Making a Bed Properly- by guest designer Barclay Butera

We have the wonderful pleasure of having Barclay Butera on Fresh Nest today!  Isn't he such a cutie?  And his design and fashion skills will blow you away.  Not only does he do interior design, he is very into fashion too. Interior design and retail clients have included Sharon Stone, Josh Groban, and Renee Zellwegger.  He also has his own line of furnishings and accessories, Barclay Butera Home.   He's been on Today Show, HGTV, Extra!, and in he WSJ, NYTimes, LA Times, and magazines including Traditional Home, House Beautiful, House & Garden, and Veranda.  Wow that was a mouth full and that's not all of them! He's all about creating "fashion for the home" with livable, casual elegance.

He loves to mix and match, is into pattern-on-pattern and textures.  His pieces and designs are timeless, but he always seems to throw in a contemporary twist into everything.  Barclay loves to look at a sofa like 'the little black dress' and then you accessorize around it. He believes that every room should have one fabulous grounding piece, and also, usually, one bit of red.

He has his first coffee table book debuted in Sept., Living In Style (it's amazing, seriously).   And keep an eye on him, his line of textiles/trims with Kravet is just about to come out. Today, Barclay is going to show us how to make a bed properly.  He has some great and easy to follow tips for making your bed beautiful and well made.

by Barclay Butera

 

Using freshly laundered and pressed sheets, you’re ready to dress your bed!  If you don’t have a box spring cover, and your box spring is visible, you need to cover it with a fitted sheet which is the same as the fitted sheet for your mattress.  Always use a mattress pad for your comfort and to protect your mattress.  Always start your fitted sheet at the headboard, not at the foot in case you have more or less sheet to work with it won’t be visible.

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky... Taking your flat sheet upside down, place it evenly on the mattress noting its length to each side of the bed.  You may have to visit the sides of the bed several times.  Once this step is complete take your blanket right side up and place it on top of the mattress noting its length on both sides. (Note: Always remove tags if you don’t want to make sure you have the tags at the foot end so they don’t show.)

At this point you need to fill your duvet with your comforter.  The easiest way to do this is place your duvet flat on the mattress with button open side at the foot of the bed.  Take the comforter end and pull it half way into the duvet, move to reverse side of the bed and do the same.  Move back to the starting side of the bed and pull it up so the corner of the comforter is in the corner of the duvet and repeat on other side.  Button duvet and lift duvet up several times so all the comforters fill is dispensed evenly.

Now that the duvet is full and flat on your mattress and evenly lands on each side of the bed, go to the headboard and take the corner of the duvet and fold it down in thirds, almost like rolling a burrito!  IF you have a footboard it should neatly meet the footboard, if not leave enough unfolded duvet to cover the mattress at end.  Now you’ll need to tuck the blanket and flat sheet between the mattress and box spring at the foot first, then the sides.  I always fold down the blanket and flat sheet about 24”, now tuck the sheet and blanket into the side rail if you them or between the mattress and boxspring.

Take your sleeping pillows (2-4), and stand them against the headboard.  Add the European shams (2-3), Fnish with an interesting throw pillow (22”x22”) and a single boudoir pillow.

You can find Barclay Butera at http://www.barclaybutera.com