If you had these curtains in your bedroom what duvet cover set would you get?

[soontobeslendergirl]

The walls are a similar but slightly darker shade of the background colour and we have a gun metal cast iron bedframe and virtually no other furniture to match to. Lamps are metal too with off white shades and main light has shade in same colour.

[soontobeslendergirl]

That should be that the walls are a paler shade, not darker.

[GarlicBreadItsTheFuture]

Nice curtains. I always go for plain white bedding so not much help if you want a match. Maybe a lemon colour to pick out the flower.

[soontobeslendergirl]

Thanks, my husband is a weirdo and is allergic to loads of stuff and strangely doesn't cope will with white material - think it must be the bleaches - I have an off white/cream set which goes okay but is looking a bit past it .....but i like a bit of a pattern usually so feeling a bit frustrated trying to find something nice.

My previous curtains were plain and it gave more scope for duvet covers.

[QuintessentiallyQS]

Very nice curtains, can you use them in a different room where you dont have bedding you need to match?

[Fairylea]

I'd go for a plain lemon set or even the beige / grey colour in the detail. Very nice curtains :)

[soontobeslendergirl]

Thanks, I could swap them into the family room downstairs which is painted the same colour and swap to these ones - but now I've bought them I'm not too sure I like them - they were for the family room and are still in the packet.

[QuintessentiallyQS]

Damask

Beige

teal

[soontobeslendergirl]

yes, maybe something in a soft beigey grey colour or lemon - I was getting tempted by the reddy/brick colour but it would be very very wrong :D

[soontobeslendergirl]

Thanks Quint.

I like that first one - i'd been looking at this:

www.next.co.uk/g63220s4#870586g63

or this:

www.next.co.uk/g39722s5#657669g39

but wasn't too sure about the first one and thought the 2nd might be a bit much.

[Coumarin]

What about a soft grey colour with coral cushions and throw?

[MadameDefarge]

I am currently toying with the notion that curtains do not have to be a fixture, if you buy cheap. So you could get a matching curtain/duvet set or several and swap them around according to your mood. Ikea would suit that.

To match these curtains pick out a dominant colour you like, then get plain duvet to match, then dress bed with cushions that also echo the other colours but in different patterns.

[MadameDefarge]

Ie, a mix of stripes, single florals etc.

[soontobeslendergirl]

Thanks for the ideas, much as I like cushions, I'll need to give that a miss. Although I love him, my OH struggles to give the duvet a shake and lay it back neatly on the bed - cushions would become things that cluttered up the floor

The curtains have grey/beige border round them so thinking I'll try to blend that in.

I like this:

www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/home_and_garden/bedding/duvetcovers/124884709_by-sainsburys-grey-embroidered-border-duvet-cover-set.html?hnav=4294960028

but not sure if OH would be able to cope with the white - it can be a hit or a miss.

or this one that Quint linked to earlier:
www.next.co.uk/x533242s8#841866x53?awc=5672_1401109691_47311f55a316a92a3f509f936de1ad98

I also quite like these but sold out in my size:

www.next.co.uk/x534264s14

[MadameDefarge]

Have you thought about investing in organic white cotton bedding?

Otherwise I would suggest getting a second pair of curtains in the same fabric, and just making a throw to go over the bed (even rubbish DH's should be able to shake that into place!) then co ordinating the duvet and associated bedding with key colours in that.

[soontobeslendergirl]

We've tried organic bedding - it doesn't seem to make any difference, we don't really know what it is precisely that affects him.

It tends to be trial and error - unfortunately that means we have made some costly mistakes - generally we have to wash things in Surcare a few times before trying, and then if it's no good we can't return them.

We have to buy his t-shirts from a company in the US as they have 4 colours that he can wear and that's like gold dust.

They no longer sell the curtains either tho I guess I may be able to pick some up on ebay.

I would point out that this is a man who will get into bed that has laundry (as in it's been ironed and taken upstairs but not yet put away) piled on it as long as it isn't on his side.......

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

I have all white too, but in your case maybe try a nice pale grey? Pick out the blue with a throw across the bottom too.

[MadameDefarge]

having allergies myself I sympathise utterly.

But your dh must surely realise that white is not the problem, its the fabric, the treatment, the washing materials.

So I would start with the make he finds works, and work out from that.

[MadameDefarge]

what washing powder/gel/whatever works for him? you might have to really put the bedding through a lot of washes to get the desired result.

A friend bought me a lovely necklace recently. I wore it once, and ever since then I have had a vivid rash on the area, despite all treatment. I know how shit this can be.

[soontobeslendergirl]

I see what you are saying Madame, but he has never been able to find anything white he can wear. Even the egyptian cotton t-shirts he gets.

[MadameDefarge]

grim isn't it? clearly the bleaching process does something irradicable.

what does work for him? Its always best to work from that, brands, textures, finishes.

[soontobeslendergirl]

It's all pretty random tbh.

he can't stand anything with a perfume for a start.

As for materials, it's hard to say as it's difficult to separate the material from the colour iyswim?

He has some fleece tops that are fine - some colours are better than others even though they are the same brand and garment type. He has some red ones that are pretty good and a green one that is okay but he can't wear the blue. so they are manmade fibre.

Of the t-shirts that he can wear, he has some dri-fit type that are fine including some blue ones.

The best ones though are egyptian cotton and natural dyes. Green, natural, grey and pale bluey grey. He cant wear the black, white or red.

He has a softshell jacket that he can wear (black) so we ordered another one even though it was £150 so that he can put it away as it's rare that he gets a jacket he can wear.

We ccan only use surcare powder - even the liquid isn't any good and he can only wash with plain soap bars - even his hair.

If he puts on something he can't tolerate, he goes numb down one side, his face gets a rash and swells in a band across his nose and cheeks, he gets massive headaches and his hair itches, the side that goes numb loses colour so he has one one normal looking hand and the other pure white if you leave it then he gets chest pains and struggles to breath :(

This came on suddenly about 8 years ago and despite brain scans and allergy tests and paying privately for a consultant we have generally just had to manage it ourselves. The GP eventually suggested that it was all psychological so he just gets on with it now. The worst was when we bought a new car and found that he was allergic to the seats - he'd been fine in the demonstrator.

He is definitely not as bad as he was and can usually tell if something is unlikely to suit fairly instantly if it is likely that it will cause a more severe reaction. Sometimes though it just creeps up on him. He has a couple of shirts for going out in that he can tolerate for a few hours but we have an all day wedding coming up in October so that is going to pose a bit of an issue.

I find that if I stick to cheaper mixed fibre bedding and non white and just wash it a lot then we have been quite lucky.

[MadameDefarge]

yup get that. its weird isn't it?

I know its teaching your grandma to suck eggs, but start from the brands/colours he can tolerate, and then choose the curtain? Its already a difficult fabric/pattern to match, so maybe ditch it and start from the bed out?

[soontobeslendergirl]

Thanks Madame - I could move those downstairs as I'm not that enamoured with the ones I bought for the family room (or flog them). They are nice and thick and lined though so are helping to keep it a bit darker in the mornings than the ones I had up before. The one creamy cover I have is fine and I have one that matches the colour okay but the pattern on it is completely wrong so we are at least managing to get the bed changed even when the weather isn't allowing me to get it off dried and back on same day.

[MadameDefarge]

its so hard to get this stuff right...and such an effort and thought just to get to the same starting point for most folk!

I guess buying two sets of bedding will be the answer for the moment.

Will be here when that settles down!