I'm the other way around, started out with feather and down duvets in covers and now don't like them. The other issue is that plucking the feathers off living birds is cruel and inhumane. There are kinder ways to stay warm. I don't mean to offend anyone, but I've seen geese plucked and it was not good. I like bedspreads also and have one on the guest bed, but they do seem to be seriously out of style.

I love an elaborately made bed. Most in my house have bottom sheet, top sheet, blanket (depending on the season), duvet or quilt, bed skirt and mulitiple pillows. I make the bed every morning with six or so decorative pillows. It takes me 3 minutes; I've timed it. I've used the open (folded down layers) bedding look in the past, but I'm not using it right now.

Ingrid, I agree with other posters. Make your bed the way you feel most comfortable making it.

Let's see - bed skirt, protective mat, fitted sheet, top sheet, blanket, quilt/bedspread. The actual number of pillows that sleepers will use to sleep on, and EXactly no more than that.

Ingrid, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I never even thought about how they get the down feathers! Most of the year I use my wool-filled comforter, but I do put a down comforter on the bed in deep winter. I sleep with the windows open all year, so it gets cold in there in the winter. I'm in New E. Since you've raised my consciousness about this, I think I'll stick to wool comforters or hand-me-down//used down comforters. But you've nixed any idea of every buying a new down comforter.

The guest room and and master are made up almost exactly the same way. Both have tailored bed skirts because they're metal frames with a headboard and the legs need to be hidden. I use a mattress pad, fitted sheet, flat sheet, cotton blanket, coverlet, and a duvet with a duvet cover folded at the foot of the bed. We have both euro shams and king shams on our bed with the sleeping pillows behind. (Euros match the duvet cover and shams match the coverlet.) On the guest bed I have a pair of euros and two sets of shams with sleeping pillows in cases inside the shams. One pair has down pillows, and one is synthetic. (Euros match the bed skirt, one set of shams matches the coverlet, and one set matches the duvet cover.)

My boys' beds don't need skirts. They have a mattress pads, flat and fitted sheets, cotton blankets, quilts/coverlets, shams with sleeping pillows behind. My youngest usually has his quilts (two twins) folded at the foot with the blanket exposed and the sheets turned down over the blanket at the top. (Sheets and blankets are tucked in.)

I make my bed every morning. It takes about one minute.

If you look around you can find down that is certified to come from dead ducks. I have a Sea to Summit down sleeping bag and one reason I bought that one is that they guarantee there's no live down in their products.

I make my bed every day (thanks, Mom). It's made up the way I learned as a kid. Fitted (contour) sheet on the bottom, flat on top, one blanket, hospital corners at the foot of the bed. Top sheet folded back over the blanket. Duvet + cover on top in lieu of bedspread. No skirt. Two pillows, the kind your head goes on while sleeping. No extras. Except for two cats.

Ingrid, I've never had down comforters ... always down-alternative.

Here's mine:

Not perfect, kind of lumpy and wrinkled but I like it. Six mushy down sleeping pillows, three euro shams (taken off at bedtime), lumbar pillow, fitted sheet, flat sheet, coverlet, duvet w/ down comforter. I also pull another blanket from a drawer and spread it on top. That serves as more warmth and dog hair catcher. Yes, lots of covers but we sleep at 64 degrees.

Super simple for me. I used to do an accent pillow and dust ruffle, but even that seems too fussy lately. I recently purchased the Rough Linen "Summer Bed", I use a wool fleece mattress pad under the bottom sheet and add a very lightweight cotton quilt on top of the summer cover. All of the latex pillows are for sleeping, one for me and 3 for DH. The throw is for DH if he gets cold (I sleep hot so the room is unheated).

Duvet cover for me since that's how I lived for years before arriving here..I was so surprised there were only comforters here. I just didn't know the duvet covers are sold separately..

So: fitted sheet, top sheet(in winter), comforter in a duvet, four standard pillows(two for each), a throw(heavy or light, depending on a season..I'm almost always cold)..couple of decorative pillows on top. I put all of pillows when in the mood; if I'm not, I'll put just one. It's very cozy and soft so I use it constantly.

I always make my bed. Unless I'm sick with fever.

I don't like changing linens very often..guilty as charged.

I love a pretty bed! We use a fitted bottom sheet, a top sheet and a blanket. That is what we use as our actual covers. Sometimes a quilt replaces the blanket. The bed "cover" is a matellase (sp) coverlet (ivory). I use 2 shams that match the coverlet and 2 shams in a print. I swap out a bit. I have a aqua/tan toile quilted cover that I like to cover about the bottom 1/3 of the bed and then use 2 matching toile shams in front of the solid ones. Sometimes I use a duvet cover folded in place of the quilt. Sometimes a different quilt. Sometimes a down blanket. Usually have a lumbar pillow in front of the 4 shams. Pillows are inside shams. Sleeping pillows go in the armoire during the day. At night, coverlet and quilt (or duvet) are pulled back to the chest at the end of the bed. Really doesn't take that long to make, especially as all shams have pillows - that are not our sleeping pillows. If that makes sense.

ETA: I left off bedskirt and we usea mattress cover and pillow covers/protectors also.

tinam61, it must have been you I was thinking of when I said I was befuzzled. I'm sure it's very pretty and probably doesn't take you long to put this together, one version or another. I completely agree about sleeping pillows not going into shams; they should have their own pillows so you can just toss them to the side at night instead of the stuffing/unstuffing routine. But to each his own.

Someone actually puts sleeping pillows in shams?

You got it Ingrid (re the sleeping pillows). I'm not sure why I "befuzzled" you though. :) It's all what you get used to.

Mattress pad, fitted sheet, duvet in duvet cover. I have several in various thickness. In the summer, only the duvet cover.

The overdressed bed is not totally new. I know people who have been doing it for decades. Really bugs me when I stay at their houses and have to move stuff before I get into bed and then correctly arrange it all in the morning. The only thing on my bed that might considered extraneous is the quilt I keep folded at the foot in the winter. It is there for warmth if we need it - not for looks.

Allergy issues have caused me to pare it down, for both sleeping and decorating. Stuff has to stand up to a lot of washing in hot water. I buy pretty high quality decorative sheets and pillowcases, but the blankets are down to washable cotton ones, and qualifill comforters with duvets. I wash pillows now too, and have cotton mite-proof covers on them that get washed often too. Pretty duvet covers and quilts so they can serve as bedspreads. I indulge in a few crocheted lace shams for the guest bedrooms. My linen closet is filled with unused shams from duvet sets. Some are light enough to sleep on. Mom used to drape them over the pillowcase, but that's an extra step I can live without. Use them only in guest bedrooms.

I have a few wool blankets but I use them only as extra blankets on top of the other stuff in extra cold emergencies! Cannot afford to keep up with dry cleaning or hand washing those! I use decorative pillows on some chairs and a day bed and some couches, for back support. But not on the bed I sleep in, just ones that get used for sitting on and watching TV at other times. I may have to give those up or come up with washable covers for them, as they are dust magnets too.

That's one reason I went back to the old fashioned flip the spread over the pillows way, l pink. My allergist said that loose pillows still collect more dust than they do if you cover them. BTW, she also says that if you have dust mite allergy, any pillow older than 6 months is too old.

Interesting to read how others do things like this. My bed is over the top but I enjoy it and don't mind making it up daily. Fitted sheet, flat sheet, ice blue coverlet, minty green coverlet, topped by a reversible duvet that's plum on one side and lilac on the other. (These are my beloved sea glass colors.) Then there are four king pillows for sleeping, two king pillows in shams, two standard pillows in shams, and finally, four down throw pillows and one little round pin tuck pillow in the center. I fold down the covers so that the bed takes on a very layered look.

I'm currently looking for a couple of throw pillows to switch out with a pair I already have that are knitted and seem a little more suited to cool weather. Because my colors are so specific, though, I'm having a hard time finding what I have in mind. Actually, I'm not even really sure I have something in mind. More like I'll know it when I see it.

CindyMac I always prefer putting sleeping pillows in shams. We didn't have standard pillow covers where I lived..only shams. If you mean pillow covers with closure..like envelopes, right? I find it so much better looking, and that's what I'm used to. But I don't have enough shams..:) They're harder to come by. More expensive too (why?) Otherwise I treat them exactly as if they were standard covers..use them, wash them..

I love bedding! If I could afford to do so, I'd change how mine looks every month!

I layer the pillows in cases, shams, euro sham, blanket, top sheet, coverlet, fold a big duvet across the bottom. I make my bed everyday.

I know, the pillows thing kinda freaks me out. I compensate now by washing my pillows every once and a while, and getting the mite proof pillow covers, that go under the pillow cases. Hard to get water hot enough now days to get the mites too, with the energy saving washers. The new one my dad got that I have to use, only has a cold water rinse for all cycles. OK, I should probably stop posting, I know it's pretty gross and OT! Your bed is not the only place their are mites, they're living on your eyelashes right now too! :)

Hard to get water hot enough now days to get the mites too, with the energy saving washers.

For whatever it's worth my allergist says that you don't need extra hot water or allergen detergents, just give everything an extra rinse. It works for me, but I have an old agitator washer.

>>Your bed is not the only place their are mites, they're living on your eyelashes right now too! :)<<

DON'T tell me that! Even tho mine are covered in 3 coats of mascara?? (sigh)

TR, those are my favorite colors!

I think I saw one other person that didn't use a flat sheet. We haven't in SEVERAL years. Discovered it by accident one very late night when we got home and I discovered I hadn't put the sheets back on the bed. We just grabbed a quilt and slept on the mattress pad. And no, adult beverages weren't involved <lol> So much more "freeing" not having a top sheet tucked in at the bottom. Googled it a few years ago to see if I was just plain weird. Europeans sleep without flat sheets and according to one site, 40% of Americans.

We used to do no flat sheet on top and instead used a duvet cover over the comforter as the top sheet. I just found the whole duvet stuffing thing a chore.

One way to kill dust mites is to freeze your linens for 24 hours...

Very simple bed. No decorative pillows, bedskirt or throws because I smell everything and cannot stand any dust build up. Minimal curtains which are vacuumed weekly.

Bedding is hot washed and ironed weekly with linen water. We use down pillows with pillow covers and a down duvet as we keep the bedroom in the mid-60s. I always use a top sheet to protect the duvet cover.

For summer, I just bought a washable synthetic fill quilted blanket which will be used with a blanket cover. I have lovely cotton blankets but they are tough to layer and tuck in with a wooden bed frame all around.

In boarding school we learned to make & maintain beds military style so I can't stand a messy bed.

As for washing bed linens, you certainly can do hot water washes. I've had two washers now with onboard heaters. I can do a sanitary cycle at 158F which is water hot enough to curdle an egg. Sheets washed at 140F with good detergent don't retain stains or odors as long as they are all cotton.

As for washing bed linens, you certainly can do hot water washes.

Sure you can. My point was that you don't have to use the hot cycle if you wouldn't otherwise.

The older I get the fussier I get that things are exactly like I want them and I mean exactly. When we moved to FL last fall I splurged and bought my dream bedding. I get very cold when sleeping and my DH says I make a nest with all the bedding and then don't move all night.

Mattress pad, fitted sheet, top flat sheet, striped light brown and ivory coverlet, and a heavy blue-green/light brown/ivory toile comforter. Sleeping pillows, striped Euro shams matching the coverlet, then toile king shams and decorative pillows matching the stripe and toile. Light brown matching dust ruffle as our bed is high; I need a step stool. I've gotten so I need to have the heaviness of the comforter on me or I can't sleep. We keep the temp at a constant 67 year round with a ceiling fan on, so every night is the same. We straighten the bedding everyday, but don't always do the shams and decorative pillows. I'm not fussy about everything else in the house, just my bed. Duvet covers and comforter insert in the guest rooms but personally they drive me crazy, so master has the coverlet and heavy comforter. I guess I'm getting old!

We keep the temp at a constant 67 year round

I'm glad I don't have to pay your electric bill!

67 just at night.

Oh, that's not so bad, then. I have a friend who always keeps the whole house about 72 all summer and then whines about his $600 electric bill. :)

I must admit that I only "make" my bed on laundry day. My Aunt who was instrumental in raising me along with my Daddy would be horrified but only my DH and I go into our bedroom. When I make it we have overlapped blankets,etc......It is a bit nuts but we cannot share blankets. We tried to keep up the intimacy...but now we take care of the intimacy and sleep withour own blankets...LOL.

