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.
What are your thoughts on matching vs. coordinating (be it bedding, furniture or anything in between)?
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 😉
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.
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!
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 😉
Here’s the original of the blue-walled picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jek-a-go-go/2781637406/in/set-72157604235618511
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!
photo number four is mine from my home. scrumdillydilly.blogspot.com. 😉