Bedding
 

Yes, this is a thread about bedding. Who would have thought I'd need help over such a simple thing?

We've bought a bed, a wonderful King from IKEA. We've bought a mattress, which still hasn't arrived yet.

Now we need to buy bedding. Simple, right? Wrong.

My girlfriend was incredibly confused, bemused, and bamboozled by all my chat of duvets and duvet covers. Turns out she's only ever slept with a blanket. Her houses have always had central air, so the temperature rarely requires a nice big snuggly duvet like we would have back at home in the winter months.

I want a proper duvet though. For starters, I want to be able to switch out the bedding for cleaning / just a different look to the room. And that's where things start getting complicated.


The girlfriend is no help. She has called any and all bedding 'blanket' for her entire life. Blame living with her parents for 27 years (long story) and therefore being less exposed to life as much as would be useful (she's not been the greatest guide to American ways so far!!).

We're looking at bedding online and they seem to be selling a variety of things:

1. Duvet cover Sets
2. Comforter Sets
3. Quilt Sets
4. Duvet Sets

1 I get. 1 is normal, just-like-home.

The rest I get lost. They seem to be variations on the same thing, though to me duvet / quilt are interchangeable and I understand comforter as a different thing - more like a thinner blanket.

What I want to understand as if these duvet sets come as they are, and you're unable to remove the cover and put another one on. Because why would you sell a duvet with covers? What if you want to pick out a high-end one and just get a cover set you like, but the cover set comes bundled with another flippin' duvet that you don't need?


This probably sounds like I've had too much to drink, but blame the sheer bafflement of my girlfriend when I approached her with the idea that you can do anything other than sleep under a blanket. The whole concept of duvet covers is, apparently, totally alien to her.

Re: Bedding
 

I made the switch to American comforters when I moved in with my wife. It works well for us on our king. Simply throw in the washer/dryer to clean.

Back in England I owned multiple duvets and switched the thickness out through the year. Like you said here it simply isn't needed. The luxury of a thermostat to regulate house temperature for cooler or warmer!

Re: Bedding
 

Okay, okay. Seems that some dictionary work has led us somewhat to the right path.

The US call this a quilt: "a coverlet for a bed, made of two layers of fabric with some soft substance, as wool or down, between them and stitched in patterns"

The duvet is a quilt but plain that a cover goes over the top of. This also seems to be called a comforter.

However, we have the 'continental quilt' which is ... a duvet, to all intents and purposes, and is where some of the confusion arose.


So I'm looking for a duvet or a comforter. But the query over why stores seem to be selling it WITH sheets is still perplexing to me.

Re: Bedding
 

With sheets? As in the sheets that go on the mattress or the extra thin material thing to make the bed look "pretty"?

If you're talking about the latter I have a collection stuffed under my bed. :nod:

Re: Bedding
 

Overstock.com , Target, Amazon and a zillion other places will have basic duvets (with down or imitation down fillings) and basic duvet covers. Ignore the rest.

Re: Bedding
 

Never mind the bedding, I still find that confusing, you need to introduce your girlfriend to the idea that you should turn the heat waaay down at night.

It took only a little effort to persuade Mrs P to try letting the temperature drop overnight, but she soon found she sleeps a lot better in a cold bedroom than in one with the heat blowing. We now usually have the thermostat set at 55ºF overnight, and to come on and warm the house up about half an hour before the alarm goes off, and off (down) about half an hour before we leave. ..... Ditto during the day, set to come on about an hour before Mrs P gets home, and down again about half an hour before bedtime.

Aside from comfort and a good night's sleep, we save somewhere around 30%-50% on our heating.

Re: Bedding
 

Now I'm confusing people :lol:

I mean, I would expect to buy the duvet on its own.
I'd then expect to buy a duvet cover (and pillow cases, mattress sheet) on its own.

Some places we look at sell the duvet along with a cover and pillow cases and mattress sheet - and yes, the stupid extra sheet that I hate :rofl:

I find that (the bundling of the duvet with everything else) odd because if you already have a duvet and like the sheets .. you don't need an extra duvet!

Re: Bedding
 

Yes, I love a cold room! We'll see how it goes, and how the dog likes it too! ;)

Re: Bedding
 

We bought a woollen comforter from costco, plain white like you would find in the UK. Duvet covers can be found in many places, Macy's, Dania, Ikea, Marshals etc.

