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The easiest way to make a plain and boring bed into a premium one is to use bed skirts . But apart from all the show, skirts also serve some functional purposes like keeping dust away and hiding storage boxes that you might keep under the bed.

Bed skirts are also known by the name dust ruffles. While that name makes it look like some kind of gadgetry to clean the dust, it is much more than that. In fact, they were an irreplaceable part of home decor in traditional settings. But they are not too old school either. They find a huge fan following even in the modern days. But before you go about shopping, having a better understanding of them will help you make better purchase decisions. This article will tell you everything you need to know about them.

A beginner’s guide to bed skirts

There are quite a lot of factors that determine how suitable a skirt is for your bedding set. These include things like the type of wood finish of the bed to the colour of your bedside table and many more. So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of things to consider before buying a bed skirt. But in order to make the right choice, you should first know what the different aspects of skirts are. This article will tell you everything you need to know about them, including the different types of corners, and standard sizes.

Different bed skirt styles

As the skirts are more of a design element than a functional one, the primary thing to consider when you are choosing a skirt is the design. There are significant differences between various skirt styles. The simplest type of skirt is a tailored, pleated skirt. They have four pleats in total with each one on the four sides of the bed. The same style of the skirt without the pleat is called a box skirt. While box skirts are really affordable, they do make it difficult for you to access the underside of the bed. If you want to give your bedroom a more premium look, then you should go for the gathered ruffle skirt. The gathered ruffle is among the traditional style bed skirts.

Bed skirt corners

Another major area that impacts the design aspect of a bed skirt is in the corners. This especially matters if your bed has a footboard. In that case, the skirt should have the provision to let the legs of the footboard pass through it. So, you have to look at the type of your bed while choosing a skirt. While there should be splits in the skirt to accommodate the legs, you can make the splits less obvious using overlapping corners. But this is not a problem at all if you are using a spring box instead of a wooden bed. For a spring box, a skirt with a continuous corner is better as it provides a more seamless look.

Size of the bed skirt

It should fit the frame of the bed, just right. While this is not that difficult because most of the beds follow standard sizes like King, Queen, etc. So, if your bed also follows any of the standard sizes, it will be easy to find a skirt that fits right. But it gets tricky if it is a nonstandard size bed. In that case, you will either have to tailor a skirt specifically for your bed or fit the sheet according to your bed after buying a standard-sized one. Apart from the length and breadth of the bed, another measure is the drop length of the skirt. This determines how much the skirt hangs from the top of the frame to the floor.

Alternatives to bed skirts

You can achieve a similar look to the bed skirts using bedspreads as well. A bedspread is similar to a bedsheet. But unlike a bed sheet that only covers the mattress, a bedspread will have generous extra length to cover the sides of the bed as well. You will find bedspreads that mimic the look of skirts using pleats and gathered ruffles around the border. The benefit of a bedspread is that they are easy to wash and maintain as compared to bed skirts. And if you are using a box spring, you can just use a bed spring cover. Bedspring covers are usually stretchable cloth covers that you have to put on before placing the mattress.