The best (easiest) pillow arrangements for beds : Annie Elliott Design

Oh, Gentle Readers. Anyone who says the pandemic is over hasn’t stopped by my house recently: 3/4 of our household is COVID-positive right now. I have been spared so far, but I fear my luck can’t last forever. Sigh.

ANYway, for obvious reasons, BEDS have been very much on my mind. Beds and the pillows that adorn them.

Colorful, sophisticated bedroom with headboard — The undisputed queen of bedrooms, Kit Kemp (the genius behind Firmdale Hotels)

Some people don’t like too many pillows on their beds, and that’s fine. But some sort of decorative pillow situation on a bed is necessary. Therefore, here are a few tried and true formulas that might help.

KING BED: 3 Euro pillows + a lumbar

(A lumbar is a short, long rectangular pillow. The dachshund of the pillow world.) Euro pillows are quite large: 26″ square. It takes 3 of them to fill a king bed, and then you don’t need much else.

Many off-the-shelf bedding sets offer Euro shams to match the duvet cover, which makes Euros an easy, affordable pillow option. Then take the money you just saved and spend it on a custom lumbar pillow to pull it all together.

King bed with blue floral bedding and pillows — Custom bedding. The inset tape trim is the giveaway ;)

Bedroom with matching headboard, bedskirt, window treatments — Sorry for the side view. Annie Elliott Design

QUEEN OR FULL BED: 2 or 3 large pillows, with or without one smaller pillow in front

The large pillows could be Euro-sized, as described above, or they could be 22″ or 20″ square. The pillow in front of those just needs to be smaller — square or rectangular. (Or a bolster, but more about those later.)

2 large + 1 small, by Annie Elliott Design

Bed in front of black drapes — 2 large with a front pillow, by Melissa Rufty

Bed in aqua turquoise bedroom — …and 2 large without, by Katie Ridder

Red and white fancy bedroom — Also without a front pillow, at Manoir Saint-Calais

TWIN BED: Anything goes

Seriously. From a single pillow to a whole pile, you have maximum flexibility with a twin bed. And if you have 2? They can be different!

Bedroom with twin beds — Euro in back, then sleeping pillow in a sham, then bolster, by Katie Ridder

Child's pink and light blue bedroom — Assorted off-the-shelf pillows with 1 monogrammed, by Annie Elliott Design

Bedroom with twin daybed and dog — My daughter Ruthie’s pile ‘o pillows

SLEEPING PILLOWS: Flat or standing up?

The rules used to be inflexible: position your sleeping pillows upright and then stand the decorative pillows in front of them.

Navy bedroom with red headboard — Standing-up pillows by Nick Olsen

But times have changed, and now I actually prefer the sleeping pillows to be flat, with the decorative pillows standing guard in front.

Sophisticated pink and purple bedroom — Sleeping pillows flat, with 2 large + 1 smaller pillow in front, by Jamie Drake

WHAT ABOUT BOLSTERS?

Those are the round tube-like ones. Don’t worry about them. They’re cool, but don’t waste precious brain space on those ;)

Fancy bed with blue and white canopy — This was our ASPIRE Showhouse bedroom, complete with bolster. We just went for it

The bottom line? Fear highly transmissible viruses, Gentle Readers. Do not fear pillows.

Annie Elliott Design is based in Washington, DC, with offices in St. Michaels, Maryland and Middlebury, Vermont. Our style? Where classic and modern hang out and drink gin.