We have some spare guest comforters we bought from woot/meh for $15 which are hollow fiber. These are quite light, but still warm.

Here are some covers for you.
https://www.westelm.com/shop/bedding...-duvet-covers/

Here are some duvets

https://www.costco.com/comforters.html

The biggest problem we have is finding sheets for a 19 inch mattress.

You could save a little more by turning it down another 10 or 20 degrees.

Re: Bedding
 

"A little more"? .... Yes a very little more - set at 55°f the heat very rarely comes on during the night, at most maybe 5-10 nights during the winter.

Re: Bedding
 

I think l read on a thread on here that John Lewis deliver to the US for a reasonable fee. You could always just get what you want from them.
I am new here and very confused by this subject still so finding this useful! I don't get the comforter thing as having to wash the whole thing opposed to just a duvet cover seems odd.

Re: Bedding
 

Well you could if British beds were the same size! :lol:

Re: Bedding
 

As long as they aren't fitted sheets and not smaller then the bed then it doesn't hugely matter.

Re: Bedding
 

Go to Ikea: buy required duvet and then buy a couple of duvet cover sets and some sheet sets. They are all in the same section. Easy Peasy. And all guaranteed to fit your Ikea bed.

Duvet covers (i.e. the things we Brits put our duvet inside of!) are crazy expensive for reasons I do not understand: except at Ikea.

Not sure where you live but I also love a huge, thick duvet and bought a thick down duvet at CostCo...FAR TOO WARM even for the coldest of nights here in NorCal so I never used it, except for one sweaty, uncomfortable night.

The yanks love these 'patterned quilts' that look like 'already-covered' duvets. They come in a bag with matching 'shams' (which are fancy pillowcases) and lots of matching cushions and sometimes matching sheets.

And they use them without covers on them (but mostly use a sheet between them and the quilt). You could easily put a cover on it and use it a duvet the way we would in the UK. As washing machines are so massive here, these quilts can fit right in (hence not needing a cover).

They look nice but most of the affordable one seem to made of polyester (yuck!) and if you wanted a cotton one, you'd have to spend $$$.

Re: Bedding
 

Just be careful if you have a top loader. They sometimes explode when washing bedding. You can youtube exploding washing machines.

Re: Bedding
 

Put my duvet in my old top loader many times! But the more safety conscious among us could go to a laundromat and use the front loaders to wash their bulky covers.

Simple solution: go to Ikea and buy duvet/duvet covers. All done.

Re: Bedding
 

Why would anyone have a top-loader? :scarper:

Re: Bedding
 

youve had lots of help so far, but I also wanted to make sure you realise that bedding sizes are different between uk and USA. If you've bought an IKEA mattress, then best to buy the bedding (at least the sheets and mattress protectors) from there to start with until you and your girlfriend have reached an understanding!

I'm currently staying in a hotel with a sheet and a comforter and a duvet on the bed. The duvet gets taken off, but I am so unused to dealing with more than one layer that I find I'm waking up in a tangle of sheet with freezing feet and the comforter bunched up somewhere round my (sweaty) midriff. Plus, feather pillows that have no support for my neck whatsoever...

Have you got onto the curtain/drapes conversation yet and discovered how much they cost, and that's per curtain not per pair?! It's enough to send you back to IKEA...

Re: Bedding
 

As others have said, this is the US and not the UK or Europe and our bedding is far different. So are our methods of making in beds and how we keep the temperature of our homes.

The US normally does not sell duvets as you call them. We sell comforters, quilts, bedspreads, blankets and sheet sets which include a fitted bottom and a loose top sheet. We are use to sleeping with a top sheet and the first time I visited Germany and our hotel room only had a goose down comforter folded at the end of the bed, both my sister and I thought the room had not been made up. It takes some getting use to and frankly, I prefer a top sheet under my blanket, quilt or comforter. Why? Because when you sleep, you sweat, your skin flakes, etc. and it is easier to wash the sheets then to wash the comforter, quilt, or blanket. Yes, it is understood that the duvet cover takes the place on a European bed of an American top sheet and serves the same purpose.

Many stores sell comforters which are goose down and in various levels of depth ranging from lightweight for summer to heavyweight for winter. You can buy comforter 'covers' for these plain white comforters. Why you appear to be making such an issue in finding one is mystifying. They are sold at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target, Kohl's, K-Mart, and online.

Now it is up to you to convince your girlfriend that your way is the only way and the only correct way to dress and sleep in a bed. Good luck. :p

There are always separate bedrooms !

