I know it’s not officially winter yet, but our master bedroom is decked out in its winter whites. Or at least the bed is. You may recall this post from a while back in which I updated the bedding in our master bedroom with a beach-themed blue and seagrass palette. This is what it looked like before:
Well after living with color for a couple of years, I decided to go back to my self-described “very plain and very very white” bedding. Except new white bedding. Sort of.
I have had my eye on the cotton-linen blend pick-stitch quilt at Pottery Barn for quite some time now. When it went on sale earlier this year for half off the regular price, I pulled the trigger.
The funny thing is I purchased the quilt for aesthetic reasons, but I love how it feels. It is thicker than the navy coverlet we previously had on the bed, but it doesn’t sleep as hot (probably because of the linen). Plus the linen-cotton blend feels (and looks) more natural.
And it was the quilt that set the ball rolling. Because as soon as I paired the new white quilt with our duvet cover, I realized how old we are. Mr. L and I purchased the duvet at Restoration Hardware TEN YEARS AGO when we got married. Ten years of laundering, however, did a number on that poor duvet cover. It was no longer white–it was white with a bunch of yellow splotches (see the contrast below).
Yellow splotches that don’t come out by the way. I googled and tried the bleach, borax, baking soda, vinegar, soaking, hot water, etc. methods. And they don’t work. There comes a time when you have to throw in the towel. Or throw away the duvet cover in this case. Except I didn’t.
Because I found a new white duvet cover but couldn’t find any shams that I like (in my budget at least). The new duvet was another lucky sale find at Serena and Lily (similar here), but I missed the window on the matching euro shams.
That’s when I had my Gone with the Wind moment and decided to make my own shams out of the old duvet. Which I still loved, by the way. Although I knew nothing about thread count and cotton fiber lengths when we purchased the duvet ten years ago, it must have been a good one because it is so soft and silky feeling. Or maybe that’s what ten years of laundering does to a duvet! So I found some still-white areas on the duvet and cut out squares and sewed my euro pillow shams. Flanged pillow shams, I might add. With a hidden zipper.
And here’s how it all turned out together:
I love how clean and fresh the white bedding looks (and feels). I know I previously called my old white bedding setup “plain,” but not this time around. The different textures of the pick-stitch quilt combined with the soft, cloudlike duvet give the white some life.
Also, I’m going to come right out and say that removing three euro shams each night is way better than having to remove seven decorative pillows before bed. Mr. L wins that debate. I will eat my humble pie. But I’m also hoping he doesn’t see this post.
Despite the white makeover, the room is not completely devoid of color. I found this Audubon print on sale at World Market ages ago and finally hung it over our chest of drawers this summer.
Then I moved our $1 Dollar Tree gallery frames that used to be over the drawers to either side of the bed.
I’m not sure if I’m completely satisfied with the look, but you can’t beat free art.
And that’s how our bedding went back to white, but appropriately so now that it will officially be winter next week. We also can’t forget about the crisp, clean feel of white summer bedding. I’m sure fall and spring have a white-bedding thing too ❤
P.S. If anyone is interested in making your own pillows, I plan to do a post on that DIY shortly. I just wanted to jump in with the full reveal before going into the details.
Love it!
Thank you!!!