I am very serious about my bedding. I will leave the house in ill-fitting jeans and in one of the fifteen identical black t-shirts I own every day, but the bed? The bed is my masterpiece.
When I first moved in with Mr. Bunny, I was appalled by his bedding. The man owned nothing but t-shirt sheets. These are unacceptable. If you own these, you must throw them away immediately or at the very least tear them into rags. To make matters worse, they were in the loudest patterns possible. He bedded me on my first visit to New York on terrible t-shirt sheets in a horrifically bright psychedelic pattern. I closed my eyes and thought of gingers. I vanquished those sheets the day I moved to New York.
I grew familiar with bedding when I worked for the old Jordan Marsh (pronounced: Johdahn Mahsh) in Massachusetts back in the day. All day long, I dealt with thread counts, fill power, duck down vs. goose down, percale vs. the emerging popularity of sateen. When shit went on clearance, I had first dibs, and I bought. I realized my mother’s cheap polyester shit was a nightmare.
Start with the sheets. You want cotton (linen is insanely expensive in most cases and needs to ironed). You want a high thread count. Thread count means the number of threads per square inch. The higher the number of threads, the better the quality of the sheets and the softer they’ll wear over time. The longer the cotton, the better quality it is. That’s why everyone goes nuts over Egyptian cotton–it’s what is called a long staple. So is Supima cotton.
All the stores push sateen sheets now. I’m not a fan of sateen
Buy sheets separately, not as a set. First off, you can be creative and mix patterns, should you so desire. Secondly, with today’s deep mattresses, you can ensure you have the top sheet fit like you want. I have a queen size bed and an extra-deep mattress, and I prefer a king-size top sheet, especially since Mr. Bunny is a Bed Hog.
A bed should not made like you’re stuffing a pita bread with everything in the fridge. Watch and learn from a real man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJFNrg2G_4
If my spatially disabled ass can do this, so can you.
Now you need a duvet. Not a comforter. A duvet. A comforter is that polyester stuffed thing with My Little Pony or SpiderMan or whatever emblazoned upon it that you had when you were a kid. A duvet is a beautiful thing, filled with the down of geese. It warms you in the winter. It can cool in the summer. You don’t even need a blanket with it, so warm and fluffy and light is it! Fill power refers to how much warmth and weight a duvet offers. Don’t forget the duvet cover
Pillows are such a personal thing. I like big and fluffy. I have three king-sized pillows while Mr. Bunny sleeps with a single, hard-as-rock pillow. The best way to pick a pillow is to go to the store and actually rest your head on one. Let them laugh at you. You’ll be well rested-enough kick their asses.