Re: Bedding
 

Because it is preferred :thumbsup:

Re: Bedding
 

Me and my wife have two comforters for our California King. Mostly because I have a tendency to steal the covers in the night... :cool:

She sent me on a trip to get a bottom sheet or whatever they call it here and that was tricky enough!

Re: Bedding
 

:frown:

Lets have none of that talk here.

Re: Bedding
 

Andrex?

Re: Bedding
 

I was thinking "Android". :nod:

Re: Bedding
 

Target has made it easy in the last year. An eisle of duvets called duvets and a section opposite with the duvet cover sets (cover plus 2 pillowcases). Remember pillows can be a different size and that king here means superking pretty much from the Uk.

Re: Bedding
 

Once upon a time, I was adamant that I'd be shipping my duvet, pillows and duvet cover sets to the States (:rofl:) because I love my big ol' duvet, and my husband, for all his trying, could not explain to me the differences between all the items mentioned in the OP's original post. Comforters versus quilts versus duvets, and then pillowcases versus shams... honestly, there were almost frustrated fisticuffs over it. Ridiculous.

Can anyone give me a better idea (than my husband can) about the progression of bed sizes in the US? Like how in the UK we have single > twin > double > queen > king > super-king... how are the US bed names/sizes ordered? My husband thinks we have a queen-sized bed, but I am certain our bed in the States is smaller than my humble double here in the UK, and I have no idea if I'm just wrong or simply misinformed. (Not that it matters. But, y'know. Interesting.)

Re: Bedding
 

Twin > Full > Queen > King > California King


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_si..._United_States

Re: Bedding
 

Thank you! 'Full'! See? I'd never even heard of that one. I shall have a read of the wiki page and familiarise myself, and shock the husband when we suddenly don't need to fight over sheets ever again.

Re: Bedding
 

Woaaaah we can't afford those luxuries!

Whatever is the cheapest at CostCo does the job! :lol:

Re: Bedding
 

A California King is narrower, but longer than a king.

That said I do wish I opted for a California King. My problem at night isn't the buffer to the side of me, but the fact I'm forced to lay slightly diagonally due to height.

Re: Bedding
 

The first size that was not mentioned is toddler/crib size. Oops, it was mentioned in the table, but not in the list.

Re: Bedding
 

We were lucky to be gifted our California King bedframe and mattress by my wife’s friend who was relocating and couldn’t fit in their new apartment. We got it professionally cleaned and it’s great. Buying bedding for it is sometimes a pain if you were looking to buy them from a Walmart/Target kinda place.

Re: Bedding
 

I thought about getting a California king, but my feet have hung over the end of the bed since I was about 14 years old and I think it would be weird now to sleep in a bed where they didn't. :lol:

Re: Bedding
 

Pulaski and Tom must be stand-ins for the Jolly Green Giant. My brother-in-law is 6'3" and my son-in-law is 6'5" and neither hang over their normal king size beds nor do they sleep on the diagonal. Yes, I called each one to be sure of this :nod:

Re: Bedding
 

Maybe they have their beds the wrong way round. You are meant to sleep parallel to the longest side of the bed.

Re: Bedding
 

They must have the tops of their heads up against the headboard! A King mattress is 80 inches long. My husband is 6 ft 3 in (75 inches) which leaves 5 inches "spare" but when you lie down your soles are not at a 45 degree angle to your ankles like they are when you stand. They flop forward with your toes pointing down like standing on tip-toe. You also don't have the top of your head against the headboard. My husband's feet have hung off the end of every bed he's slept in since a teenager.

Re: Bedding
 

I have a friend who practices co-sleeping with her kids and their king size bed is intentionally the wrong way round (her and her BF are short though).

Re: Bedding
 

Yikes! Yeah the laundry in our building is all top-loaded!

Re: Bedding
 

We've managed it. I think.

The bed is IKEA, the mattress is a Purple mattress (and is finally arriving next Thursday, I've been sleeping on an airbed for a week now) (yes I've measured, yes the mattress fits in the IKEA frame).

We found a good looking and well reviewed duvet (proper) on Amazon and bought a duvet cover set from there as well, until we find something nice that we both like.

It remains to be seen how well insulated the apartment is (though judging by the temperature when I get home, very well !) but the cooler/heater units are quite noisy, so the option to leave it turned off whilst snuggling into a duvet in the winter is appealing.