How to Style Your Bedroom by Chrissie Rucker

Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company, has long been imparting nuggets of useful information on styling bedrooms in her company's evocative catalogues. This has now been distilled into a Little White Book, How to Style Your Bedroom, giving you advice and inspiration on dressing a bed and making your bedroom the perfect retreat.

You might not have given much thought about your bed and the way it looks, whether you fight your way through oceans of cushions every night or throw a tired bedcover over your duvet in the morning, if at all. There are no excuses now as Chrissie Rucker imparts the knowledge she has learned along the way in creating one of the UK's leading brands in bedlinen and home accessories.

CHRISSIE'S TIPS

Follow practical advice on choosing the right mattress, pillows and duvets. Learn what the fuss is about when people start talking thread counts. Basically you need to choose the best quality yarn. Thread count refers to the number of threads per square inch of fabric. If you choose linen with a high thread count, beware as it will be difficult to launder and won't last as long as linen with a lower count.

PERFECT RETREAT

See your bedroom through a stylist's eyes. Chrissie tells you how to dress a bed whether it's a standard double or a super size Emperor bed; you'll need different sized pillows and cushions. Always reveal a generous amount of each layer to avoid it looking mean and messy, from the top sheet to a throw that you might run along the base of the bed. To pull a look together, if you're using a top sheet, make sure that the pillowcases match. And don't be disheartended as a single bed dresses as well and can look as inviting as its kingsize cousin.

BEDS FOR ALL SEASONS

With a bit of thought, you could easily change the styling of your bed as you go from season to season. It just needs a change in bedspread and cushions and the look can be completely altered. With photographs to show how you can achieve this, why not give it a whirl although you probably wouldn't go as far as changing the bedside lights.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Bedside rugs, candles and bowls of pot pourri complete the picture in making the bedroom a real comfort zone. And if you have a guest bedroom, make one of hotel standards to indulge your friends. Include the following:-
- Fluffy bathrobes
- Luxurious bath and hand towels
- Space in wardrobe and chest of drawers for guests' clothes
- Hair dryer
- Magazines and books
- Water and glasses
- Small vase of fresh flowers
- Scent the room lightly

PRACTICAL ADVICE

Chrissie also look at the unglamorous side of bedrooms where dust mites and fungus can have a field day. For healthy bedrooms, be sure to air your bedlinen. Once a week, pop your pillows into a hot tumble dryer for fifteen minutes to kill dust mites. Remember that pillows don't last forever. If the pillow is discoloured, chuck it out. We perspire up to one pint a night and it has to go somewhere which is why it's sensible to use pillow and mattress protector covers, which you should wash every month.

That done and you'll have a bedroom fit for an interiors cover shoot.

To buy How To Style Your Bedroom (£10), visit www.thewhitecompany.com.