Bedspreads

What a bedspread is for

A bedspread goes on top of a made bed and it does three things at once. It gives the bed a finished surface during the day, which is most of what makes a spare room look cared for rather than merely tidy. It adds a layer of warmth you can throw off in the night without disturbing the duvet underneath. And it takes the wear, the sitting on and the occasional cup of tea that would otherwise land on the duvet cover.

That last one is the practical argument. A bedspread washes more easily than a duvet cover and far more easily than a duvet, so putting one between the bed and the day means washing the rest less often.

Quilted or woven

A quilted bedspread has wadding held between two layers of cloth by stitching, and the stitch pattern is what stops the filling shifting. It has body, it holds its shape on the bed, and it is the warmer of the two. Some of this range is quilted.

A woven bedspread is a single cloth, closer to a heavy throw, with the pattern built into the weave rather than stitched through it. It drapes more softly, it packs smaller, and it suits a warm room or a summer bed where a quilted one would be too much. Each product page says which it is.

Sizing, and why it is not the same as a duvet

A bedspread is cut to cover the bed and hang down the sides, so it is wider than the mattress and usually wider than the duvet as well. A single bedspread will not fit a double bed even though a single duvet cover fits a single duvet, because the two are measuring different things.

Decide how far down the sides you want it to hang before choosing. A bedspread that stops at the level of the mattress reads as unfinished; one that reaches the floor is a different look again and gets caught underfoot. Somewhere between the two is what most people want, and measuring from the top of the mattress down to the point you have in mind gives you the drop to add to each side.

Using one with the rest of the bed

The usual arrangement is a plain duvet cover under a patterned bedspread, or the reverse, but not both patterned. A bedspread is the largest single piece of cloth on a bed and it wins any competition it is entered into.

Folded across the foot rather than covering the whole bed is the other common use, and it is the one that works in a room where the duvet cover is doing the decorative work. Folded, a bedspread reads as a deliberate finish; spread flat over a patterned cover it reads as an accident.

Care

Check the product page before the first wash, because quilted and woven behave differently. A quilted bedspread needs room to move in the drum or the wadding bunches into one end and will not redistribute afterwards, and a king or super king one may need a launderette machine rather than a domestic drum.

Wash at 40 degrees, tumble dry on a low heat where the page allows it, and shake it out a few times as it dries so the filling settles evenly. A woven bedspread has none of those constraints and washes like a heavy throw.