Tricks of the Trade: Pairs of twin beds
I love a pair of twin beds! We generally do them for kids’ rooms, either for a shared space or for one kid who likes to host slumber parties. They are actually also great for a guest room—unlike a single queen, a pair of twins gives you flexbility to host two people who may be friends but not together. In a pinch, you can also push two twins together to make a King.
Generally speaking, we like the beds to match and the bedding to coordinate.
Here are some of the subtle ways we have differentiated between the pair.
Colorful Throws
In this shared kids room in San Francisco, we mixed pom pom bedding and bird-printed sheets with matching lumbar pillows. Both beds got a faux-mohair blanket in a strong color—one pink, one gold.
Photo Thomas Kuoh
Custom Dolls
When my kids were little they shared a large room. I built the coral headboards myself! I sewed the dot-embroidered lumbar pillows, too. They has plain white duvets and white pick-stitch quilts for simplicity but we differentiated the beds with custom dolls in each of their likenesses (also made by me!)
Another trick: use King shams on twin beds. They fill the space side to side, while standard shams don’t. These ruffled pillowcases were a thrifted find.
Photo: Kim Cornelison
Monograms
For boy-girl twins in Deephaven, she got a white embroidered duvet and he got grey stripes. Both were topped with Faribault woolen mills blankets. We echoed the red stripe in a frame border sham—and monogrammed them with each of their first initials.
Photo: Spacecrafting
Throw Pillows and blankets
In a kids’ bunk room in Balsam Lake lovingly dubbed The Orphanage, all the bunks feature gingham sheets and floral duvets, but we added different throw pillows to some of the beds, and mixed up the wool blankets at the foot. (wool blankets are a great way to let cold sleepers pile on the layers.)
Photo: Josh Grubbs
When Matching is Best
In this room in California shared by two young boys, we kept the beds matching for maximum ease and flexibility. Here we mixed grey quilts, king shams with an orange border, and Pendelton blankets. One custom throw pillow on each bed brings a fun animal theme to the space.
Photo: Josh Grubbs