The other day I showed some photos of our family room and talked about all my little junk.  One of comments mentioned that my sofa looked like a big white hole without pillows and a throw. My first thought was “whaaa? I have a million pillows on my sofa, what is she talking about?” Then I went back and looked at the photo, ahhh, I think I was washing all my pillow covers, and she was right, it did look like a big white hole.

Part of the problem with showing photos of my house every day is that we live here.  So unlike a magazine, this house hasn’t been staged or prepped {or cleaned} it just is.  I try to move rouge shoes and papers out of the way but I don’t style things much before I snap photos.  And I understand that can be really confusing when I’m talking about how to make your house pretty and then I show something that is unfinished or in progress.

I also don’t like to make a zillion disclaimers…my coffee table is gone, I don’t like that lamp, I’m working on the shelves, the sun is refusing to come out, I had to take a photo out of one of those frames for my son to use for a project, the blue on my garden stool is a little off for the room, the blue on the coffee table that is now back is being slowly introduced to the room….you get it right?  It’s a process and I’m sharing it with you.  I like to think that might be one of the reasons you hang out here.

You have all been incredibly gracious and forgiving of my imperfect home.  It’s not ever going to be done or perfect.  Thank goodness.

So, back to the very true point that was brought up. Here’s the photo in question. I think it’s a fun idea to compare a room with pillows and without pillows {and a coffee table}.

And with pillows and a coffee table and a fur ottoman and I switched the garden stool and the stump table because I move stuff every 4.5 minutes, and I’m moving it again as soon as this post is finished.

I think these pillows are so pretty all filling up the sofa like that. This is the way I would have them if we didn’t have to live here.

Here’s a little yellow added in.

Brighter colors.  This is the perk of having a white sofa.

But, in real life, I usually only keep three of those pillows on the sofa.  At least there are supposed to be three.  Someone must be using one for a fort or something.

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In real life all those pillows will be thrown on the floor so that a herd of boys can sprawl out all over it or so that my husband can stretch out on it.

It’s a delicate balance.

Each of us can figure out what works for our family in every season of our life.  Maybe for you even one pillow drives you batty.  I actually LOVE a sofa full of pillows like this. But, I know that pleated one will get destroyed quickly.  And that throw back there is fragile and only comes out in our room or for special occasions.  However, all of my pillows are actually feather pillow inserts with washable pillow covers.  So, I think I’m gonna try to leave a few more out.  If they end up on the floor most of the time, I’ll put them back up on the guest room bed until we have guests and I want our room to look really pretty.

What about you, do you have a pillow policy?  Do you have anything you only pull out on special occasions?