Mar
26

How to Style Pillows on a King Size Bed

Thanks to Crane & Canopy for sending me bedding. All opinions are my own.

It's the Monday after my due date, and baby still isn't here (no contraction either)..so let's talk about my bed, because that's pretty much the only place I feel like spending time right now! I mentioned in a previous post that my only complaint about our king size bed is styling the pillows. I love everything else about it...the extra space for stretching out, how substantial it looks in the room, etc.  But dang, it's hard to get pillows to look right. I think part of it is that most of the beds I look to for inspiration are styled for a catalog or a magazine. But no one actually sleeps with twenty different pillows layered on their bed. I worked at Pottery Barn in college, and I remember all the tricks we'd use to make the beds look inviting...we would put TWO duvets inside one duvet cover, add pillows until they came halfway down the bed, fold a big blanket across the foot, and take an industrial steamer to the whole thing. It took forever, plus two duvet covers would be really heavy in real life. Not realistic! But on the other hand, leaving just your two sleep pillows looks kind of sad (as evidenced by our pillows in this post). So I decided to play around until I found a formula that looks full and inviting, but is quick and easy enough to actually recreate every morning.

Styling a king-size bed

Personally, I don't like king size pillows for sleeping on...but you need them to fill the horizontal space of your headboard. So here's what I've been doing: Place two king size shams against the headboard, standing up. Lean two standard size sleep pillows in front of them (also standing up). Add one decorative lumbar pillow in front, and...that's it! The only caveat is, this method requires you to have pretty pillowcases on your sleep pillows (we have white linen ones from Crane & Canopy). I also folded a blanket in thirds and laid it across the foot of our bed, to add some contrast and warmth. This is an easy and practical way to make your bed look more complete!

Calm and neutral master bedroom

I feel like this method is one that I will actually keep up with...it's simple and straightforward, yet still pretty. But of course, if you prefer more fullness, you could always add more decorative pillows in the front.

White linen bedding and a pink velvet pillow

Besides the white linen shams, we also got a matching white linen duvet cover from Crane & Canopy. I love it for spring...it's light and airy and beautiful, and linen feels sooo good against the skin. The pink velvet lumbar pillow is also new. I'm about to be even more outnumbered by boys, but I'm still going to decorate my house with pink!

Bedside table

The other change I made was to add a few more frames on either side of the bed, stacking them vertically with the art that was already there. This gave us a place to put personal photos in our bedroom without using up space on the nightstands!

Styling pillows on a king-size bed

Neutral master bedroom

Do you have a king size bed? Have you struggled with pillow styling too? It's a first world problem for sure, but it's seriously frustrated me for SO long! If you have any other bed styling tricks, I'd love to hear them!

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  1. Posted by NRdecor on Monday, August 6th, 2018

    Where did you get the striped shams on the larger pillows?
    • Posted by Aileen on Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

      They were part of a bedding set (this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Brookside-Striped-Reversible-Coastal-Gray-Oversized-King-Chambray-Comforter-Set-BS90OKCGMICO/303689586?keyword=303689586&irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-27795-456723-)

      Hope that helps!
  2. Posted by Olive on Monday, February 1st, 2021

    Thank you for this! I have been searching for an appealing way to style my bed without breaking the bank, and looking overly ostentatious. I dislike having too many purely decorative pillows that have to be stored somewhere while we sleep. This is perfect. 😊 Google images got me here... I 'll be sure to look around!
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