on my computer. So make sure to think about what you use your bed for (besides sleep!) when you’re deciding what variety of pillows to have. Remember that even if you love the look of looooots of pillows if you’re not going to sleep with all of them (which technically you’re not suppose to but I say they’re your pillows do what you want!) then you have to take them on and off your bed each time you go to sleep or make the bed.
For me the positives outweigh the negatives and I chose to go ahead with 2 euro shams, 2 standard shams, 3 square decorative pillows and one bow shaped pillows… on top of my sleeping pillows. I have a large basket by my bed that I toss the ones I’m not using in and that seems to work. My hubby thinks all pillows should be used or tossed on the floor (seriously hon? he’s such a goof!) but the large basket seems to help coral them.
Once you’ve decided which pillows you want you can pick a configuration! Then it’s easy to find pillows that work together.
Start with the Standard Shams
If you’re buying bedding typically your comforter, coverlet or duvet cover will come with at least 2 standard shams. Sometimes they come with more but I prefer the ones that only have standard shams (or euro shams… but not both) so that you can go ahead and pick your own coordinating pillows for the rest of the bed.
The comforter that I picked came with two matching standard shams that were absolutely beautiful with the same little pom pom trim that I loved on the bedding. They are the same watercolor floral pattern as the rest of the comforter as well which means (in my case) both the comforter and standard shams have a large pattern.
Euro Shams
Since my bedding came with standard shams I moved on to the euro shams next. If your bedding came with euro shams then just pretend this section is about standard shams! Basically our euro shams and standard shams are the two biggest pillows on the bed so we’ll make sure that the colors and patterns on these 2 pieces match first… and then move on to the smaller pillows.
Typically I like to mix and match scale with the two biggest pieces so since my standard shams are patterned I went with a solid textured euro sham. That way they have a nice contrast and don’t make the room too busy. Pattern on pattern is beautiful but you don’t want too much movement in one place… spread it out a little bit!
When picking a color for your solid shams take a look at your bedding and decide which color you want to bring out. If there is a small bit of color you really want to pop a larger euro sham in a similar color will really pull that color out of the bedding. I decided that I wanted to bring out the brush tones in my bedding set and picked a light blush, pin-tucked set of euro shams with ruffles around the edges.
They definitely add to the feminine feeling I was going for with this bedroom update.
Decorative Pillows
Once you’ve picked out your two biggest pieces it’s time for the fun stuff! Refer back to which arrangement you picked to see what type of decorative pillows you’re looking for. I picked the combo with 3 small square decorative pillows which is perfect to match with the larger pillows I’ve already picked out.
Since we already have a large pattern and a solid we can really play around with either a medium/small pattern and another solid. Just to keep the scale going… rule of thumb is always one large pattern, one medium pattern, one small pattern and one solid in the same color scheme will coordinate beautifully.
Since I am going for a relaxed feminine feeling I decided to go for another set of two solid decorative pillows with texture to give the eye a place to rest. If I was going for a lively vibrant room I might have picked a busy smaller pattern to match. Just remember that the pattern scales make a big difference in how the fabrics coordinate but also in how the room feels… the more pattern you use the more movement you’ll have whereas the more solids you introduce the more places to rest your eyes there will be.
The two smaller pillows are a bit brighter than the blush tones of the euro shams so they’re not identical and the texture is much more pronounced. Even an entirely white bedding set would be interesting if you had enough texture on all the different pieces!
For my third decorative pillow I picked this rose gold sequin pillow that spells out “Hello Gorgeous”. Pillows with words on them are a pattern all their own and this one works perfectly! I love how it adds to the feminine feeling I’m going for while adding a little touch of glam.
If you’re wanting to go a little off book or quirky this top layer of accent pillows is the perfect space to have fun. Llama pillow? Sure! Toss that bad boy on!
Pillows to Sleep On!
Okay now that we’ve worked on allllllll of the pretty pillows it’s time to actually think about the pillows we’ll be sleeping on. I think I’m getting old because I never gave too much thought about pillows until 2 years ago.
The hubs was still acclimating to the hotter temperatures of Alabama (being from Colorado he was so not use to the heat!) and was boiling at night. He literally took the gel cool pad we bought for the dog to lay on outside and put it under the sheet on his side of the bed.
Hey whatever works!
I looked into the cool gel pillows everyone was talking about and decided to get him one for Christmas. Well he absolutely loved it but we quickly found out that whenever I stole it from him (he may have given it willingly… he may not… I’ll never tell!) I woke up without a headache in the morning.
Which was not normal for me.
So we bought another one so that we could both sleep with “the good pillow” (as the hubs calls it) although once I leave for work in the morning he has a tendency to snag mine and sleep with both.
Either way when I was buying new pillows for the bed and going through all of the options I realized just how dirty our pretty, comfy cool gel pillows were… plus I brought mine on our cruise a couple months ago and my Mom was so appalled (her word not mine) that she put an extra pillow case on it so that the stewardess had no chance of seeing “how dirty it was” and thinking we were unsophisticated hooligans.
I don’t think the stewardess cared nearly as much as my Mom… I know I didn’t.
I did decide to get new cool gel pillows when we returned home though… I wouldn’t want Mom to have a heart attack over my pillows or anything.
I decided to get the same cool sense sensorpedic pillows we had before since they haven’t treated us wrong yet. If you’re doing a pillow makeover on your room I absolutely recommend these… I love them. Just make sure to replace your sleeping pillows when they start getting dirty. Even with frequent washes you should replace the pillows you sleep with every couple years… it’s so much better for your health then you ever realized.
Although in all fairness I should point out that ours are dirtier than they should be because my hubby is ridiculous and hates pillowcases. He takes them off and hides them to sleep directly on the pillow… so his pillow gets nasty. But you can see from up above that he definitely uses it!
I wanted to share a side by side comparison of the new and old pillow but my Mom was once again appalled so I appeased her by only showing the corner in a stacked shot. Go figure.
That’s it! 9 pillow officially picked out and arranged. I absolutely love how this turned out! Are you ready for the pictures?!?! You’ve probably had pillow overload at this point but don’t forget to jump over to the room update to see the other details in this space!
Now the only thing left to do is enjoy! Even the animals are loving the new pillow arrangement!
Hi Betsy,
Loved the pillow arrangements. Thanks for the article. It was very helpful.