Bed Accessories: How Much is Too Much?

Andrew and I have only lived in two apartments together, and moved the same bed, but somehow we continue to accumulate more and more bed accessories.  What are "bed accessories," you ask? These would be sleeping pillows, sham pillows, accent pillows, and blankets.  We now not only have all of the above, but multiple of each. 

In total, we have two "regular" pillows each, which means 4 pillows stay on our bed every night while everything else gets tossed to the ground.  We have four "sham" pillows, two that match the white duvet, and two with the Dusen Dusen quilt pattern.  We also have two sheepskin covered throw pillows from Pottery Barn, and then one small flower pillow from Takashi Murakami that I bought in Japan. And that's it! I believe, at this point, 7 pillows is the limit. I just don't see how it could look balanced after that. Fewer than 7 is probably ideal, but this is where I am in life today.

I love the look and idea of a bed full of pillows, but it is annoying every night and morning to take them all off and arrange them back on.  The thing is, that's going to happen no matter what, because I will never have a bed without sham or throw pillows! 

Here are some of my past bed spreads, in descending date order: 

San Francisco Apartment

I'm loving how our current bed set up looks.  The beige Dusen Dusen quilt and sham make everything look a bit calm, just due to the beige (which I have never gravitated toward) but in a subtle modern pattern.  The Murakami flower adds the exact amount of whimsy and color that I think is definitely needed in the mix. 

Rockridge Apartment, pre Dusen Dusen quilt.
Berkeley Pillow: Catstudio | Tokyo Pillow: Jonathan Adler | Flower Pillow: Takashi Murakami

I love this room! Looking at it with my old crane wallpaper still makes me happy.  This room was in a phase of color, because it was also very cavey, with only one small window, similar to the next photo in this series (with no windows!).

Westwood, Los Angeles Junior 1 BR, in my little bed cave
Faux fur gray and pink pillows: West Elm

Ahh, my LA apartment. I loved this place even though the "bedroom" barely even fit my bed. It was the last apartment I had that I could really decorate for myself, since I was living by myself.  Here you can see my favor towards the color pink and the remnants of my Disney obsession.  Clearly this Mickey Mouse stuffed animal was replaced by the Murakami flower. 

My friend Pedro also pointed out to me that throw pillows are basically adult stuffed animals, and he's not wrong.  The amount of extra throw pillows I currently have in my apartment rival the amount of stuffed animals I probably had in all of my apartments where I lived by myself.

Westwood, Los Angeles Studio
Embellished pillow: TJ Maxx

As you can see, I'm a fan of keeping and reusing things from apartment to apartment.  These are the same Pottery Barn sheepskin pillows that are currently on our bed today! Albeit in a much rattier state than they used to be, which only becomes evident in looking at these photos.  This studio was not my favorite apartment, as it was truly tiny and I never was able to figure out a good layout to make my bed seem like it was not in the middle of my living room.  It was still my first LA apartment and my first time living in LA, so it was a dream!

Davis, CA 1 Bedroom 
Comforter/Sham set: Target

I spent one year of law school half living at this Davis apartment. Andrew was living in the City at the time, so we would basically be switching off where we spent every other weekend. I was in the City a lot! this apartment was nice, as new-ish apartments are not hard to come by in Davis, but I was not a fan of living there. It was the biggest apartment I've ever had (probably still) and I never really enjoyed it to its fullest extent. It was also my first time living alone, which was fun since I got to pick out everything in my room, although I did not love that it was in Davis.

I wish I could find photos of my college apartment beds! I have always been a fan of accessorizing beds and it will never change.  Seeing this progression, while also seeing some of the same pieces, makes me feel good that 1) I'm not a waster and 2) I seem to understand my own sense of style.  Merging in decor that Andrew would approve of (read: stopping the emphasis on pink) has been a fun challenge.  We shall see how our current bed accessories continue to evolve. 

Best,

Isabella