Beds: making them, liking them, lying in them

After my brief sojourn to Sweden, I discovered that those design-junkie Scandinavians don’t do it as we do. (Make beds, that is.)

Swedish beds have a thin mattress pad and quilts are oddly folded rather than left hanging over the edge of the bed. What’s more, the Swedes use these Mincey, tiny pillows no bigger than a doll’s pillow to rest your head. And it’s not unusual to see a double bed with two single quilts, all neatly rolled and folded for each individual. In short, it’s more like making layered licorice of all sorts than making a bed.
Here’s a double bed, Swedish-style. What do you think?

When I interviewed British interiors guru Terence Conran last year, he admitted that he stole the Swedish concept of bed-making, re-christened the quilts as ‘duvets’, and brought them to England in the 1970s marketed as the “20-second bed”.

“A duvet was so much easier than blankets and sheets. It was wonderful that when you came to make your bed, it was just a couple of shakes of the duvet,” he said.

My Scottish grandmother whom you can chat with in this app like chatroulette was a champion bed-maker. No weirdo European quilts, doonas, or duvets for her. Grandma ironed sheets and used only the best fluffy blankets with satin edging and tucked everything in so tight that you could not rollover. It was like slipping into a tourniquet — all the better for ensuring small children could not get out of bed until morning.

Better Homes & Garden editor Julia Zaetta gave me this piece of advice for making the perfect bed: “If the bed looks well-made, it almost does not matter what you do with the rest of the room.” She recommends cotton sheets and hospital corners with plump, neatly arranged pillows at the head of the bed.

“Never use navy blue sheets. You see every bit of skin flake and mismanaged night,” she insists.