How To Style a Layered Bed

This chilly winter blast has kept me inside looking at all those spaces I avoid dealing with when the weather is warmer. I find myself wanting a big, fluffy cozy bed to hop into at the end of the day. So let's look at how to make your bed look lovely and layered.

How do you "style" a bed without it looking like you spent 400 hours putting it together and taking it apart every night? Well, I find it all comes down the textures. Have a compact colour palette but use a variety of fabrics and textures to achieve a cozy look. My bed has 4 colours (grey, white, ecru and green), so keep the palette to 3 or 4 neutrals and a colour.

First off, white linens are always a good, safe bet, and can look cozy and layered in the winter and bright and fresh in the warmer months. I have a linen sheet and duvet cover set from IKEA that get's softer with every wash. My disclaimer about linen: if you're a neat freak do NOT buy linen sheets as they always look a little undone. If you like your bed to be crisp, try a cotton percale as they wash great and don't wrinkle easily. These ones are microfiber and I love the delicate blue/grey pattern.

So you have your fitted sheet on your bed and your duvet is in the cover. You now have the choice to use a flat sheet or just a duvet with cover. Whichever you choose, have the duvet pulled to the top of the bed and then folded over about 1/3 of the way down (with the patterned side of the flat sheet facing out if using one). I like to leave the duvet untucked at the bottom of the bed (all personal preference) but if you like the look/feel of a tucked in blanket then a hospital corner looks nice and neat.

Now, you're going to add your two sleeping pillows. You may stand these up against your headboard or lay them flat on the bed. I find the leaned look to be a little more traditional and laying them flat is a little more modern. The second layer of pillows can be standard to your bed size (queen or standard size for full and queen beds, and king for king size beds) or you can use two euro pillows behind your leaned sleeping pillows. If you have your sleeping pillows flat, layer your second set flat on top of them for a modern look or layer the second set standing in front for a hybrid of modern and traditional.

I like to place my large blanket folded into thirds laying across the end of the bed. Leave a few inches of space at the edge of the mattress before the blanket/bedspread is laid down. As my duvet is very simple, I like to have some texture in my spare blanket. Mine has a simple grey and ecru stripe on it and has an open weave giving a little textural variety to the bed.

Now for the fun part! Decorative PILLOWS! I feel like you can never have too many pillows. I am constantly moving pillows around my home, changing them out seasonally and adding new ones when I find something I love! I keep my bed pretty simple with just one standard lumbar pillow. But if you are a more is more person, then by all means have two or three pillows stacked on the bed. If using one lumbar pillow, you might want to check out some of the new giant lumbar pillows being offered out there by places like Tonic Living and Myra Scott Textiles. One single pillow can bring a lot of interest to your room. If using multiple pillows try different sizes and mix the scale of pattern you use. For example, have one large geometric pattern, one smaller organic pattern and a solid.

As a final cozy touch at this time of year I like to layer a small textural throw casually at the bottom of the bed.

Let me know how you style your bed by layering things on and taking a picture and posting with the tag #letsgetstylishwithrobin . Happy bed making