My Grandma’s “Horizontal Method” Is the Best Thing to Happen to a Bed
Humble brag incoming, but one of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to preview products and brand look books before they’re available to the public. It’s fun to get a first look at launches, and sometimes those sneak peeks happen in fabulous settings, like the recent Boll & Branch holiday preview at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad.
When I walked into the hotel suite the brand had decked out, though, the city views weren’t all that caught my eye. Instead, I was more taken with the way the Boll & Branch team had styled the top-of-bed pillows in the bedroom area. Instead of rows on rows of pillows lined up vertically — sleeping pillows, decorative pillows, and even more accent pillows upright — the bed featured a simple horizontally stacked arrangement with no more than five pillows total (two for sleeping, two for the duvet’s matching pillowcases, and one lumbar cushion for a decorative flourish).
While I’m familiar with the one-and-done convenience of a long lumbar accent pillow, this specific configuration instantly transported me back to my nana’s house. There, she used to make her beds spartanly — but also quietly stylishly — with just standard-size sleeping pillows laid horizontally on the bed, covered with a chenille bedspread and tucked so you could see the pillows’ forms. It was kind of like the monastic-like bed making trend that’s been popular the last year or so, only cozier and cuter.
I had to ask Boll & Branch about this easy bed-making idea, which I’m calling the “horizontal method” of pillow styling. “We love the look of stacking pillows horizontally on the bed as an alternative to vertically arranged pillows,” Missy Tannen, founder and chief designer at Boll & Branch, told me. “With the flatter presentation, your eyes are drawn past the pillows towards the headboard, making for a clean look.”
Another pro of this styling technique, beyond the ease (and, for me, nostalgia)? You can use fewer pillows on the whole for your bed, and, in Tannen’s words, “still have the bed look very polished and elegant.” That’s a win-win for your wallet and mine.
Need a little extra help pulling your bed together? Boll & Branch offers free design consultations with its products both in store and online. So whether you’re sold on this look or want to experiment with something else, you don’t have to go at decorating your bedroom alone.
Further Reading
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