Cheap Pillows

There is no need to come up with any sneaky, sweet way to say it. Cheap pillows are awesome. 

Sarah Richardson
via HGTV

When you are staging your home, pillows add accent color and an extra dose of comfort to any room (well, limited use in the kitchen & bathrooms, but Sarah even makes that work sometimes.)  You can go into any design/decor/gifty store and find gorgeous pillows to compliment your look.  Joss & Main and other online retailers send photos and deals to your email. According to your taste and budget, there are a bazillion options out there for pillows.  They also love to make them out of valuable, gorgeous, pricey, delicate fabrics, then charge A LOT for them. In Heaven, the pillows made by angels should not cost $450.

Anastasia Pillow in Caramel   $220.00   $84.95
via Joss & Main

I love to make & buy cheap pillows.  Here's why:

• a new pillow can freshen up an old look or an old couch for pennies.
• walls and (expensive) furniture can be neutral & timeless because the fun & color is in the ($10) pillow.
• the less you spend, the more pillows you can make.
• its good to show Hunky Husband just how much I am saving.
• there are so many pretty textiles around to inspire -- most of them just don't know how much they want to be pillows.
• it is fun to try something I have never tried before.
• the sewing for most pillows includes mostly straight lines.
• you do not feel guilty replacing a pillow that costs less than $10 -- so change for seasons, holidays, mood, day of the week, you get the idea.
• my destructive, dirty, energetic girlies sometimes destroy pillows. The loss of a $180 pillow might inspire me to make up new curse words.  The loss of a cheap pillow, just starts the fun of coming up with a new one.
• a couple of cheap pillows can break up a Bed-in-a-Bag set. It keeps it from being too matchy-matchy and creates a custom look.

Here's a a tour of cheap pillows I currently have in my home. 

Are there any Tar-jay fans in the room? When my big girl was getting her first big girl room, we used a bright pallet and Gerber daisies.  Issac Mizrahi for Target was all the rage and it suited her perfectly. She has a personality you can see from space. 

The shams that went with the set were prolly my favorite part. There was no way I was going to pay retail for a little girl bed.  I'm not sure how much it was at the time, but a new set, in the package is currently on ebay buy it now for $249. 

6 yrs old NOIP via ebay

6 yrs old -- used, loved & washed -- ovah & ovah

So, I went two aisles over and bought four dinner napkins with the same flowers.  The smaller size fit better on the twin bed anyway.  MeMe sewed them up in 2005 and they are still working great -- now in middle girlie's room.  Using napkins has the added benefit of making them.. wait for it... machine washable...  legendary!

Speaking of napkins. One of the last times MeMe came to visit, we realized that I needed a pop of color in the living room.  I moved a wicker chair in from the guest room and she helped knock out a new pillow.  We used 2 of a 4 pack of napkins that I got from Marshalls for $6.99.  The pillow form was an ugly old pillow that was in the donate pile.  Cheap. Cute. Love it.

Do you ever make up a fabric that you think should exist?  I was dragging my sistah around town looking for a pink damask (that we never found), but we found this great, green pineapple print.  I was getting ready to move to Florida, but that is all I knew.  Once I decided on these accent pillows for the couch, that quickly lead to place mats and dinner napkins and kitchen towels. Fun, happy green. 

We actually picked the couch to go with these pillows.
 Do not try this home. We are trained professionals on a closed course.

So, bec, what makes these cheap pillows? Well, the couch is one place you really need durability, but upholstery grade fabric can be pricey. 
The good thing about upholstery fabric is that it is so wide.  Magic MeMe figured out how to get three large euro shaped pillows out of one yard!
The good thing about this one, it was on sale $12.99/yard.
The happy accident about this one, it is outdoor fabric.  It is built to withstand wind and rain -- bring on the kool-aid.
The stuffing for each one is the insides of a king-sized pillow from Ralph's discount store.  They are easy to fluff & wash.  The bed pillow stuffing is so much more comfy than any pillow form and cheaper than the same amount of fiber fill. 
The sample pillows made up at the fabric store were smaller, harder and $75 EACH!

Sometimes I actually just buy cheap pillows. The shams on our master bed were collected on three separate trips to Tuesday Morning.  The pillows on our guest bed were all clearance at Target. 

We have dust allergies at our house, so our bed pillows get washed quite a bit.  When they can't take it anymore, they get rotated into shams or find their way into other projects. This bolster started out life as the fitted in a sheet set that has been split like the loaves and fishes.  The pillow cases are now shams in my little girlies' room.  The flat sheet made a curtain.  The fitted made this body pillow that kept Baby from rolling out of her first big girl bed.  Now that she is so big, it turned a low window sill in the play room into a comfy reading/playing spot.

My favorite trick is to buy ugly things in discount stores that I plan on covering or painting anyway. This brightly striped pillow is a very full seat cushion size.  The fabric is bright and it is missing one button. Because no one wanted it, it was marked down to $1.98 at SteinMart. I have covered it with white duct fabric and no one would ever know.  I could have never bought a pillow form or stuffing for that price.


We don't let any fabric escape around here. or stuffing. or crying babies who need hugs. or little girlies who need vanilla ice cream.  Look at all the possibilities around you. If you mess up, its a few bucks or leftover curtain fabric.  If you succeed you have made your home a little more visit ready.

just bec

i have spent so much time this week figuring out the linky of it all, i don't have much written (or the laundry done).  i better get to crafting, thrifting & staging or i won't have anything to link to.

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