HOW TO STYLE YOUR BED LIKE A DESIGNER (PLUS PILLOW SIZING & LAYERING TIPS)

Last year I made over our bedroom, and during the process, I thought a lot about our bed – mostly about how to layer it and make it pretty yet cozy for everyday life.

There are quite a few layers to making a bed look (and smell) like a boutique hotel or designer styled it. Here are some general bedding tips:

• I prefer mostly white bedding, and adding color + pattern via throws, pillows, quilts, and coverlets
• My go-to detergent for our bedding is The Laundress. I actually look forward to laundry day because our sheets come out of the dryer smelling so clean and FRESH. Like, you can find me in the laundry room just snorting our sheets after they come out of the dryer
• I only do this for photoshoots/when we’re having guests over, but I like to take a handheld steamer to our sheets once they’re on the bed to smooth out any wrinkles

Let’s get started with the layers

Start with a mattress

lol jk

Start with a basic fitted sheet. I prefer extra-large fitted sheets with deep pockets so they can fit completely over the edge of a mattress. Less wrestling involved, too.

Then, you can add the top/flat sheet in one of two ways:

1. Add a flat sheet on top of the fitted sheet by laying it on the bed upside down and pulling it a few inches away from the headboard. That way, when you fold the sheet over the duvet, the detailed edge of the sheet will show
2. Add the flat sheet and pull it up a few inches away from the headboard and either let it hang over the mattress (seen below) or tuck it under the mattress (seen above)

Then fold in the ends of the flat sheet at the bottom of the bed under the mattress.

Next, add the duvet. 

I like to let the duvet hang over the edge of the bed for a more relaxed look. Once the duvet is at the top of the bed, I fold the duvet over once, then back up towards the headboard so it looks full and the decorative edge is showing (seen below)

Then add a quilt, coverlet, throw, or extra duvet at the foot of the bed (in the form of a pattern) for additional visual impact.

Here, I used a Bowood coverlet and tucked a duvet underneath to add some depth. 

I also tucked the bottom duvet cover slightly over the top of the Bowood coverlet, so you can’t see where the coverlet stops. 

BTW, our duvet cover, sheets and sleeping pillows are a combination of Schweitzer Linen Royal Bloom (I have the King “sheet set plus”) and green Duette shams, 

Now, onto the fun part (pillows).

Here’s a visual from an old blog post to help with pillow sizing for your King or Queen size bed:

And some ideas for styling pillows:

I took a few different approaches with our bedroom. In some photos, I kept things simple and used four king sleeping pillows followed by one smaller 15×24 tiger velvet lumbar.

And in other photos, I used four king sleeping pillows, followed by 22×22 Les Touches Pillows, then 15×24 Bowood lumbar.

Which look do you prefer?

Shop my favorite bedding and designer pillows: