The bed skirt is one of our most desired linen products we make every day. It’s also the topic that people most frequently asked questions about. A bed skirt is such an important element in creating the perfectly styled bed.

The name “dust ruffle” can be easily make you think of the old flunky thing you put under the mattress. Nowadays, the bed skirt not only serve the purpose of covering the not so appealing look of your box spring and bedframe, it also helps creating a clean, modern, tailored look or adding to your shabby chic bedroom.

What bed skirt style do I need?

If you want a clean modern look, you can choose either a bed skirt with tailored pleats or box style without pleats.

The classic tailored pleated bed skirt has a pleat on the center of each side of the skirt.

 With box style, it’s smooth on the front and sides of the bed skirt, making it actually look like a part of the bed frame itself.

If you select a light color such as white, linen or another pale pastel for the clean look (tailored or boxed bed skirt), be sure that the bed skirt is lined so that light doesn’t show through from under the bed.

If you want the bed skirt to have romantic flair or add a nice shabby chic look to your bedroom, you can choose gathered ruffle bed skirt. Even gathered ruffles come in various styles. 

The traditional gathered ruffle is a great look for a romantic, classic bedroom. The ruffles flow and make the bed look casual, but very put together.

The ruffle hem at the bottom of the bed skirt adds a graceful note to the classic linen bed skirt. This style is more farmhouse chic, with the linen creating a nice addition to a white bed set, or as an accent to wooden floors and furniture.

Sweet country ruffles feature mini ruffles on top of the regular ruffle hem. This classic look is perfect for bedrooms that have the shabby chic look, as it adds a little something different to the look of the room.

Here it shows the bed skirt with gathered ruffles on an accented mermaid long ruffle hem. This style looks like it is straight out of an old country western film, with the look really completing the shabby chic appearance of the room. 

Bed skirt corners

Another important thing to decide is if you want your bed skirt corners split or continuous. If your bed has a footboard, you probably need to have the split cornered bed skirt so the foot side legs can go through. If your mattress is just sitting on the metal frame, it’s recommended to get continuous corners so it’s provides more seamless look.

Bed skirt size

When it comes to picking the right bed skirt, size is the first and most important thing. You can choose the bed skirt in the size of bed you have. Standard bed sizes are California King, King, Olympic Queen, Queen, Full, Twin, Twin XL. But few of us might have a non-standard size bed. Also, don't assume that your queen size bed is 60" wide and 80" long. Mattresses, box springs, and foundations can vary slightly in size. It's important to get the right size of bed skirt so that it will hang properly on your bed.

For the bed skirt drop length, measure from the top of the box spring to the floor. A common measurement for ready-made bed skirts is 15", but they do vary. If your "drop" measurement is 16", the standard bed skirt will not go all the way to the floor. If your "drop" measurement is 14" the bed skirt will drag on the floor. We have made bed skirt drops as short as 5” and as long as 34”.

Bed skirt color to match the drapes

A bed skirt is a great place to use an interesting pattern, stripe, plaid, or solid. It can either complement or contrast with other colors in the room.

By matching the bed skirt color to the headboard of the bed, you create an illustration of consistency bed. As you can see the images below, the colors flow together and make the bed look more put together and consistent, rather than having a different colored mattress or box spring peeking out. 

By matching the bed skirt color to the curtain, you can create a cohesive look. Like the image below. The grey curtain accented with the yellow trim matches well with the grey bed skirt. 

Bed skirt installation

Traditional bed skirt decking involves heavy lifting of the mattress when you are installing and laundering the bed skirt. An alternative way is to have the bed skirt made with the detachable bed skirt design.

Detachable bed skirt easily attaches and detaches with Velcro, no more heavy lifting, which makes the life a lot easier. Below you can see how it looks when placing the detachable bed skirt over the box spring.

Bed Skirt Alternative –

If you do not like bed skirts, you can opt for bedspreads. A bedspread is a decorative, extra-large flat sheet which covers all three sides of bed. Most popular bedspread patterns are waterfall ruffle bed spreads. These can be done in custom sizes, based on your mattress size and drop length.

A modern, decorative solution to a traditional bed skirt is a box spring cover. The box spring cover covers the side of the box spring, and easily stretches over your box spring or bed base without lifting the mattress. 

Hope this article answers your bed skirt questions. If not, please drop us a note here, we are happy to help.