Your bed plays a significant role in your life. It’s where you go to gain restorative rest, it can help you get a good night’s sleep and can be the focal point of your bedroom. Selecting the right combination of bedding elements can be the secret to an inviting, comfortable, beautiful bed that can become your ultimate escape. Consider this your ultimate bedding guide to help you select the bedding elements you need to create a haven for your best night’s sleep.
Duvet or Comforter?
A duvet or comforter makes your bed inviting and can tie the room’s design scheme together. If you’re debating which item is best for your bed, comforters and duvets serve the same purpose but with slight functional and aesthetic differences.
A duvet is two pieces, which includes a duvet insert and a duvet cover. A comforter is a single bedding item. A comforter may be easier to maintain since it doesn’t require inserting the insert into the cover. However, a duvet offers opportunities for aesthetic variation since you can change out the duvet cover based on seasonality, temperature, colors, patterns and textures to provide visual variation. For example, in the summer, you can select a lighter-weight duvet insert and in the winter, you can choose a heavier insert.
Selecting sheets
With so many sheet material options available, how do you know the best fabric? Selecting the best sheet material ultimately comes down to how you sleep.
- Cotton: Cotton sheets are known for being breathable, staying cool and softening over time. Different types of sheets are cotton:
- Egyptian: High-quality, smooth and durable
- Pima: More affordable than Egyptian cotton, but still durable and high-quality
- Flannel: Best for cold sleepers and the winter months
- Jersey: Feels like your favorite old t-shirt but isn’t as durable as Egyptian or Pima cotton.
- Percale: Best for hot sleepers
- Bamboo: Environmentally friendly and known for being hypoallergenic, wrinkle-resistant and breathable.
- Linen: Airy, cooling, hypoallergenic and great for those with allergies
- Tencel(™): An environmentally-friendly choice that’s wrinkle-resistant but not as breathable as cotton or linen
- Silk: Luxurious, smooth, cooling yet high-maintenance and more laborious to clean
Shams
Shams are decorative pillows in various sizes, styles, patterns and textures. You can match your bedding for a calming, cohesive look or create color contrast for a more decorative look. Layering decorative pillows can help complete the bedding display. When you’re selecting the decorative pillows for your bed, choosing the correct number and size of pillows based on the size of your bed will help the overall presentation feel balanced and to scale.
