Dressing your bed: Style your pillows four ways

Decorative pillows are the ultimate finishing touch for your bed. And with so many options — Euro shams, bolsters, accent pillows — the possibilities are endless. 

Switching out decorative pillows is also an easy way to change up the look of your bed seasonally (or just whenever you need a fresh vibe).

Our advice? Start layer by layer.

For inspiration, here are a few of our favorite ways to style your pillows:

The Classic

Simple and elegant, this classic style will work for almost any bed. Try it in your guest room to make things cozy but not-too-fussy, or in a child's room where you don't want ten pillows tossed all over the floor each morning.

You can repeat patterns or get creative with mixing colors and textures. As long as the different designs have some coordinating colors or lines, the look will be cohesive. For this bed, the bolster and duvet cover were Anne Gish.

For the Classic, we layered:

• Sleeping pillows
• Euro shams
• Bolster

The Stack

Horizontally stacked pillows are having a major moment right now. The aesthetic is functional yet fun, with a new twist on a traditional bed.

Stacking standard shams on top of sleeping pillows is a good place to start, then you can decide how many additional accents you'd like. If you'd like to duplicate this look, the linens on this bed are mostly from Pom Pom At Home.

For the Stack, we've layered:

• Sleeping pillows
• Standard shams (stacked)
• One Euro sham
• One smaller accent pillow

The Soft & Simple

The easiest way to style a bed is to pick one color and build from there. You can mix patterns and styles, always keeping in mind your original colorway.

If you have a tall or large headboard, consider deluxe or "Grand Euro" shams, which are 30 x 36 inches (vs. 26 x 26 inches for Euro shams). One more tip: If you have a king-sized bed, three Euro shams will fit across your headboard horizontally.

But what about sleeping pillows? The choice is yours. You can certainly incorporate them into your pillow design by choosing neutral or coordinating pillow cases, but you can also stash them in a storage bench or basket until bedtime.

For this monochromatic bed (mostly John Robshaw linens), we layered:

• Grand Euro shams
• Two standard shams
• One accent pillow

We also added a foot throw and two coordinating accent pillows to show how simple it is to switch up your bed. Bringing in a splash of red to our blue color palette is the perfect way to get our room ready for fall.

The Ultimate Pillow-Lover

Can't get enough pillows? This look might be for you. This opulent pillow style features eight different pillows. Note the coordinating colors and prints — this bed is mostly Ann Gish.

We layered:

• Deluxe shams
• Euro shams
• Accent pillows
• A large lumbar pillow
• A smaller bolster

Want more pillow styling inspiration? Come by the store to see all the ways you can change up your bed.