The Well Made Bed
As the autumn equinox passes, as if by design, the temperatures have fallen. The evenings darken earlier and the night time and early morning temperature have a distinct autumn feel.
Whilst I am holding off turning on the heating - I prefer to wait until October if possible - I have lit a fire or two, not least as I have been struck down by a miserable cold and flu and the warmth in the evening has been a comfort as the temperature fell.
And that brings me in a round about way to considering the bedroom and the optimum bedding - duvet or blankets?
I am very conflicted by this seemingly simple decision, both for practical and aesthetic reasons.
A tidy well made bed
The aesthetics are, to my mind, easier to deal with than the practicalities. A bed made in the traditional manner with flat sheets (never fitted!) and blankets and topped off with a luxurious quilt not only looks neater but exudes a sense of visual harmony. For however hard one tries with duvets the bed always looks half made and messy.
Early years at boarding school with the ritual of matron’s morning inspection left little room for laziness when making one’s bed. Neatness - hospital corners - were expected. The fact that a return to the dormitory during the daytime was forbidden (so what was the point?) made the entire exercise seem meaningless. And yet by the time we were packed off to bed, worn out by the day’s activities, somehow the morning effort seemed worthwhile, as climbing into a well made bed is one of life’s enduring pleasures.
Of course the boarding school routine had more to do with discipline and order than with aesthetics, which were secondary. Bed inspections were as much a part of matron’s routine as were neck, hands and knee inspections prior to bedtime.
The duvet, however, is never neat or tidy however one tries to configure it. It always manages to look unkempt. (There is something ever so slightly louche about a bed topped with duvet! By contrast a neat bed made with blankets and finished with a quilt suggests virtuous living.) And it becomes doubly difficult if a bed is furnished with two duvets - one for each occupant. More about that under practicalities.
However one makes the bed in the morning it always looks half done - what with creases and bits of lumpy duvet hanging over the edge of the bed - and, when it matters at the end of the day, it is not always very inviting.
I was fortunate as a child to spend holidays in the grand hotels of the Italian Riviera where the rooms were looked after daily by a maid. Not only was the bed made but whilst dining during the evening the maid would return to turn the bed down. This small act added a sense of luxury to the sleep experience.
But this really is silly! Whilst, unlike at boarding school, I am not banned from visiting by bedroom during the day time, I rarely do so. So you will wonder what the fuss is all about. But this is when the practical considerations take over.
An unmade bed!
Throughout the summer the duvet is the perfect companion. Providing - if you share a bed - you both have your own duvet. One large duvet between two people is, to my mind, a nightmare. The average human tosses and turns up to 40 times in the night and having a duvet pulled off inadvertently by one’s partner is very tedious, particularly on a cold night. That said, and assuming you have your own duvet, how you arrange yourself under it, on it or half under it during the summer months is entirely your preference and from this point of view alone the duvet has to be the best answer for the summer. The autumn and winter are a different matter.
Stack of colourful blankets
Perhaps it is my age but thinning blood and broken sleep make a duvet a less attractive option on the colder nights. And yes, I know I could possess a collection of different Tog rated duvets to deal with vagaries of the English weather but I don’t, not least as storage in our house is now at a premium. So I resort to adding a large king size blanket over the duvet and in doing so harmony and warmth are restored to our bed. (I graduated from the sardine tin like restrictions of a standard 4’6” double bed many years ago to the luxury of a king size bed. It was a revelation and anything less now feels like climbing back into the sardine tin.)
But it is this last point that has me confused. Afterall the duvet is an all in one “system” - adding blankets atop duvets defeats the purpose of the duvet’s design. Why not then simply revert back to flat sheets and blankets? And to be honest I have no real answer.
Making a bed with duvets, unkempt or not, is easier than remaking a bed each morning with sheets complete with hospital corners and multiple blankets. Had I a housekeeper ease might not be a consideration and the aesthetic would matter be all that mattered.
At the end of the day, however, it is my bed and I must lie in it!