One of the adult kids is asking for new bedding for Christmas. I have no experience with duvets but am thinking it might be a good option, especially if iwashable. What are the pros and cons.
You mean removable cover? Our girls would not touch duvets… just a sheet and a washable comforter.
Yes, a removable cover. I guess duvet cover is the proper terminology.
My kids also don’t like duvets and covers. It’s simply too hard to get the covers back on. They prefer a nice comforter. Machine washable. Lots of choices. I would suggest looking at the Company Store…excellent quality and lots of choices.
The company store is excellent. But I would look carefully at sizes, at actual dimensions. Full/queen covers a wide range and I hate a duvet that is too big for the comforter it’s on. It ends up feeling all floppy. Look for a good fit!
Here’s one from Brooklinen that was recommended https://www.brooklinen.com/products/classic-duvet-cover?variant=6885032707
The ones from Ikea are less expensive and popular with young adults.
I agree about duvet covers. I was suggesting the Company Store for actual comforters.
@Knitkneelionmom I would NOT suggest getting a duvet and cover unless you KNOW your kid wants a duvet and cover. Some folks just don’t like them.
Regarding IKEA…definitely measure every bedding you get from there. We have gotten a lot of gifts over the years that never fit any of our beds.
We love a downy with a duvet cover. Both my D’s also use duvets. D2 got a cute cover from Target recently. H and I have a lightweight down comforter for summer and a bit heavier one for winter. I love being able to buy new covers to change things up.
I am looking for a cover as my dog tends to climb up on the guest bed when no one is looking and the comforter is a pain to wash. Look at Overstock.
I also find the duvet covers to be a pain. We have a coverlet that we use alone in warmer weather and layered on top of a down comforter in cold weather. The coverlet is machine washable and protects the down comforter from the dog.
I tried a duvet cover on our bed, and on my son’s, and none of us liked them.
I have a quilt and a down blanket (both from company Store) for use in warmer weather, and a down comforter from Costco for use during winter. We all use down comforters during winter (we keep our heat low). I have a mid weight quilt from Restoration Hardware.
We’ve been using comforter/duvet cover combinations for years. Our comforters are from Ikea and so are the covers. We (and I’m including my now 19 and 16 year old daughters) love them and don’t seem to have any problem with them staying in place or being removed to wash. Not difficult at all:)
For those of you who don’t like a duvet cover , do you use bottom sheet, top sheet, down comforter, perhaps a coverlet to keep dust off the comforter ? How often do you wash the comforter?
I discovered duvet covers years ago o n a trip to Europe and have never looked back. I have sewn my own out of sheets before proper weight covers were available here. Love them.
RE; duvet covers
There are 2 solutions to those hard to wrestle a comforter into covers–
- Crane and Canopy has new style comforter cover that they call Nova. It uses a cross-wise zipper about 1/4 the way down from the top and gives the faux look of a turned down sheet
https://www.craneandcanopy.com/pages/the-nova-duvet-cover
- if you have any sewing skills it’s pretty simply to make your own duvet cover by sewing together 2 flat sheets. You can insert overlapping flap (like a pillow cover) or a zipper/velcro/snaps/buttons somewhere that isn’t at the bottom. Add ties to all 4 inside corners and you’ve got a customized cover to match the rest of your bedding.
My comforter is from an Altra kit that I sewed myself circa late 70s. I still sleep under in the winter. Included in the kit’s instructions were directions on how to make a comforter cover out of flats sheets. I made mine out Marimekko sheets–and I still have that cover, though I bought a flannel cover 4 or 5 years ago and a Crane & Canopy Nova cover this year.
I prefer duvet cover to a comforter because I have cats that share my bed--and there's nothing quite like waking up in the middle of the night and hearing your cat hocking up a nasty hairball or a wet wad of cat puke in the middle of the night right onto your bed.
I can just strip off the cover and pull the naked comforter over me for the rest of the night and deal with disgusting cover in the morning. As mentioned by many others, a duvet cover is kind of a pain to put on. But my son hates sleeping with a top sheet - as a child, the top sheet would end up being bunched up at the foot of his bed or against the wall. So he prefers duvets because it eliminates the need for a top sheet since you can easily wash the duvet cover whenever you change the sheets. Much easier than having to wash the whole comforter.
I love, love, love our duvets. You don’t need a flat sheet so there’s no getting tangled in a sheet and once you’ve done it a few times putting the cover back on is easy. I also wonder how often people with comforters are washing them. Do they fit easily in your washer and dryer?
Like anything, you get what you pay for with duvets. We received a Scandia down set for our wedding present from my Swedish FIL and it was incredibly comfortable and warm. It was also incredibly expensive. We’ve bought decent department store duvets as extras and for the kids and the cheaper ones have bunched up while the better quality one have maintained their shape.
I’ve made all my duvets. If you can sew a seam, you can easily make a duvet; it’s just a seamed rectangle with one open end. @dragonmom’s suggestion of using sheets is an easy, inexpensive method.
Duvets are simple to put on: Simply hold the upper lefthand corner of your comforter and slide it up to the upper lefthand corner of the duvet (like you would slide a pillowcase over a pillow). Use a safety pin to hold those corners together. Repeat for the upper righthand corner. Holding the top of the now corner-pinned duvet/comforter, shake the rest of the loose duvet over the rest of the comforter and then close the bottom of the duvet “envelope” by whatever means the duvet is made (buttons, zipper, velcro, etc.). You can either remove the safety pins from the top corners or reposition them discreetly on the backside to keep the duvet from slipping.
I do what ChoatieMom does but without the safety pins. I just put the upper two corners of the duvet into the upper two corners of the duvet cover, hold the corners and give it a good hard snap or two, then button the bottom.
Wow, you either have really big wingspan or small comforters. Can’t do that shake easily with our giant down one!
We wash bedding regularly; my washer is big enough to fit a king down comforter. 
Bedding can be hard to buy for someone else, I would want to know if they prefer a duvet or comforter first. We have done both and personally, I despise having to put a queen or king size back in its duvet cover no matter how well made or how much snapping I do. At first I had to come up the learning curve of making sure the insert was correct size for the duvet. But I don’t feel my beds look as good with a duvet (or at least the ones I got) compared to a comforter. So I tired of that phase and went back to buying better quality comforters to get a good temperature comforter that wasn’t crazy heavy. Hotel Collection from Macy’s has nice comforters - my twenty somethings like the style and weight of them. Of course it is best when you can get them at a good sale price. They are more contemporary/hip and way less formal looking than traditional comforters like Eastern Accents.