We're all for the "two-comforter system", but what size?

November 12, 2021 10:02 AM

Do you sleep in a king-size bed with a partner and each have separate comforters/blankets? What size are they? Do you also own a king-size bedspread? How do you make up the bed?

My husband and I are (finally) levelling up to king-size bed. We used to share the bed comforter and own a King-size comforter/duvet for our current Queen-sized bed. After too many fights where no one was to blame (how responsible is anyone for sleep-blanket stealing?) one of us has that comforter and the other has other blankets - but now there's too many too large blankets in the bed and they fall off, etc.
We'd like to make better choices for this new, larger bed. If you sleep in a king-size bed with a partner and each have separate comforters/blankets can you tell me about your linens/comforter/blanket/bedspread set-up?

posted by atomicstone to Home & Garden (27 answers total)

!. Yes
2. Full
3. Yes
4. Rarely, if ever. When we do, we put the king-sized quilt on the bed and fold up our individual blankets and either put them in the closet or place them at the end of the bed.

We don't have the blankets falling off the bed problem because we both sleep wrapped up like burritos.
posted by cooker girl at 10:12 AM on November 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

each of you gets a twin size top sheet and a twin size comforter/blanket. you each make up your own side of the bed. if you are someone who cares what your bed looks like, get ANOTHER king size blanket to toss over all of it.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:12 AM on November 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

I am the multiple-blanket partner because I fine-tune my temperature throughout the night by adding or removing layers. My husband is the weighted-blanket partner because he likes to snuggle up under blankets.

We have a common sheet, one common king-size blanket, a twin-size weighted blanket on his side, and two more queen-size blankets on my side that reach a bit over into his territory (and are folded down the middle). Every couple of nights I have to rearrange the blankets on my side because they either move over so I have far too much blanket, or because my husband's sleep superpower is to take every sheet and blanket that is not the top one, snuggle into them, and then roll over so he's wrapped up like a burrito, pulling them off of my side. The weighted blanket stops a lot of that during the colder months, and he's got a sleep sack for the colder months which takes care of a lot of his need to be swaddled.
posted by telophase at 10:16 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

1. King fitted sheet
2. Two King sheets well-overlapped in the middle but plenty of overlap down the sides
3. My Queen blanket which is kinda like stuffed animal fur - it's pretty grippy - and when we make the bed fresh from the dryer it overlaps about halfway into his side but then generally settles into the middle
4. My lightweight F/Q winter comforter on my side, his Twin weighted comforter on his

For us, it's layers 2-3 that keep everything together. We may have to straighten the top layers a bit every now and then but generally this holds together for about two weeks.

I wouldn't call our bed "made" in a magazine way, but because of the dogs we do pull all the covers up to the pillows.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:18 AM on November 12, 2021

Queen bed. Two king comforters. We love it.
posted by creiszhanson at 10:18 AM on November 12, 2021

I told my spouse the first night he stayed over, “I don’t share blankets.” That was a dozen years ago. We each have full size items on our king bed. I have a fluffy comforter and a fleece blanket. He uses a sheet, a fleece blanket, a coverlet, and sometimes a big comforter. (Don’t ask me why he needs the layers. He kicks most of them off… but whatever I guess.) We also use 2 standard pillows each. On the rare chance I make the bed I usually layer our blankets on each side, spread the pillows across the top, then throw a coverlet or something king size over the top. We actually just moved so I don’t have one at the moment but I will be on the hunt just because I like the possibility of it looking nice. I have also been known to throw the blankets in the closet and toss a king bedspread on if I was too tired and needed the bed to look nice.
posted by Crystalinne at 10:18 AM on November 12, 2021

Adding the brand name of the sleep bag I mentioned above that my husband uses: https://hugsleep.com/ He doesn't steal my sheets anywhere near as much now.
posted by telophase at 10:21 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

King bed, one fitted and one flat sheet, two king size comforters. Soon I'm finding matching flat sheets so we can split those too.
posted by deezil at 10:29 AM on November 12, 2021

To make the bed, fold the two blankets the long way and place them side by side on the bed with the two long folds touching. (it will look like two sleeping bags side by side)

But note that "making the bed" keeps blankets moist - better to kinda fluff them open all day with the part that was against your body exposed to air. That way the perspiration in them can air out.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:34 AM on November 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

We share a queen, so we each use a twin duvet. I also use a flat sheet; I often use a queen flat sheet, folded in half so it's just on my side. I make up my side of the bed because I need to protect it from dust (stupid allergies); he doesn't bother.
If we need to make the bed look more "made up" for some reason, we take one of the flat sheets, unfold, and put it over the top of everything.

I have no idea why any couple shares top sheets or comforters. So nice to just never have that argument (re: heaviness of blankets, or certain bed partners rolling over in ways that removes certain bed coverings from certain other bed partners).

I do have a weighted blanket that is closer to full, and in a queen it does encroach on Mr. Nat's side sometimes; but if we had a king I expect that wouldn't be an issue.
posted by nat at 10:35 AM on November 12, 2021

We’ve recently upgraded to super king size and we love it. Fitted sheet. Each has own blanket - double duvet for one and double weighted blanket for the other. I also have a body pillow. When we make the bed, we make each part side by side. Sometimes we throw a king blanket over the whole thing.
posted by mkdirusername at 10:46 AM on November 12, 2021

Whether or not this is its true name, we call this "The Norwegian System."

Each person gets a set of twin sized sheets and comforters/duvets.

Now here's the important takeaway that we get from the Nordic countries: When you make the bed in the morning, put the two duvets perpendicular/across the King-sized bed-- one covering the head of the bed, and one the foot of the bed. This keeps them together better if someone sits or lies down on top of the comforters. It helps if the two patterns are complementary, if you care about aesthetics. We've done this for more than 15 years and it works great!
posted by seasparrow at 11:00 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

We don't *technically* have separate blankets, but we have two blankets and in practice one of us usually ends up burritoed in each of them by morning. Our setup looks like:

- fitted sheet, no top sheet
- mid-weight king-size comforter
- most of the year, a king-size soft fuzzy blanket on top of that
- sometimes, depending on how I fall asleep, a weighted blanket on top of just me
- a scattering of cats snoring lightly

In cooler months, by morning we've each claimed one of the king blankets (which one each of us gets varies depending on sleep restlessness). In the summer he doesn't really want any blankets, so it's just me burritoed up in the comforter.
posted by Stacey at 11:07 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

We sleep in a queen with two queen-sized duvets. In the morning, we fold each duvet in half lengthwise, but some people like to fold up the duvets into a tidy pile that sits at the foot of the bed.
posted by mustard seeds at 11:15 AM on November 12, 2021

Yes and I am now ruined for sharing bedding.
- Fitted sheet, no top sheet(s)
- Twin duvet for each person (additional smallish blanket if it's very cold)
- No king-sized bedspread
- Making the bed is fluffing and stacking the pillows at the head of the bed, and shaking the duvets out so they are smooth and somewhat overlapped. But, I haven't heard of the perpendicular duvet bed-making mentioned by seasparrow and will try it out!
posted by esoterrica at 11:15 AM on November 12, 2021

-King bed.
-King fitted sheet.
-I have a weighted blanket, full size, for myself
-He has a full faux fur blanket for himself
-optional second blankets added as needed.
-one cat at the end of the bed for each of our feet.

.........under a king comforter that spans both of us.

If the bed is made, you cannot we are using other blankets.

Add as many cats as needed for maximum comfort.
posted by haplesschild at 12:20 PM on November 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

Our setup is exact same as esoterrica, similar to many others, and works very well. Ditching the top sheet was a game changer as our main issue was one person has much longer legs and was always kicking the top sheet out of being untucked. The duvets are easily fluffed and spread as needed to still look tidy.
Likewise minimizing the amount of king size bedding is much easier when it comes to washing and drying (tumble or line).
posted by subwaytiles at 12:40 PM on November 12, 2021

We have a king bed, no top sheet, and two queen duvets. I wash the sheet, duvet covers and pillow cases every time I change the sheets. I wish in retrospect that I had purchased full size duvets, the queen is more than I need and sometimes I feel like I have to pile up mine around me which makes me hot, or let it hang on the ground, which I also don't like. I don't think I'd be happy with a twin though.

