A bed is the biggest piece of furniture in your bedroom. It’s important that not only is it comfortable to sleep in, but it looks good too. And being so large, a bed also offers a great opportunity to add your identity and make a real style statement. We’ve included some on dressing a bed below to help you when considering what duvet cover, pillow cases, bed throws and cushions to buy for your bed.
Below is our choice of the top duvet covers and best deals available at the moment. But there are plenty more duvet covers to choose from. See our sections on different duvet cover colours, sizes and material.
Which colour for the duvet cover?
The great thing about duvet covers is that you can have a few of them and change them regularly. So choosing the colour for bed linen isn’t like choosing the colour to paint your walls – it’s easy to change, and as often as you like too.
Strong, bold colours are quite fashionable these days, such as chocolate brown, rich purple or crimson red. These colours will work fine if you have a larger bedroom. For smaller rooms, these strong colours will be too dominant and make the room seem even smaller. For smaller rooms, it’s best to stick with softer colours. This isn’t to say that it will be boring – quite the opposite once you’ve added cushions and bed throws – but just that a large single block of strong colour in a small room can often be too oppressive and make the room feel smaller.
People like to give a lot of meaning to colours and how they make us feel. Typically red is a passionate colour, brown is earthy, green is natural… But the truth in design terms is that you have to have a bed colour that you can enjoy – not just because it “means” something, but because to you it looks good.
A duvet cover colour should also be a colour that works well with other colours that you might include on your bed, such as bed throws, pillows and cushions. So for example you might want something that contrasts well with the other items of bedding, or complements these other colours. Or perhaps you simply want a paler cream or even white duvet cover that can act as a blank canvas, to be dressed with all sorts of splashes of colour later with some rich and bright cushions and bed throws.
One way to consider the colours to use for your bed is to choose a “base” colour that you like, for example lilac. Then you can add a variety of colours in a similar vein – some darker, some lighter, some contrasting more strongly – to build up an intricate and colourful picture.
What about bed throws?
A bed throw is a great way of bringing life and detail to your bed. In fact a good bed throw in the right colour and material can change the bed completely. Consider either complementary or contrasting colours to your duvet cover. Also, give some thought to the kind of material bed throw you want. Most cotton duvet covers have little texture, so a bed throw is a great chance to add some extra feel to a bed, perhaps with a bed throw in chenille, cashmere, mohair, velvet or even silk, either in a chunky knit or quilted style.
Bed throws are also sometimes known as bed runners or bed spreads. A bed throw is simple to add to your room. Simply lay it across the bed, from side to side rather than top to bottom. Bed throws look best when put across the end of the bed, around three quarters of the way down the bed. You can even add more than one bed throw to bring more layers and texture to your bed.
Pillows and Pillow cases
Pillow cases can be very useful to add and develop the overall look of the bed. Many duvet covers come with matching pillow cases (either as a duvet set or to be bought separately). These can be great and suit your needs perfectly, but don’t be afraid to try out colours that contrast with your duvet cover, or at least pillow cases in darker or lighter tones. Many people like 2 pillows, in which case you have 2 opportunities to add more colour to your bed (or 4 opportunities in the case of double beds). So for example, choose a patterned pillow case (striped or floral) to site on top of a plain, darker coloured pillow case. In short, pillows are a great chance to show your design skills, so don’t just opt for the obvious, matching duvet and pillow case set.
Bed Cushions
Although you probably won’t sleep on them, cushions can be great to add more interest to a bed. Pillows will do this, of course, but cushions can be more interesting by coming in different shapes and sizes to the pillows. Plus, a few more cushions means that extra colour, shape and even texture will come further down the bed. Why leave a large flat space between the pillows and the end of the bed when there are so many great pillows and bed throws to be used!
Many of the bed linen retailers are aware how popular cushions in the bedroom are these days and offer a great choice in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and in a range of colours and materials to suit all tastes.
