How to Make a Five-Star Luxury Bed

Imagine retiring at the end of the day to a beautifully made plush bed, complete with your perfect favorite pillow and luxurious comforter. At the Benjamin Hotel in New York, a sleep concierge offers you 10 pillows to choose from as you end your day. Although most of us may not have this daily luxury, we can make our own bedrooms as luxurious as possible. The Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels first started the trend of plush, luxury beds for all of their guests as one of the featured amenities . Many upscale hotels and resorts soon caught on, and began to offer variations of this bed setup to ensure not only a good night’s sleep, but an experience proposed to feel like sleeping on a cloud! The benefits of good sleep are essential for health, vitality, energy in your day, and overall relaxation. Nothing can come close to a good night’s rest after a hard day, and now you don’t have to leave home to experience this extravagance suitable for a king or queen.

With the increasing demand of feather beds, down comforters, plush pillows, and overall five-star luxury designed for the bedroom, there are a variety of resources and styles available for any budget. Whether you’re looking for fine Italian or Egyptian cotton sheets, natural goose down products, allergy-free bed products, or just a standard set for a guest room, you can still get the look and feel of luxury sleep with these easy steps to making your bed.

The secret lies in the choice of featherbed, and the down count of this piece. Featherbed companies have disclosed the key components of their featherbeds, and also the bed setup required to make a luxury bed at home! The featherbed serves almost as a ‘half-mattress’, and is available in all bed sizes. It is a soft, cushiony style pillow that covers the whole bed. This adds not only the look and feel of plush comfort, but adds an extra layer of support between you and your bed’s mattress. The baffle box construction of the featherbed, and varieties available today, ensure that you’ll choose one that will last over the long-term. A baffle box will prevent shifting and hold the down feathers at their best. Some featherbed models are available with elastic to stay in place on your mattress, but this usually isn’t necessary. When you find the right size for your bed, it will stay in place after you put the fitted sheet over the featherbed and mattress. This should be snug enough to stay put! The down, or feather count, will tell you that the higher the feather count, the more soft and ‘full’ the featherbed will be. Today, as with most down products, these featherbeds are available in hypo-allergenic, or allergy-free versions so anybody can enjoy the benefits of the five-star luxury bed! Do keep in mind that it takes between 24-48 hours for your featherbed to ‘air out’ completely to get the full, plush look and feel.

Also important is your choice of sheets; anything with a 450-600 thread count is ideal for the home, although most hotels use a 300-400+ range of fine blends to accommodate for long-term guest use. The increased thread count means more softness per inch, and a finer texture. Look for sateen blends that offer silk or satin additions to natural cotton, and you will continue to enjoy a luxurious feel even after multiple washes. Do make note of the washing instructions, as these will help you keep the high-quality sheets in good shape.

There are eight essential components to making a five-star luxury hotel-style bed. Depending on your budget and lifestyle, these are available online, at department stores, and retail stores. You’ll need to find the right fit by comparing and contrasting the various goose down feather counts, thread sheet counts, and simply trying it out! Your quality sleep depends on it, so take your time when shopping.
The eight essential components in order of setup are:

1. Choosing a firm mattress
2. Adding a felt mattress protector
3. Choose a box-style featherbed, preferably a baffle box construction
4. Add a felt sheet protector
5. Add a fitted sheet
**(you’ll be sleeping on top of components 1 through 5)
6. Add a flat sheet
7. Finish with a comforter with duvet cover that matches your sheets
8. Add a second flat sheet or throw to add the final touch
**(fold over the top, to extend below the pillows; this will finish and complete the bed setup)

Since there are eight essential components to a luxury bed, there is more than meets the eye! From the Monterey Bay hotel in California, to the Ritz Carlton in New York, it’s no secret how the beds are made. Next time you’re at your favorite hotel destination, take a peek at the labels on the bed products for ideas on where to buy yours. Try the eight step bed setup for your own home and bedroom, and you will wake up after the best luxury sleep you’ve had in years!