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| A statement headboard gives focus to a bedroom’s décor. |
I have been sleeping around this week. I mean that literally. In the space of seven days, I have bed- bounced from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., to San Antonio, and back to my own bed in Orlando, Fla.
Nothing makes me appreciate my own bed — heck, my own bedroom — more than a string of foreign mattresses, bedspread that makes the dog’s bed seem hygienic, and sheets that feel like sliding between two pieces of sandpaper.
It’s a wonder I can sleep in these places when I think about it, which I shouldn’t.
“People always aspire to have a hotel bed, but why?” asks Missy Tannen, of Chatham, N.J., raising an excellent question. “I don’t aspire to a hotel bedroom, yet you see all these sheets sold in stores called ‘Hotel Collection.’ What’s that about?”
“Amen,” I say. I had called Tannen, founder of Boll & Branch, (Bollandbranch.com, a relatively new maker of luxury, fair-trade-certified, organic cotton bedding) after my busy travel week to grouse about bad bed linens in America.
Tannen and I got on like two church members sharing a hymnal.
“Hotel linens are meant to take a beating, and should be different from what we use at home,” says Tannen.
“I blame The Westin Hotels,” I say, referring to the hotel chain that more than 15 years ago, performed a huge public service with its Heavenly Bed, all clean and crisp and pure white. Sleeping in a Heavenly Bed felt like sleeping in a bag of marshmallows. It was a dream compared to what weary travelers were used to. Other hotels, thankfully, caught on.
And while this was a giant step forward for the hotel industry, don’t be fooled. The Heavenly Bed should be the low bar for homes.
Folks, these beds are made with industrial-strength sheets designed to put up with laundering temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and detergents stronger than jet fuel.
“So many people don’t have a clue about their sheets,” Tannen says with genuine concern.
“Excellent sheets are not a luxury — they are basic, like good underwear,” I echo, spewing my mantra about the closer something is to your body, the more you should insist on quality. I then tell her that as we speak, I am having three sets of sheets professionally laundered, because … I confess: I like them steam ironed.
“So when you turn the top over the blanket, it’s nice and flat,” she says, in that knowing way that makes me sure I have found a friend for life.
A former schoolteacher, Tannen got into the bedding business after she and her husband remodeled their master bedroom and she went in search of the linens to finish the room. “I couldn’t find what I wanted,” she recalls.
Her husband said, “Why don’t you make them?”
In January 2014, she launched Boll & Branch. In their first year, the exclusively online company had sales of $1.75 million, she said.
“They breathe. They’re soft. They have a sateen finish, but aren’t heavy, and they come with a choice of edging.”
“A choice of edging?”
Though, like me Tannen prefers white bedding, late last year she expanded her white and ivory line to include grays and blues, catering to that half of her clientele who believe white is for hospitals. (Or hotels).
Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson (marnijameson.com) is the author of two home and lifestyle books, and the forthcoming “What to Do with a Houseful of Memories” (Sterling Press).
Sweet dreams: what a great bedroom needs
Boll & Branch’s Missy Tannen and I drifted off the subject of sheets to talk about what every bedroom should have besides a dreamy bed:
• Actual décor. “So many people don’t bother to decorate their bedrooms,” Tannen said. “They figure, since it’s not where guests go, theycan ignore it.” However, as the first and last place you see every day, your bedroom should be beautiful.
• Zero clutter. Make this a place where the distractions of life are gone. That means no mail, bills, to-do lists, computers or exercise gear. “Create a place where you can let go of everything,” she said.
• Tranquil colors, minimal pattern. Paint your walls in a shade you find soothing, avoiding high contrast colors and busy patterns. Think soothing.
• Lights that dim and window coverings you control. Almost nowhere is light and dark more important than in a bedroom. You want to be able to fill a room with daylight, switch on a task light to read by, dim lighting to wind down, and go pitch dark for the best sleep.
• A statement headboard. Along with well-chosen accent pillows, a strong headboard gives a bedroom focus.
• Personal photos. Display images of those you love most, but please, put your carefully selected photo collection together in coordinated frames.
• Something alive and something sparkly. Every bedroom should have something living, like a fresh-cut hydrangea blossom, and something that sparkles, like a blingy light fixture, which adds a touch of glamour.
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