Home Hacks: Invest in Attractive Linens April 20, 2007
Everyone’s got their kryptonite–even butt-kicking alpha women. Mine is making the bed. It’s not that I hate it or that it takes too long. The fact of the matter is that I just don’t do it. I’ve come to accept this, much as I accept that I will never stop craving peanut butter cups. However, it makes the entire bedroom look messy and casts a pall on the house as a whole. In response, I came up with a solution. Welcome to your first home hack:
Buy stylishly coordinating linens and leave the bed unmade. Seriously. (Okay, make it only when your parents will be visiting.) Think about it–many of the designer beds you see in linen catalogs are unmade (to better show off the, well, linens) and they look fabulous. The trick is in selecting linens that can make a statement. Matching top sheets, bottom sheets, and pillowcases will always look coordinated, but they’ll rarely look stylish. If you want to rock the unmade look, you’ve got to mix it up a bit more. Here’s the checklist I go by:
- Solid color comforter that is similar in tone to the wall color
- Solid color bottom sheet (the one with the elastic sides) that contrasts with the comforter
- Solid color pillowcases in a bright accent color
- Print top sheet that blends at least two of the three colors together
For advanced bed un-makers only: Different print throw that blends at least two colors together
Let’s try an example. Mix a creamy comforter with a black bottom sheet, red pillowcases and a black-white-and-red geometric print top sheet. Throw a cherry blossom print in red and white on top and your messy-as-hell bed suddenly looks straight out of Pottery Barn. Your unmade bed is now a spicy centerpiece–without having to invest in a dozen funtionless, male-migraine-inducing throw pillows!
Are these guidelines the only way to do this? Of course not. If you’ve got an inner designer in you, you can probably mix and match easily and still come away with a great combo. However, if you’re not sure about your decorating sensibility, use the above ingredients as a cheat sheet.
Perhaps best of all, you can save some good money by buying single sheets and pillowcase sets as you find them on clearance racks or in catalog sales. If you can sew, try making your own pillowcases and watch the savings multiply.