I stopped into Ross today, just to see what I could see, and lo and behold: two full aisles of throw pillows on clearance.  And by clearance, I mean $5.99 – $9.99.  Anyone who knows throw pillows knows how good a deal that is.  (It even beats Overstock!)

I spent about twenty minutes ho-humming my way through several pillow combinations before finally settling on one I loved for our bed.

Ugh, the lighting in that store is horrible for photos.  Consider this a washed-out version of what I chose.

Anywho, I loved the pillows.  The only problem was…I had no idea how they’d look in the room itself.  The walls are getting painted this weekend (I keep saying that each week, don’t I?), and there are curtains in there that belong to the homeowner.  (Not necessarily my first choice in window treatments, but why buy new ones for a temporary home when there are perfectly nice ones in place?)  With reluctance, I left the pillows behind.  You see, I had a plan.

Back at home, I took one of the curtain sets down off the rod, grabbed my “Household” cash envelope (reason #2 I didn’t buy the pillows when I saw them – no cash on hand!), and set off to pick the boys up from school before hitting Ross again.

I’m glad I left the original pillows.  They looked horrible with the curtains.  And I do mean horrible.  Clash City.

However.  Look what I found!

(Yes, I did hang my curtains from the shelf in the middle of a store.  Why do you ask?)

I wish I could adjust the color more to show just how perfectly these coordinate.  The plaid pillow looks like it was made to be packaged with the drapes.  (Unfortunately, there was only one!  Sob!)  It’s much more subtle in person (as are the drapes themselves, I promise).  The pillow directly behind the plaid one doesn’t read as green in person.  It (and its matching partner) are a subtle gold that meshes beautifully with the rest of the crew.  The tufted round pillow is my favorite; look at that pleating!  If I could get away with having two without it looking like eyes (ahem, or other body parts) sitting at the top of my bed, I would have purchased another.

What a steal!  For less than the cost of one throw pillow at a home decor store, I brought home four beautiful pillows.

Now, with a king-sized bed and four throw pillows, I have a new dilemma: making just four throw pillows look good on a king-sized bed.  I’ll be playing with that for a while, I can tell.  However, I have time.  First, we must paint, and then I must hack an Ikea door that has been waiting patiently to become our headboard.  It will all come together.