7 Tricks for How to Make a Bed Fluffy for Less
Tips and tricks for how to make a bed fluffy and full like the magazines but for less than luxury bedding without sacrificing comfort.
I don’t know of any other technical term for this one, but you know what I’m talking about, right? You know how magazines seem to have all the tricks for how to make a bed big and fluffy so that they look like giant marshmallows and you just want to throw yourself on them and sink deep into their squishy pillowy goodness?
Yeah, that.
I wanted a kind of fluffy bed that dreams are made of when finishing our master bedroom makeover.
Lots of research later… (Who the heck researches fluffy beds? Ya girl.)
All I kept coming up with were $400+ duvets and $50+ pillow inserts and well yeah… if I’m paying that much money for my bedding, it BETTER be fluffy. And also do my taxes for me.
But then I found a few way cheaper tricks that I swear work to create a fluff-a-licious bed.
(Some affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here.)
7 Tricks to Make Your Bed Fluffy
The Best Luxury for Less Bedding
- Pillow Inserts (2″ larger than pillow covers for extra fullness)
- Down Alternative Duvet Insert (I double them up by using two so they’re really fluffy)
- Cooling Gel Sleeping Pillows
- Classic White Quilt Set
- Knit Bed Blanket
- Super Soft Sheet Set
1. Buy pillow inserts that are 2 inches larger than your pillow covers.
I prefer buying just throw pillow covers so that they take up less space to store (and are cheaper) than buying entire pillows.
For our master bedroom, I bought these blue mudcloth 24″ pillow covers, but I stuffed them with 26″ inserts to make them extra full (I have a trick for getting cheap pillow inserts in a sec so hang tight).
The larger the throw pillows, the better. Anything smaller than a 22″ pillow on a bed could look kind of dinky.
2. Get down inserts for way cheaper in clearance or after-season decor aisles.
I always check HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, or Marshalls’s clearance aisles for super discounted throw pillows (sometimes even online though I have better luck in stores).
Even if the cover is totally not your style or is stained or out-of-season, if it’s only $10, just buy it for the insert and donate the cover.
It’s still way cheaper that way than buying a stand alone down insert for retail. (I steer clear of pillow inserts in thrift stores though because I’m terrified of getting bed bugs.)
3. Layer two inexpensive duvet inserts together for extra fluffy bedding.
This comforter and this comforter are rated as two of THE fluffiest in all the land, but I can’t bring myself to spend over $400 on a duvet insert.
So I got two of these duvet inserts and stacked them on top of each other. It’s so fluffyyyyyyyy! Robert and I are hot sleepers and, surprisingly, we don’t get hot at all sleeping under these.
We’ve had ours for 3 months now, and they’re still great (we also have one on our daughter’s bed and it is still fluffy after 2 years). But if they ever lose their fluff, stick them in a dryer with a couple of tennis balls to poof them back up. Same goes for pillows.
4. Stack your sleeping pillows.
They look thicker and less flimsy that way. And then just place throw pillows in front. We really love these pillows (and you can do the tennis balls in a dryer trick with these too if you ever need it).
5. Roll down the tops of your blankets.
Take the top of all of your bed layers- top sheet, comforter(s), quilt… and fold it a third of the way down. It makes your blankets look even more pillow-y.
If you don’t want your top sheet showing, fold the third you just folded down back up on itself to double up that top layer. (We just use this simple raw-edge quilt set on top of our comforters.)
6. Toss a throw blanket at the end of the bed.
Rumple it up a little bit to make it look messy. It helps give that slightly slouchy, relaxed “come hither” look. 😉 (This is our bed blanket we use.)
7. Lightly “karate chop” your throw pillows.
This one is controversial, and I have no idea why. Haha!
I like to lightly karate chop our throw pillows just so the tops of them don’t look stiff and rigid. Chopped pillows say, “Come squish me please.”
Our Bedding Sources:
- Sheet set
- Sleeping pillows
- Duvet inserts
- Quilt set
- Pillow inserts
- Bed blanket
- Faux leather pillow cover
- Mudcloth print pillow cover
- Lumbar pillow
I have no idea if my whole process for how to make a bed helps at all, but I thought I’d share.
If there’s anything I love more in the world it’s expensive chocolate, a good binge-worthy TV show, and a giant fluffy bed to sink into, so there ya go.
Do you have any other luxury-like for less bedding tips you do? I like going with all white so it always looks and feels clean too, but maybe that’s just me.
If you want to save this post for later, you can pin it here:
