There’s an Art to Making Your Bed 

You can start by disregarding thread count. Here’s what else the pros know that you may not.

If you want your bedroom to serve as a refuge from daily stress, one piece of furniture is more important than all the rest: the bed.

But you need to do more than just choose a good mattress and bed frame. How you dress the bed — whether you create a pared-down crash pad of white linen, say, or a mountain of down topped by a pile of colorful pillows — affects the way a room feels.

It’s similar to fashion, said Deanna Wu, the vice president of merchandising at the bedding company Brooklinen: The way you dress your bed should communicate something about how you want to live.

“Do you want it to have colors, layers of texture and a feeling of whimsy? Or do you want it calm?” she asked. “You can dress your bed as you dress yourself. It can be a reflection of your mood and style.”

We asked interior designers and bedding experts for advice on the basics, from fitted sheets to decorative throw pillows, as well as tips for dressing a bed that looks appealing during the day and encourages snuggling at night.

Begin With the Sheets

Sheets are the undergarments of the bed: You won’t see much of them when the bed is fully dressed, but they have a noticeable effect on comfort because they’re in direct contact with your skin.

High-quality sheets are most frequently offered in different cotton weaves, usually percale or sateen, or in linen, and no choice is better than the others. It all depends on personal preference.