No one ever said that making a bed was easy. And I am not talking about the daily straightening and rearranging of the sheets and fluffing of the pillows or the frequent task of changing the sheets and pillow slips. Really "making" a bed into a comfortable, gorgeous place to lie down actually takes quite a bit of designing, careful craftsmanship, some excellent fabrics, beautiful linens, and common sense.

First, start with the bed. If it's a platform or a simple legged frame with no headboard or footboard, all one needs is a bed skirt, linens, possibly a coverlet, and lots of pillows. If it's a water bed (and yes, I have had some experience with those, though I never owned one), much of this won't apply because canopies, special mattress and box spring covers, and bed skirts aren't necessary for the typical water bed -- or army cot or hammock for that matter.

When I bought Skylands, my house in Maine, 10 years ago, every bedroom was furnished with twin beds. It was odd that the former owners had never upgraded to the queen- or king-size beds that are commonly used today. The twin beds were dwarfed by the large, graciously proportioned rooms.
I was able to find six special four-poster queen-size bedsteads in North Carolina and then ordered my favorite Charles H. Beckley mattresses and box springs -- firm. I stretched white cotton voile across the top frames of the beds and installed taffeta bed skirts on some. I vowed to dress the beds properly in the near future.