Makely

Let's Make Life Awesome

  • Home
  • Decorating/DIY
    • Create Your Decor
    • Decorate Your Home
    • Paint Your Walls
    • Transform Your Furniture
  • Healthy Living
    • Essential Oils
    • Family Wellness
    • Household Care
  • Project Gallery
  • Contact
You are visiting: Home » Eclectic Home » {31 Days to an Eclectic Home} Day 29 – Match vs. Coordinate

{31 Days to an Eclectic Home} Day 29 – Match vs. Coordinate

by Lindsay Ballard on October 29, 2011 7 Comments

Today is Day 29 of a 31 day series on creating and cultivating an eclectic home.  For some crazy reason, I have accepted The Nester’s challenge to write on the same theme every day for the month of October.  This may end up killing me.  Or you.  But, I appreciate you reading and welcome your comments.

As I get older, I find myself shaking the notion that everything in my home has to match.  Now, when I say match, I mean identical in the same pattern or color (I know not everyone subscribes to this definition of “match,” but this is mine).  Instead of going for a matching look, I tend to want my items to only coordinate – be complimentary in color, pattern or texture.

Adding and subtracting pillows from your bed can make a huge impact if you’d like to move from matching to coordinating, too.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that every bedding retailer sells a duvet with matching shams, throw pillows, bed skirt and sometimes even sheets.

Pottery Barn Nantucket Duvet Set

Why do they sell that many pieces if people are trending away from the matching look?  Well, they want to sell stuff.  And a lot of it.  So, instead of you just buying the $99 duvet cover, they want to upsell you all of that other stuff so you’ll end up spending $500, right?

Pottery Barn Delphine Duvet Set

Instead of buying all of that, why not just the duvet or coverlet?  Yes, it will take more time finding coordinating pieces, but it will make your bed more interesting, lived in, “real” and eclectic.

Original source unknown

Obviously, your bedding doesn’t have to be quite so bright, but these are always the images I am drawn to.

Original Source Unknown

I do make one exception for matching bedding, and that is the case of the all-white bed.  I think an all-white bed can look great with shams and pillows from the same line, but they can look fantastic with mixed white pillows as well.  You know I love color, so I also think they look best when there is some great color in the room.

Elle Decor

What are your thoughts on matching vs. coordinating (be it bedding, furniture or anything in between)?

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.

« {31 Days to an Eclectic Home} Day 28 – Hadley Pottery Giveaway Winners & a Discount Code
{31 Days to an Eclectic Home} Day 30 – Rehabbing a Tired Chair »

Comments

  1. Anna @ Take the Side Street says

    October 29, 2011 at 10:34 pm

    Oooh, I love white bedding too… le sigh.

    As far as coordinating vs. matching, I’m a big coordinating fan. I think so many industries (furniture, jewelry, decor) sell sets because they’re easy and people who might not be comfortable decorating, or who might not be interested in that at all (gasp!) at least know they’re getting something that ‘goes’ 😉 But I agree, it’s SO much more interesting if it doesn’t match. I like my furniture (and my jewelry) to work together but not be identical. Think cousins instead of twins. Ha 😉

    Reply
  2. Melissa says

    October 30, 2011 at 1:39 am

    I’ve seen the eclectic bed before! It’s from a blog – something like “scrumdillydilly” or maybe “jek-a-go-go” – I’m not sure. I’ll check it out and see if I can find anything. But I remember the owner of the blog would change her bed styling monthly. It was always really wild and vintage.

    Reply
  3. nikki eddy says

    October 30, 2011 at 11:19 am

    i clicked on this post because I have a hard time coordinating colors. I don’t think my house or bedding has to be all matchy matchy either. We purchased a “bed set” in all black, and i mean all of it black because it was a high thread count and on sale. I’m still shopping for coordinating bed sheets (shouldn’t be too hard to coordinate w/ black, a nice print would look great!) And I sewed ecclectic throw pillows to go w/ a black/gray/white theme. Anyway, in regard to the other rooms in my home I still need help to coordinate. I would appreciate any and all posts you can give about coordinating vs matching. thanks!

    Reply
  4. Elizabeth "Lizzie" King says

    October 31, 2011 at 10:39 am

    I must confess, I need to get better at coordinating. I just feel like its not going to go together at all and look too tacky or strange lol. I think I just have look at it with a different perspective and your post has definitely helped. Turning a “man-cave” into the charming, eclectic home before my fiance and I tie the knot is definitely proving to be a little bit of a challenge haha. 🙂 But I will go at it with enthusiasm and the rule that everything doesn’t have to be perfect 😉

    Reply
  5. Laura says

    April 12, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Here’s the original of the blue-walled picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jek-a-go-go/2781637406/in/set-72157604235618511

    Reply
  6. Bec says

    April 21, 2012 at 3:14 am

    I have a number of conversations about my coordinating bedding with my mother over the years. She’s of the ‘if it comes in a set it must be used in a set’ mentality. I’d much rather have colour on my bed. I can remember her freaking out a while ago when she asked me to make up the spare bed in her house for my aunt while she was away and came home to “mismatched” sheets and pillows… In her cavernous linen cupboard I’d had a hard time finding the set and decided to just go with what went together. Took her a while to get over it!

    Reply
  7. jessica says

    July 7, 2019 at 3:52 pm

    photo number four is mine from my home. scrumdillydilly.blogspot.com. 😉

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Makely

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.


Archives

Categories

PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright © 2009-2019 Makely School for Girls | All Rights Reserved | Posts may contain advertising content or affiliate links