The Art of Making a Beautiful Bed

Beds are a sacred space to me. When I get into bed at night, it’s like entering another world when I close my eyes, slow my body down to sleep, reflect on the day and get ready to immerse myself into my dreams-- the royal road to the soul. I love the sensual pleasure of sleeping on cotton or hemp sheets, and love crisp, freshly, laundered sheets. Climbing into a bed that looks, smells and feels fantastic is one of life’s simple pleasures. I read somewhere once that O.C.D sufferer, Howard Hughes used to insist his bed be made with freshly starched, clean sheets every day—I can really relate.

Linen and sheets are a weakness of mine, given my druthers, I’d sleep on damask hemp sheets, under a lamb’s wool blanket and a goosedown quilt, with goosedown pillows, all overlaid with an exotic, silk bedspread in shades of blue and green.

I get great satisfaction out of making a bed whether it’s for a houseguest, a family member or myself. I take great care with it and was pleased to discover that taking the time and care to make a bed truly beautiful and appealing is one of the Tantric arts.

Practise will help your bed-making technique and it’s always good to have someone who will help you happily. Here are some basic ideas and suggestions from someone who loves making a bed look inviting, relaxing and truly special.

Once you’ve stripped the bed, get into the habit of rotating and flipping your mattress, it will give it a longer life and gives you the feel of ‘turning over a new leaf’.If you can put your mattress in the sun for a couple of hours every month, the UV rays will help kill off any dust mites and the sun will naturally sanitize it.

The first thing you need to make a bed truly feel soft and dreamy is a quality woollen underlay, not only are they soft and luxurious to sleep on they will help you stay warm and offer protection for your mattress.

Next sheets. Hemp sheets will last for years and years, but good quality cotton sheets are much more readily available. Whatever your chosen material, it must be 100% natural fibre. Thread-count in sheets is a good indication of quality, but I notice that even poly-cotton sheets are now given thread count ratings. Most sheet-sets come with a fitted, elastised bottom sheet they’re hard to fold neatly, off the line, but great to use on a bed. Start at a bottom corner, tuck the fitted sheet under the mattress at one corner, then the other, lining up the seams on the fitted sheet with the corner of the mattress. Then go to the top of the mattress and lift the mattress slightly at the top pulling the sheet tight across the mattress before tucking the top corners in while you lower the mattress. This will give you a nice taut sheet. Go to the end of the bed for the top sheet and shake it out so it gently lands in place and extends about an inch over the end of the mattress. You always put the top sheet on upside down so when you fold back any decorative seams are on top. Centering your sheets neatly on the clothesline, will give you a ready made crease to help you fold them and line the sheet up evenly across the bed when you make it. Tuck in the end of the top sheet.

Next comes a good quality woollen blanket. You could pay hundreds of dollars for a good quality woollen blanket, but make a point of checking out the op shops. I picked up a good quality merino blanket for $10. Throw on the blanket, tucking it in at the base of the bed and then tucking in the sides, grabbing the sides of the top sheet as well, using hospital corners. I usually only tuck in the bottom ends of the hospital corners, unless no one is sleeping in the bed for a while.

Next throw on the doona. Grab it by the cover’s corners to get a really neat and smooth finish, and fold back the top sheet to cover over the doona leaving about 20cm for the pillows.I like to use two pillows per person and for me they must be feather pillows as I can mould these into the nape of my neck.Rubber pillows drive me nuts. Pillows are such personal items I usually take mine with me if I go and stay anywhere. A foreign smelling, uncomfortable pillow is the pits and can really spoil your sleep.

When I was young I had a book called Eloise. Eloise lived in the Plaza Hotel and I always remember her ‘helping’ to put on the pillow cases when I'm changing mine. Eloise, was a naughty role-model for me.

I remember reading that Plato used to advise his students, not to leave the impression of their body on an unmade bed, as this would encourage devellish spirits to take nestle into the imprint and wait for you to come back at night to possess your body. I believe in a lot of thing, but this is a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless when I pull back the covers in the morning and brush and smooth out the sheets, fluff up the pillows and the doona I am often mindful of this odd piece of advice.

As with anything you do whether it’s making a bed, baking a cake, cooking a meal or grooming your horse if you do it with care and loving-conscious intent, it really shows.

Sweet dreams and God Bless.