Anyone interested in a little pillow talk? I’m talking about how to get your bed linens looking as good as the ones you see online and in the Spring catalogs you’re getting inundated with right now.
It can be frustrating to buy new bed linens and find that somehow yours don’t look as good as “theirs”. Here’s the secret, it’s all in how you layer! Layering pillows and linens can have an extraordinary effect on transforming a room, the key is placement. Not only shapes and sizes but prints, solids and textures add visual interest and comfort. You want to create “fluff”, that’s what makes it so alluring! I’ve sketched a few of my favorite pillow combinations below to guide you.
Depending on my mood and the weather of course, I live in New England, I like flannels, silks, Egyptian cottons, linen chambray and organic cottons. Since it’s Spring, lets put the flannels to bed so to speak. I’m ready for some warm weather and lighter fabrics. Although, now is a great time to by flannel because they’re on sale!
I know we don’t have a lot of time in the morning to fuss with the bed, so one option is to just tuck the pillows you sleep on behind your decorative euro’s or shams rather than tucking them into decorative shams. The other option is to splurge a little and buy pillow cases with embroidery, ribbon trim, lace, or piping and let them sit front and center with your accent pillows. They’ll be pretty enough to do so!
Here’s how we are tucking in:
- Sheets are the foundation for comfort.
- Layering a combination of shams, accent pillows and standard pillows create interest and fluff.
- A light weight blanket is great to add an extra layer of wamrth for chilly Spring nights.
- A comforter, quilt or duvet sets the style and color of the room. Choose a color/pattern you love and want to wake up to every morning.
- Bedskirts are a finishing touch that can hide metal bedframes or you can skip the bedskirt and show off you beautiful wooden bed rails if you’re lucky enough to have them.
- Add a gorgeous throw to the foot of the bed. I find this especially helpful if you don’t have a footboard, it finishes the look.
- I love spritzing a little lavendar essential oil on my bed after I make it in the morning. It freshens up the room instantly and when I get into bed at night, there is still a faint scent of it.
Since we’re talking about beds, lets talk a little more about Interior Design in the bedroom. Did you know that sleep is the third pillar of health after excercise and nutrition? In 2011 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared insufficient sleep a public health epidemic. “Sleep-deprived is the new normal, like smoking was in the 1950’s,” says Russell Sanna, PhD, former executive director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The recommended number of hours for a restorative sleep is between 7-9 hours.
I like to think that I’m designing a bedroom that’s suited for a good nights sleep and is beautiful. With beauty and health in mind:
- Unplug at least an hour before bedtime. I’m so guilty of this! That one email I had to check before going to bed kept me up thinking much longer than I wanted to be.
- Try to avoid putting a TV in the bedroom along with other electronic devices like laptops, cell phones, and readers.
- Make your bedroom Electro Magnetic Free (EMF) or at least a low EMF zone. Remove that alarm clock that’s right next to your head and stay away from electric blankets. For best results, uplug everything in your bedroom before you go to sleep.
- Try a live plant that helps clean the air your breathing all night.
- If you read my last newsletter on synthetic fragrance, I don’t have to tell you to NOT wash your bed linens in synthetically fragranced laundry detergent.
Get your beauty sleep and keep dreaming of Spring! It’s here!
Monique Sabatino
Balanced Interiors
