This is doubly true if you are buying bedding for a canopy bed. The whole point of a four poster bed is to recreate the luxury and style that you find in the top hotels around the world. Any kind of cheap linen or bedding made from man made fibres, like polyester, just stand out a mile and will ruin the overall effect.

Aim for a careful balance between bed linen which is too fussy with lots of pattern and detail and bedding which is too plain.  A nice compromise is plain bedding with rich self colored embroidery which will set off your bed frame nicely.

You should probably take more time choosing the right pillows, duvets, blankets etc for a canopy bed then you do choosing the bed itself. The devil is in the detail.

However after laundering you will often find that the same bed linen feels thin and limp and pilling may be starting to occur where the fibers form tiny hard balls across the surface of the fabric making the sheets feel rough to the touch.

The substantial feel of the new sheets was nothing more than a bit of starch.

However you can often tell the difference between cheap and quality sheets and bed linen brand new in the store by the smoothness of the fabric and the luster (it has a slight sheen). Quality sheets have a high thread count which will help prevent pilling and keep your sheets looking like new.

Although you need to wash deep colors separately no matter what quality sheets and bed covers you buy, you will find that the colors in cheap sheets fade much more quickly.

This is especially important if you are buying coordinated bedding or a bedding ensemble.

Some parts of your purchase (those items washed more frequently) may fade faster than others. See How to Choose Bedding Ensembles for a consumer guide to getting the quality right when choosing a bedding set.

For sheets you can often go by the price. You will often get what you pay for. Avoid the cheapest sheets sold in discount stores and buy medium to high price ranges at sale time in large department stores for the best deals. Avoid designer sheets where you pay for the name as well as the quality unless you are buying sheets in a specific color or design to match the rest of the range.

Tracy Emin's Bed

Welcome to this bedding basics blog.  You might think that there was much to talk about bedding but actually there is more to it than meets the eye.

If you have been shopping lately you will also find that your choices have expanded exponentially and this can complicate matters even more.

But just for now – a question!

Have you thought about your bed?

You see no amount of great bedding is going to make up for an awful bed. A great bed with a good mattress is needed so that you can put together a great look.

Just think sagging stained mattress, wonky wooden or 70s padded plastic headboard or something out of the Tracy Emin exhibition and you’ll see what I mean.