Pillow shams can dress up any bed.
One must admit, the bed on the left looks boring, the one on the right looks spectacular and inviting.
- A pillow sham is simply a pillow that is generally used for decorative purposes. Although, some pillow shams can be slept on.
- Pillow shams can also be finished on the edge with a flange, cording, fringe, tassels or a simple knife-edge.
To achieve a more interesting look with your pillow shams, consider, mixing things up by season. Use different color shams for the spring & summer (softer pastels) and fall & winter (jewel tones).
- If possible, use the same fabric found on your shams with other pieces on your bed such as the dust ruffle or coverlet.
- Use feather inserts in your shams, synthetic fills, such as polyester do not hold up as well over time
- They don’t fill out the corners of the shams well.
- Feather inserts are inexpensive. Feather is free flowing so it never bunches up.
- If your sham is not filled properly, it won’t look great.
- Don’t use worn out pillows inside your shams, as they may look under stuffed.
- You might save a little money by trying to re-purpose them in a sham, but they may look sad.
- On a Queen bed use (2) or (3) Euros shams.
- With a King bed use (3) or (4) European shams (Euro 26” x 26”) – set them on their edge, as straight up and down as you can.
- We like to place the Euro shams against the headboard.
- Euro shams offer a nice height and tiered look. They are functional to, they are great to lean against when reading or watching TV in bed.
- In front of your Euro shams, place your sleeping pillows, again, set them straight up & down on edge.
- In front of your sleeping pillows place another layer of either Standard or King shams (on edge).
- If you really want a full bed, use a few decorative pillows or a boudoir sham.
- With this combination, you achieve a nice layered look and a nice elevation (from the head going toward the foot) with the tallest to the shortest.
- The entire look of a bed can be changed with little cost simply by adding a few shams.
- If you are using (3) shams on a bed, consider the center sham in a different color than the ones you have one each side.
- You’ll be amazed at how easily you can transform the look of the bed with this easy switch.
Common size shams are:
- Euro – 26” H x 26” L
- King Sham – 20” H x 36” L
- Standard Sham – 20” H x 26” L
- Boudoir Sham – 12” H 16: L
Flanges on pillow shams have a tendency to flop over, in the below video we demonstrate how to get the flanges of your pillow shams to stay up.
You may also enjoy the following articles:
- How to stuff pillows shams to make them look perfect.
- What size pillows or shams to use on a queen size bed.
- Bed Sheets - properly caring for them
The below video explains the difference between a pillowcase and pillow sham.
