How to Customize a Throw Pillow in 10 Easy Steps

My whole goal with the bedding in our master bedroom is to stick with blues, whites, and creams, but really amp up the interest with texture. So when I saw this picture in the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I was all like, “OMG, love.”

Better Homes and Gardens, May 2011 | Photographed by Marshall Johnson

I love it all, but that blue tufted pillow especially because it reminds me of something my dad’s mother would have had. And it fits into my color + texture parameters. I checked the resources section and googled around, but I couldn’t find anything similar within my price range. I lamented.

Then, when Amanda at Our Humble A{Bowe}d said she got two velvet throw pillows at World Market for only $10 each, I got excited. I hadn’t been to World Market in years, but I stopped by after work one day and was glad that I did. That place has some cool stuff at ah-mazing prices. I’ll definitely be back. I picked up a velvet pillow in a rich teal hue with plans to tuft it myself. Here’s how I did it:

Step 1: Borrow my friend Cassie’s wonderful button collection to shop from

Step 2: Choose two tiny but adorable coral-colored glass buttons

Step 3: Fail at various tufting strategies. Decide not to share the gory details publicly.

Step 4: Use a small crochet hook to pull thin yarn through the various holes I made in failed attempts

Step 5: Continue using the crochet hook to thread the yarn back and forth through the center of the pillow a few times

Step 6: Pull yarn taut and fashion into a knot, creating a tuft

Step 6: Thread a regular ol’ needle and tie one of the glass buttons onto the end.

Step 7: Push the needle through the center-ish of the tuft and thread it through the other button on the backside.

Step 8: Thread back and forth a few times, looping through the back of the button each time and trying to get them pretty snug up into the tuft

Step 9: Do the best job you can of tying off the thread without letting the buttons get all loose-like. Trim the extra thread

Step 10: Admire your handiwork. Wish you had a fancier camera. Or actual photography skills.

I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t really look anything like the inspiration pillow, but I like it nonetheless. After looking at these pictures, though, I am thinking that the tiny little coral buttons are perhaps a bit too small. Maybe they’d have a little more oomph if they were backed with larger mother-of-pearl buttons? I kind of love the pop of coral against the rich blue, especially since it ties into the floral linen on the hope chest. I am so not a million-throw-pillows-on-the-bed kinda gal, but I think that I am going to whip up one more teeny tiny pillow to make this pair a trio. All good things come in threes.