Another Set of Pillows
Well, we are back in Hong Kong after a nice long weekend in Phuket. We filled our days with swimming and our nights with eating…and my husband, Jim, and I along with a friend of ours managed to squeeze in a trip to the Jim Thompson Outlet. I was planning on finding the perfect fabric to recover some recently purchased dining chairs. I didn’t buy the fabric I was searching for but I did buy a few sets of silk pillows that can really add the final touches to the most luxurious bed.
When I was working for Bunny Williams, I remember being so excited to learn how she liked to make a bed. All the bed sheets, shams, and duvet covers were either white and occasionally cream color with custom embroidery in the color scheme as the rest of the fabrics in the bedroom. I think that has become one of my favorite things as an interior designer, choosing and customizing the bed linens for my clients’ bedrooms.
When we moved to Hong Kong, almost 7 years ago, we came with 4 large suitcases of clothes and 2 FedEx boxes (carrying mostly my design books and magazines). In one suitcase was a set of cream colored floral jacquard sheets, shams, and a beautiful cream dupioni silk pleated duvet by Donna Karan. Before I found this duvet cover I was completely content with my crisp white cotton duvet cover and matching sheet set. I fell in love with this duvet. I think I realize now that one reason I loved it so much is because it was the exact color and feel of the silk from my wedding dress. We were really newlyweds when we moved abroad. I remember finally receiving and opening the boxes of William Yeoward crystal and Royal Crown Derby china that had just been shipped from our wedding registry and then watching the moving company pack them again to put into storage. I decided if I couldn’t take our wedding china or crystal to Hong Kong then I would make sure to at least take beautiful bed linens. Soon after we moved our duvet cover was mistakenly put in the washing machine. It wasn’t destroyed but it was never the same. I tried to have it copied once on a trip to Hoi An, Vietnam but even there the ladies quoted me a crazy price to do all the pleating work. This summer when I was back in the U.S. I found another cover by Donna Karan that I like. Its very similar but its not silk. Click on the picture below if you want to check out the rest of the Donna Karan Bedding Collection at Horchow.
So this weekend at the outlet I was sorting through a selection of Jim Thompson pillow shams that I liked and my husband told me we should buy the cream ones for our bed. He is a trained architect and he does have great taste but I was still surprised how much he liked these floral pattern pillow covers. We bought them and I put them on the bed soon after unpacking our bags. They look great. I think our bed will always be made in the same cream color. It might change slightly but hopefully we will always find something that we both like.
Recently I ordered customized bedding for one of my clients. I can’t wait for everything to arrive so I can put it all together. I hope it will make them feel like they have something special and unique, something no one else has. I may have found a set of pillows for their bed too.