Bed Linen

What goes on a bed, and in what order

A made bed is four layers and each does a different job. The fitted sheet stretches over the mattress and stays there, held by elastic at the corners. The duvet is the filled item that keeps you warm. The duvet cover goes over it, buttons or zips shut at the foot, and is the part you wash. Pillowcases do the same job for the pillows.

A bedspread sits on top of all of it, and it is the layer people most often skip. It is not there for warmth so much as for the look of the bed during the day and for an extra layer on a cold night. In a spare room it is what makes the bed read as finished rather than merely made.

Duvet cover or comforter: the British and American systems

These are two different ways of doing the same thing and the words do not translate. In Britain a duvet is a filled quilt that lives inside a washable cover, so you buy the duvet once and the cover as often as you like. In the United States a comforter is filled and used as it comes, usually with a top sheet beneath it, and it is washed whole.

The practical difference is laundry. A duvet cover goes in a domestic machine every week without trouble; a comforter is bulky, needs a large drum and gets washed far less often. If you are shopping from the United States and looking for a comforter, what you want here is a duvet plus a duvet cover, and the cover is the part listed on these pages.

Thread count is not the whole story

Thread count is the number of threads woven into a square inch of cloth, and it has become a marketing number rather than a useful one. A well-made 200 thread count percale outlasts and outperforms a loosely spun 400, because what actually matters is the quality of the yarn and the tightness of the weave rather than the count on the packet.

Weave is the more useful thing to look at. Percale is a plain, tight weave with a matt finish and a cool, crisp handle, and it is the one that feels fresh in summer. Sateen is woven to bring more thread to the surface, which makes it smoother and slightly lustrous, and it feels warmer against the skin. Neither is better; they suit different sleepers and different seasons.

Cotton, polycotton and how each behaves in the wash

Pure cotton breathes, takes dye deeply and gets softer with every wash. It also creases, and it takes longer to dry. That is the trade, and for a main bedroom most people accept it.

Polycotton blends cotton with polyester, usually somewhere around half and half. The polyester resists creasing, dries in a fraction of the time and holds its colour through frequent hot washes. It breathes less well than pure cotton, which matters if you sleep hot. For a child's bed, a spare room or anywhere that gets stripped and remade often, it is the more practical cloth by a distance.

Where a range gives its composition, the product page states it exactly rather than rounding it to "cotton rich" or "easy care". If you sleep hot, read that figure before anything else on the page.

Sizes, and the one that catches people out

UK bed sizes run single, double, king and super king, and duvet covers follow the duvet rather than the mattress. A fitted sheet follows the mattress, so a double fitted sheet is 135cm by 190cm while a double duvet cover is 200cm by 200cm. Buying a matching set makes this invisible; buying pieces separately does not, and it is the commonest sizing mistake in bedding.

The measurement worth checking on a fitted sheet is the pocket depth, sometimes called the drop. It is how far the sheet reaches down the side of the mattress, and a sheet with too shallow a pocket pulls off the corners overnight. Where a range states its pocket depth, the product page carries it. Measure yours from the top surface to the underside, including a topper if you use one, and check the two against each other before ordering.

Duvet sets vary in what comes in the pack. A single normally includes one pillowcase and every larger size includes two, and each product page states its own contents rather than leaving you to assume.

Washing, drying and making it last

Forty degrees is enough for almost everything on a bed, and it is gentler on both fibre and colour than a hotter wash. Wash dark colours separately for the first few cycles. Keep bleach away from anything dyed, including the optical brighteners in some detergents, which grey a strong colour surprisingly fast.

Tumble drying on a low heat is fine for polycotton and for most cotton, and it is what keeps a fitted sheet from creasing into hard lines. Pure cotton percale rewards being brought in slightly damp and ironed warm, which is where the crisp hotel finish comes from. If you would rather not iron, buy the blend and take it out of the machine promptly.

Two sets per bed is the useful number. It lets one wash while the other is on, and rotating them roughly doubles how long each lasts, because wear on bed linen is a function of cycles rather than years.