MorsePacific

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.

tom169

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!

MorsePacific

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.

tom169

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.

Nutmegger

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.

Pulaski

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.

MorsePacific

Now I'm confusing people

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

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!

MorsePacific

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

mrken30

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.

Pulaski

"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.

Ecto17

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.

Pulaski

Well you could if British beds were the same size!

Ecto17

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

sherbert

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 $$$.

mrken30

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