No Sew Velvet Bolster Pillow and DIY Insert
Making your own bolster pillow is easier than you might think, and velvet fabric gives it a luxurious, high-quality look and feel! You won't find a bolster anywhere for this low price!
Affiliate links may be included for your
convenience;
my full disclosure policy can be found here. If you click through and make a purchase I'll receive a small
commission at no extra cost to you!
Good morning beautiful people! I hope you're ready for a good DIY because I am
super excited to share this money saving bolster pillow project with you!
But first things first...it's Week 5 of the One Room Challenge...that means
that next week is the big reveal of our European farmhouse Master Bedroom
refresh! ๐ If you want to catch up on the other weeks, you can click on the
below links.
Week 1 // Week 2 // Week 3 // Week 4 // Week 5 (you're here) // Week 6
There have been a few challenges and bumps along the way during this makeover,
but my oh my, it is finally all coming together!!! I am working on the decor
and accessories and next week I'll be sharing the whole gorgeous space with
you!
Let's Talk Bolster Pillows
When I was looking for bedding and accessories for our bed, I had my mind made
up that a long bolster pillow, wrapped in luxurious velvet, was a MUST-have
for our bedroom refresh! I'm decorating with a European farmhouse theme, and
to me that means rustic, cozy and elegant!
So I spent a few days searching and finally found a velvet bolster pillow with
that loose European elegance I was wanting...you can see it
here. If you scroll sideways, you can see the blue bolster that inspired
me. BUT...did you catch the price tag on this beauty? It's over $330!!! For a
pillow!
That is well out of my budget-friendly-decorating price tag, but it also
put a thought into my head that maybe, just maybe I could make my own.
As I was searching for bolster pillow inserts, I was shocked at how expensive
even the bolsters are! Even for a little one. And I was wanting something
about 3 feet long.
So I did a little more searching, and the internet didn't fail me! I found
several articles that showed how to make your own bolster insert using towels
and an old, flat pillow!
DIY Bolster Insert for FREE!
I don't think there's a home in America that doesn't have a linen closet with
at least one old, flat pillow and some worn towels!
That is all that you need to make your own bolster pillow insert and save
yourself a ton of money!
Easy steps for a DIY bolster pillow insert
First, decide how wide you want your pillow to be, fold a beach towel or two to that size and roll up tightly. Secure beach towels with several rubber bands. Note: in the first picture above, you can see that I have 2 towels. I ended up having to remove one because it was too wide to wrap my pillow around it.
The flat king size pillow I found in the depths of my linen closet wasn't
smelling so fresh, so I ran it through my washer and dryer before continuing
with my DIY bolster pillow insert.
Note: a fluffy pillow will not work for this project; you want a flat, worn
out pillow...you know, the kind you hang onto just in case!
Once the pillow was freshly washed and dried, I literally sandwiched the towel
between the pillow and secured it again with several rubber bands.
Once I finished making my bolster pillow insert, I had my doubts as to whether
it was going to work to give me that luxurious velvet pillow I had in my mind.
There were quite a few lumps and bumps, it was not smooth and it just looked
kind of wonky! I actually stuck it in the corner of the room and went back to
searching for inserts online.
In the meantime, I purchased a yard of
Ballard Designs blue velvet that I found on Etsy. It was only $13.99 plus shipping brought me to $25 total for this DIY
bolster pillow.
When the fabric came, the color was perfect! The velvet isn't as soft as I was
hoping, it's more of an upholstery fabric, but it has a nice drape and I was
fairly confident it would all work out. Am I glad I saved my DIY bolster
insert!
How to Wrap a Bolster Pillow in Velvet
Here is my no-sew method for covering the bolster pillow.
First, I laid the fabric out on my bed, and centered the insert. I had enough
overlap on each side that I folded each side over and then wrapped the pillow
up tightly like a sausage.
In the end, I didn't care for the folded ends so I unwrapped it, unfolded the
edges and wrapped it back up. In the image below, the edges are still folded
in.
Next, I secured the ends with a couple of rubber bands. Think French bonbon
๐ฌ...this is a European-inspired room makeover after all ๐
Here is what the pillow looked like at this point.
I went back with scissors and very lightly trimmed the edges that were
overlapping (I probably should have done this before wrapping the pillow!!). I
also very very carefully used a lighter to
melt the edges of the cut fabric like I did for these satin flowers. You want to keep the flame moving quickly so you don't burn the fabric;
you're just wanting to melt the fibers so they won't fray!
To cover the rubber bands, I tied some white ribbon around the ends.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the lumps in the pillow are no longer
noticeable! I had enough velvet fabric to wrap around the pillow several times
and it completely disguises that the insert is not perfect!!
I told Mr DIY that I saved him $300 by making my own velvet bolster pillow and
insert...he was quite happy about that! ๐๐
This easy bolster pillow turned out SO much better than I expected! It looks
just perfect with the other decorative elements in our master bedroom refresh.
I'm sharing just a peek here, but next week you'll get to see the whole room
transformation and all the little details!
This DIY pillow project gave me the luxurious velvet bolster pillow of my
dreams, and for a price that is almost unbelievable! I would love to know what
you think of this project, and if it's something you think you'll try!
Can’t wait for next Thursday. Love your bolster pillow.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Bev!
DeleteLove the bolster pillow idea! But even better are your images that take us throuh the step by step process with a ton of visuals. This is exactly why you made our list of best sites to follow in 2019!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.annieandoak.com/blogs/design-style/best-modern-farmhouse-sites-award
Keep up the great work! Cheers!
Kyle
Thanks so much for including me!
Delete