Does it always have to be white?

[Michelincamper]

I was thinking of changing to ivory coloured bed linen from Out of Eden, because it fits in with the bedroom colour scheme. But is it better to stick with white, there must be a reason why hotels always have white

[PW in Polemi]

With white, it is easy to bleach out any stains and don't forget, when the colour has faded a little, ivory will look more like off-white. White can often be easier to replace too without having to purchase whole sets.

[kg1]

We went for colour co-ordinated originally but am gradually changing to white. Much easier to add pieces, often white sheets etc. are in a sale whereas the coloured ones never match!
Also as previously said much easier to bleach & stain remove.

[AngloDutch]

We have had white duvet covers but with multi-coloured patterning. They were perfect for hiding any stains as you never really saw them among all the colours (apart from the mascara which was always a real pain to get out).
Now we are looking at changing the entire appearance of our farmhouse and have gone for much better quality linen (after several years, cheaper covers seem impossible to fold properly as the sides never seem to line up anymore). But we have now decided to ditch the white duvet covers for a more rustic look. Our under sheets have always been white or off-white and are elasticated at the corners. No need to iron them and great for a fast changeover.

We have also decided to paint alot of the furniture in the holiday home white. Yesterday we started with the pine wardrobes and bedside tables. The TV furniture was a 1990's glossy black, so that has been replaced by a low-level white cupboard that took us most of an afternoon to put together!

Gone too are our black metallic bedside tables that we bought from Ikea when we opened. These are now being ditched for new white wooden tables with a pine-coloured top (from experience, white tops are not a good idea as guests will place drinks and leave makeup, etc on them and they will stain fast).

We have also gone with larger side tables in the sitting room, again with the pine tops. Last year we bought 4 completely white side tables. All 4 had drink mark stains within a few months (coasters don't always get used, do they). So again, no white tops for us anymore.

6 of our single box spring beds are being ditched after 12 years as well. We noticed in December that guests had swapped some of the mattresses around with those from 2 newer single beds and on inspection we saw that some of the older mattresses were beginning to collapse at the sides, so really time to renew them. Their bases were a cream colour at one time, but over the last decade became gradually more and more grubby. So, we learnt our lesson there and have now gone for a grey base with white mattresses.
Also, no more long and thin wooden legs on the base! Another lesson learnt there. One leg broke off after just a few years and over the last few years we lost another 2 legs, so had to prop 2 beds up on blocks of wood. We have now chosen bases with much shorter square blocks. You can go for a base/mattress that can take more than 100kg in weight, but it only takes a few kids to jump up and down on them and if it's the wrong type of leg, it will of course snap.

So, we are changing more of the furniture where possible to white, but it's a colour with which you have to be careful, isn't it. Dirt and stains won't always come out.

Our biggest disaster ever was putting in cream-coloured carpeting throughout the main rooms and bedrooms. Within 3 years we had taken the most dirtiest and worn half out. The rest followed a few years after that. It was all replaced with toughened laminate, with here and there a rug.

A pity we never found a guide to running a holiday home (or LMH!) back in 2004, it would have saved us literally thousands of Euros!

[Hells Bells]

I have white now. It was originally white with a red floral pattern (IKEA) and I still have some of them. I changed them when the ribbon ties started to come away. I do have to buy a couple of sets for the double bed, so that we can use them ourselves and not need to rely on bedding that has been washed at the laundry, as hubby is allergic to the washing powder they use. I am not going to buy white though for ourselves.

[Cymraes]

I've also changed to white bedding very reluctantly.

The guests don't seem to mind but I do.

[Moliere]

Just to be contrary, we always had brightly coloured bedding - blues, yellows, reds, in jolly patterns which echoed the "Mediterranean" style we sought in our house. Colours could be mixed and matched ad infinitum and we think it presented our guests with a cheerful home for their holiday, certainly it seemed popular in feedback.

Horses for courses as usual!

Mols

[Nemo]

I think it's also worth putting a different perspective on it with regards to occupancy.

I'm in the UK, two properties, short breaks available 365 days a year, so my linen gets washed a lot and takes a hammering. I therefore have white which stands the pace and I know I can replace odd bits and they will match.

If you have one property, are more seasonal with weekly bookings only, perhaps wash your own laundry rather than send it to a launderette or commercial service then maybe the reasons why some of us choose white are less important?

[Joanna]

We went for ivory sheets and pillow cases in the main bedroom with subtle patterned cream duvet covers. The twin rooms had white sheets and pillow cases. I'm now in the process of replacing all the ivory with white. This is partly because the Ivory fades slightly over time so we've discovered that the older ones don't match newer replacements.

But it's mainly because the cleaners regularly mix them up with the white ones without noticing. When you have an Ivory pillow case next to a white one it just looks dirty.

If you're doing changeovers yourselves the mismatching wouldn't be a problem but over time fading colours might be.

[aasta]

Each of our 5 rooms has a different color scheme...with high quality colorful organic bedding...guests love the cheerfulness and "Southern feel"...Our bottom sheets are white

[Joffan]

White is the most practical for all the reason above but I also use good quality patterned bedspreads and pillow shams.