Love your bed

At the moment, the competition for my favorite place is a neck-and-neck race between the couch and the bed. Our couch is cushy and very comfortable, and placed ideally in front of the television. Our bed, on the other hand, although not placed in front of a television, is a haven of comfort with at least six pillows, a thick, cushy comforter, and at least two quilts hanging off the foot board. And what's even more amazing about our bed is not that all the above-mentioned components match, but that husband-dear was responsible for picking out the majority of them. Now although I don't intend to demean my husband's ability to pick out matching bed linens, it is quite amazing when you consider that this is the same person who protested vehemently when I informed him his worn-down green chair did not match our new tan and red living room set. So what is it with husband-dear and bed linens? Did he come with a special bedroom-color-matching gene? Did his mother punish him whenever he would put a non-matching toss pillow on his bed when he was a little boy? Does he secretly want to be a bedroom designer, but is afraid to tell me? I'm sure you will all breathe a sigh of relief when I, when lying in my color-coordinated bed last week, realized it was, once again, a cultural thing.

You see, after a brief and informal survey of friend's bedrooms, I realized that most Americans have the most beautifully made up beds. They will have a comforter on top of all their sheets and blankets, one that matches the heaps of toss pillows at the head of the bed, a bedskirt or dustruffle at the bottom of the bed to compliment the pillows and comforter, and sometimes, they will even have another matching blanket at the foot of the bed. In fact, even home-sewn quilts are usually made using colors that will blend in with all the other fluffiness on people's beds. And for those of you who have little knowledge of the "typical" American bedroom; all these different components are not just thrown on to the bed, oh my goodness no. Each toss pillow is usually carefully arranged so that the collection of pillows makes up a pleasing combination of colors and sizes, the comforter is tucked in so tight you could bounce a quarter of it (although, admittedly, that particular trait could be one reserved solely for our house), and on the whole the bed looks as though it could be on a showroom floor.

Now let's think about most Dutch bedrooms, well at least the ones I know, and the most that comes to mind is a simple bed with two pillows and a duvet. In most cases, the pillowcases will match the duvet, but that is, in my knowledge of Dutch beds, the extent of the color coordination of the Dutch bed. Although most Dutch beds are nicely made as well, there is no bedskirt hiding the bottom of the bed (or even better, what's underneath the bed), no pretty little toss pillows, no cute shams, and no home-sewn matching quilts. And yes, I can now hear all the Dutch people say, "And? It's a bed. You sleep in it. You don't sit there with your eyes open looking at your bed at night, now do you?" And you know, they are absolutely right, of course, But this only further underlines my proposal that we have uncovered yet another cultural difference between Americans and Dutch people.

And the luxury of American beds does not end with their linens, it extends all the way to the bed itself. While Dutch beds are usually simple beds, with little frou-frou, and very few having a head board or a foot board, most American beds are like the Cadillacs from the 1950s: An over-the-top extravaganza. They have headboards and foot boards, in many cases taller than I am, pillars, wrought-iron canopies, wrought-iron legs, carved woodwork, and are so high off the ground that some beds come with a little step to get into bed.

Why all this luxury you ask? You know, I don't know. But when you consider that at the moment most of time at home is spend in bed, you will understand that I fully appreciate every extravagant feature our American bedroom set has to offer.