If you count all the hours we spend plumping pillows, smoothing sheets, straightening duvets, and fussing over how the whole thing looks, we spend as much time on our beds as in them. Yet the result never look quite right. Here’s a foolproof way to make your bed look as good as pictures in magazines…
For tips on bed-making, we talked to co-founders and co-owners David Wearne and Vicki Jones of Hotel Luxury Collection, the bedding experts who supply bedding to leading designers and some of the best bedrooms and hotels around including Park Hyatt – and have given a lot of thought to the topic.
Your bed should feel like the ultimate sanctuary and make you happy every time you get into it. “Show-off-y beds are a thing of the past,” David says. So are fussy pillows–remember the era of “I have to throw 14 tiny pillows onto the floor everytime I get into bed?” It’s over. Instead:
Secret 1:
“Get the pillows right. By all means keep your favorite pillow – the flat, dingy one you’ve been carting around since childhood because it has just the right squish factor to lull you to sleep – but also invest in a pair of beautiful goose down pillows. On his bed David has white goose down pillows, available in queen, king or super king, prices from $75 for Park Hyatt pure goose down pillows, at Hotel Luxury Collection. They are one of the things we sell most of.
“Goose down pillows will look plump and make your bed look welcoming whether you lay them flat or prop them against the bedhead. Some people do like to stack their pillows up like pancakes and others like them like magazines in a rack, faces forward. Either look good,” says David.
Secret 2:
Always put linen or cotton on your bed. “What we love about natural yarns is you can stand at the end of the bed and with both hands go ‘flick,” and it looks beautiful,” David says.
Secret 3:
Invest in a mattress topper. They’re a bedroom must-have and key to a good night’s slumber. You want one that is a thick design that is springy and flexible and bounces back into shape the minute you get out of bed every morning. David says the Hotel Luxury deign with cassette construction avoids clumping which which will apparently make you feel like you’re lying on a new mattress. We hear it’s one of their best selling items.
Secret 4:
Housekeeping has strict rules. On each bed: you need a mattress topper, a fitted sheet, a top sheet, a quilt, and four pillows for true comfort. You position the quilt, precisely place your pillows on it, then re-fold the top sheet. Bed making takes a few minutes each morning, and it’s the basis of good decorating.
Secret 5:
Buy the right size quilt insert to stuff inside the duvet cover. There isn’t a standard size of duvet infills, so you can’t just buy ‘queen’ or ‘king’ – you have to measure your duvet cover. To fill it up, buy an infill that is at least five or ten centimetres larger. You can even buy one that’s 15 centimetres larger, and the infill should mush nicely in there.
Hotel Luxury currently has a great offer. When you buy its best-selling Mulberry Silk quilt, they’ll throw in a pair of free goose down Park Hyatt pillows – this month only.
OUR PICKS:
GOOSE DOWN PILLOWS: Park Hyatt pillows pure duck feather pillows used at Park Hyatt hotels worldwide, $75 pure. MATTRESS TOPPERS: The Langham feather and down mattress toppers from $365. QUILTS: Mulberry silk filled duvet, queen size, $355 and Hotel Luxury will throw in two Park Hyatt pure goose down pillows when you buy a quilt this month. Offer ends May 31 or while stock lasts. BED LINEN: East Hamptons bed set, duvet cover and two pillowcases, queen size, $295. SHOP THE FULL COLLECTION AT www.hotelluxurycollection.com
