Ed once gave me two rules about home decorating:

1. No bowls of balls, such as this one here.
2. No throw pillows on the bed.

Both require extra work (i.e., dusting in the case of balls, placing/removing from their home daily in the case of throw pillows), and neither serves a function other than decoration. I was young and newly in love; we were getting married; life was blissful, so I said, “Sure, no problem.”

Flash forward a few years, and I’ve stuck firmly to the no-bowls-of-balls rule. I’m not such a fan myself, so it has been pretty easy. Until recently, I’ve stuck to the no-throw-pillows-on-the-bed rule and relegated throw pillows to couches and chairs in living spaces. But our bed needed some oomf. To be correct, our entire bedroom needs some oomf, but the bed is the most important part, so it needed oomf more than anything.

I’ve told myself, “The bedroom is minimalist. It’s functional. Don’t waste valuable decorating dollars on a room no one else sees.” When we have parties, people place their coats in there, so I turn on a lamp and hope the low lighting helps disguise the complete lack of attention to that room. Nothing on the walls (not that that is completely unusual in our house as discussed here and here), utterly mismatched furniture, plain bedding, white walls and curtains left over from the previous owner, an awesome painting Ed gave me as a wedding gift just propped on a dresser. It’s a pretty sad state, folks.

So a few weeks ago I went to visit my family in Birmingham–the best hometown there is, of course–and on my way back home did a little shopping. First, I stopped in Target, then World Market, then Pier 1, then Ann Taylor Loft. All provided fun home finds, well, except Loft. It was superfun.

I’ll tell you about the other finds another day, but in Target I found these floor cushions that looked more like European bed pillows (you know, those big square ones you see in hotels) to me, and they were on clearance for around $10. Now that’s cheap for pillows, and especially cheap for floor cushions. Look here if you want to see one.

I snagged two charcoal gray (as evidenced on my Bathroom board on Pinterest, I’m into gray lately) ones and figured if they wouldn’t work on the bed, the would make cute doggie beds in the living areas. Dru and Ripley are always happy to lie like princesses on some pillows. I was on my way to bedroom bliss.

And now for the picture portion of our show. Please be understanding of the rumpled pillow shams. I didn’t take time to fluff (silly me).

Here’s what our bed has looked like since we moved in (actually even before because we used the same bed and bedding in our rental house as well). Not sure why I turned on the lamps.

In case you can’t tell. The bedding is light blue. The pillow shams have faint white lines.

Here’s what we were dealing with after I added the floor cushions (a different day but same look).

They were too small (or strangely shaped?), I thought. I wasn’t quite ready to gift them to the dogs, though, so I just kept them stacked in a corner of the bedroom.

Flash forward a few weeks, and I went on A. Shopping. Trip. to Tuesday Morning. Seriously, I got some crazy looks as I walked out of the store with not one but two buggies of lamps and pillows. I went on a throw-pillow binge. Ed wasn’t there to say no. It’s probably appropriate to note that a number of my pillows were gray or gray-green (see, I’m on a kick). I just knew that three of them would work in the bedroom. Three! That definitely breaks the no-throw-pillows-on-the-bed rule.

I came home, played around with the pillows but couldn’t really figure out how to make them work. Then the colors didn’t really work so well together on my blue bed either. So I pouted for a little while and then moved all the pillows to the living room and focused on all the lamps I brought home (still in plastic right now while I’m deciding but will post about them if I keep them). Then I got an idea about those floor cushions. Maybe they could work with the throw pillows (i.e., in Ed’s mind, maybe Kristen could just throw all the pillows in the house on the bed).

So first I tried the floor cushions again like above. But no, that was still not good. Then I threw on a bunch of throw pillows, but that was definitely too much. So I threw them off. Then I thought maybe the floor cushions could go closer together (took a picture of that one).

Better? I wasn’t sure, but then I thought about this adorable shiny gray (of course) pillow I’d bought to go with the hundred others and that maybe it could just work on its own. So I tried it.

I liked it! It was still sort of minimalist but more put together than what we started with. And I got to use my floor cushions! So sorry, Dru and Ripley.

So I broke the rules a little. We now have 7 pillows on the bed: 2 floor cushions + 2 sleeping pillows + 2 sham (?) pillows + 1 throw pillow = 7 pillows on the bed. I made the big switch while Ed was out of town for a few days. Then I made the bed up really nice the day he was coming home, hoping he would like it and not throw a tantrum about all the pillows. He raised an eyebrow and said something like “You got a few pillows, huh?” after he saw the bed and the rest of the pillows, aka the wreckage, in the living room. But he eventually agreed the bed looked better.

Oh, and just FYI, that cute white lattice thing on the right bedside table was bought on the same pillow-binge trip. It’s got a tealight holder inside and is super pretty when lit.

If you liked this post, then might we suggest:

Bathroom by the Numbers

Bathroom How-To: Hanging Cement Board

Flea Market Vanity and the Rest

Subway in the Shower

Not-So-Traditional Beadboard Installation, Plus Color on the Walls

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