I leave them folded open for a couple of hours in the morning or all day, then make the bed at some later point (or not, but it's nicer getting into a made bed so I try). I fold the duvets in half with the long folds meeting in the middle, with a blanket folded at the foot of the bed that runs the width of the bed, and throw pillows in front of our sleeping pillows.

The setup has decreased the number of times I get woken up by blanket/temperature stuff at night, but honestly I really miss being able to easily curl up to my husband, there's just so much duvet on the bed and in between us that he's hard to get to!
posted by zibra at 12:57 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

King sized fitted and top sheets and king sized comforter/blanket, and I have a separate weighted blanket that is a bit bigger than twin size. We (rarely) make the bed in the traditional way but with my weighted blanket on the top on my side of the bed -- if I get too warm, I can easily push the king-sized stuff to the side. Once we switched to a lighter weight king-sized comforter we stopped having issues with the bedding sliding off.
posted by sm1tten at 1:52 PM on November 12, 2021

King bed, king fitted top sheet. Everything else is in play. I usually don't use the sheet because I get tangled in it when I toss and turn. So he can be under the king sheet, and the old queen comforter we've had forever, or under one of the full blankets. I'm probably under one of my full duvets. We both sleep warm and I am a thrasher, so this allows us the best results.
posted by PussKillian at 2:04 PM on November 12, 2021

Similar to esoterica. California King mattress, fitted sheet, no top sheet. We each have our own twin comforter and matching duvet covers. His comforter is thin and light, mine heavy and warm as we sleep at vastly different temperatures. I'll add a second comforter in winter. Making the bed is just fluffing the comforters out and laying them side by side and adding an extra set of pillows with shams. We do have a pretty handmade king size quilt that lives folded on a bench at the foot of the bed most of the time but will get pulled up and over the comforters if we are having guests.
posted by platinum at 2:12 PM on November 12, 2021

When I shared a queen sized bed, he used a queen comforter and I used a twin. When we made the bed, we spread out the queen comforter as usual, and folded the twin one at the end like you would an extra blanket.
posted by radioamy at 3:06 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

We have 2 comforters, one queen and one full. To make the bed, we put them side by side. They don't match but the only other person who sees it is the cleaning lady.
posted by soelo at 6:38 PM on November 12, 2021

Mr Corpse has one big fuzzy blanket from Costco. I have two of them, layered to make them really long so I can cover my head and my feet, or else one queen- or full-sized duvet, depending on my mood. I am the Difficult Person in this bedding situation and have no remorse whatsoever. Top sheets are an abomination.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2021

We each have Queen-sized duvets. No top sheet(s). We do not have a bedspread - we just put our blankets side by side, neatly, slightly overlapping. We (me) also have a bunch of smaller blankets and a body pillow, etc., so it's a bit of a process to make the bed every morning but also very snug and warm and comfortable for sleeping. When we were selling our house and appearances were important, we put a king-sized duvet cover over top of the entire thing and it looked like a 'normal' king-sized bed.
posted by VioletU at 10:26 AM on November 14, 2021

King bed with a double mattress (? like 2 XL twins side-by-side) so - each mattress with fitted sheet & flat; a king size comforter; and individual fleeces for fine tuning of temperature.

One thing we did add a couple of winters ago, was to cover the headboard with a fleece throw. We hit the fabric store and found something we liked, got a few yards, and have it draped over the headboard. Made a world of difference in comfort. Plus a cozy factor :)

Stay warm!

SandPine
posted by sandpine at 4:54 PM on November 14, 2021

Response by poster: I didn't mark any as best answer because they basically all were best answers.
Thank you to everyone for chiming in with your personal weird partner-sleep-blanket-management system! I hope this question and its answer serves future searchers well, too.
posted by atomicstone at 1:17 PM on November 24, 2021