How to make a bed that looks like a good hotel made it

A hotel bed looks the way it does because of method, not money. Most of what follows costs nothing.

1. Start with a flat mattress

Everything shows through. A lumpy topper or a mattress protector that has ridden up will read through three layers of cloth. Smooth the base first, every time.

2. Iron the pillowcases, at least

If you iron one thing, iron the pillowcases. They are at eye level and closest to the person looking. Percale takes a press and holds it; five minutes on two cases changes the whole bed.

3. Use a flat sheet and tuck it properly

The hospital corner is the entire trick and it takes thirty seconds a side.

1. Lay the flat sheet with equal overhang all round, wrong side up so the hem faces down when you fold it back.
2. Tuck the foot end under the mattress.
3. At each foot corner, lift the side hanging fabric onto the mattress to make a diagonal fold.
4. Tuck the part still hanging below under the mattress.
5. Drop the diagonal fold down and tuck it under too.

The result is a taut flat plane instead of loose cloth, and it is the single biggest visual difference between a home bed and a hotel one.

4. Fold the top sheet back over the duvet

About 30 cm of sheet folded down over the top edge of the duvet. It frames the bed, it stops the duvet cover from getting dirty at the neck, and it is what your eye reads as "made".

5. Chop the pillows

Stand the pillows up against the headboard, then press the heel of your hand into the top centre of each to make a shallow dent. It stops them looking like inflated bricks. Hotels do this to every pillow, every day.

6. Layer, and use odd numbers

Two sleeping pillows standing at the back, two shams in front, one cushion leaning against them. Odd numbers of decorative pieces look composed; even numbers look like a shop display.

7. Add the throw at an angle

Folded lengthways to about a third of the bed's depth, laid across the foot, with one corner allowed to fall towards the floor. Never centred and squared — that reads as showroom, not room.

8. Stay in one family of colours

Hotels use white because it always works. If you want colour, keep it to two neighbouring tones plus one texture — a plum duvet, oat shams, a sand-coloured waffle throw. The concept behind our own palette is exactly this: nothing fights.

The part nobody mentions

Hotels change bedding every day, so it always looks fresh out of the press. At home the closest equivalent is airing the bed each morning for twenty minutes before making it. The cloth relaxes, the creases fall out, and it makes up better.