In November of 2009, we came up with this very unique pillow as a gift idea. Since this month is when many families are sending someone back to their college dorm room; we thought it was a great time to take a second look at this project. It would make the perfect crash pillow for late night pizza parties... I mean, 'study sessions.' Our Tree Hugger pillow is ever so much better than hugging an actual tree, which tends to be not only scratchy, but annoying to the woodland creatures living in the branches. Body pillow inserts are easy to find and quite inexpensive. We got ours at a local variety store for just $9.99.

Ask anyone to name the number one home décor project, and nine out ten people will answer: 'a pillow.' We're guessing that tenth person is the same guy who's always throwing off those surveys in which nine out of ten dentists agree about something. Never happy, that guy. No matter; we're delighted to stick with the majority and give you a trio of terrific holiday pillows to try. All of ours were made from fabric scraps leftover from our other Noel Home projects. But, I've listed yardages, as well as the names of the actual fabric we used, should you want to start from scratch. Let's show ol' one-out-of-ten the decorating power of pillows!

Mix and match! That's what these big, fun pillows are all about. One fabric on the front, another on the back, a third for the ruffles and ties. Put them all together for a cornucopia of color. We've blended some great greens, oranges and browns to create an updated take on the late '60s - early '70s mod palette. With a cute bow closure on the back, this set of 18", 20" and 24" pillows looks great from either side. Plop them against a plain sofa and watch the room go from boring to beautiful in the blink of an eye.

A lumbar pillow is the common term for just about any long and narrow bed pillow. It can be large or small, soft or firm. Though we've seen them in all shapes and sizes, we'd never seen one with ruffles and covered buttons, like the one we designed for our Fresh Linens guest bedroom. The deep pleat-like ruffles add a romantic touch and soften the geometric edges of the squares and points on the other pillows in our pile. That's the secret of an effective grouping of throw pillows: mix shapes and sizes and subtly blend textures and styles.