When I do make the bed on laundry day I have to put pillows in the closet.

Wait! Am I the only one who puts a cover over everything to protect the bedding from pets?? ;) Our bed has sheets, a quilt, two sleeping pillows and two pillows in shams laid over the sleeping pillows during the day to hopefully keep the sleeping pillows dust and cat hair free. Then I toss a flat sheet over everything to keep the cat hair off. I'd happily keep the cats out of the bedroom, but we have one who always stays in our bedroom (cat politics).

I'm with @peaches12345 - I want the bed just so.

So I guess I can wash my sheets in hot water in the winter and freeze them in the summer, so it is all good! ;) I also guess that if you wash on the sanitize cycle, a cold water rinse is probably OK. I'll have to check to see if our new washer has that cycle. I am doing laundry at my folks old house now, the washer at my apt. is broken.

I too was edumacated in high school when I visited Germany and first encountered a duvet. I was dumbfounded, but eventually totally entranced, it was my own private nest! They just did all white all cotton everything for the covers. I will admit I have way too many patterned bed linens, I indulge my ADD decorating tendencies by changing out the bed sheets and blankets a lot. My beloved SO, true to his nature, wants to stick with just the tried and true, a navy blue set and a grey set!

Wait! Am I the only one who puts a cover over everything to protect the bedding from pets?? ;)

My reversible plum/lilac duvet is kept on the bed due to the cats. I usually have the same two sleeping with me nightly - Pip who is a shedder of coarse tabby hairs, and Molly who is a tiny little thing and has trouble jumping sometimes, so her front claws tend to stick and draaaaaaag on the bed covering. I think I paid $40 for the duvet, and it's really there to protect the coverlets beneath that I value more.

April, shams are typically nicer looking, but I wouldn't want to wash them every week. So much easier (and cheaper) to use pillowcases on the sleeping pillows and keep the shams stuffed with other pillows to place in front of the sleeping pillows when the bed is made. As you can see from the PB pic, my quilted shams wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep on.

So not putting sheets in my freezer. Don't need dust mites there dead or alive. Proper washing will eliminate the problem. My washer does cold prerinse with oxyclean to flush, then hot wash with detergent then 3 cold rinses.

Before the front loader with heater the sheets were washed in apartment house top loaders. I couldn't get rid of the body oil odor until I started washing in machine witht he heater. I have a Miele but Electrolux makes them as well.

I swear by those hot washes and also use them to get rid of mildew odor from linens I buy from France. One sani cycle completely restores the color and removes soil and odor from the fibers.

@cindaymac - Don't you love those those shams and quilt? Also have them for our guest room bed with additional quilt for color accent. They wash nicely, too.

Is that matelasse that the two of you have in your pictures? If not, may I ask where you purchased them and will I have to sell everything in the house to afford them? They're really beautiful.

Rococogurl, I do! I've always been happy with PB linens. I have the same quilt at the foot of your bed in porcelain blue, but I haven't used it since buying the Hanna quilt.

Ingrid, it's a Pottery Barn linen and cotton quilt.

Hanna quilt and shams

When I get my own house again, a front loader is on my list of "wants." But all my life I have had to use somebody else's washing machine. Even in my own house for 12 years I just used the PO's. Never was able to put "new washer" at the top of the spending priority list. A gal can dream . . .

I use the extra pillows with the shams because I read and watch movies in bed a lot. That's why there was no way I was replacing my pillows every six months, not with all of them I have. But I do inspect them every year and have started to rotate out the really wonky ones. Like the 30-year-old got-from-grandma ones . . . Ya think that could have been what was causing my coughing and sneezing?

I wash our sleeping pillows a couple times a year.

Yes, @cindymac, I would definitely buy the Hana quilts & shams again.

Can I just add that I love the word "befuzzled". Thank you for that one. ;-)

Thanks, CindyMac, the prices are very reasonable compared to what I've looked at and there are lots of different colors. This is exciting.

Glad you like the word, sushipup, One of those words that just suddenly sprang up in my mind.