Is white bed linen really the only option?

I can’t remember the last time I had bed linen that wasn’t white (or the lightest grey). I’ve been a firm believer in white bed linen for as long as I can remember, but when I posted about this recently, the very lovely Clarissa Hulse dropped me a message setting me a challenge to give something else a go. I’ve loved Clarissa’s colourful screen-printed patterns for a decade – she even treated me to a go at screen-printing my own cushion cover a couple of years ago – but I’ve never taken the plunge and tried any of her designs on our bed. It was time to give it a go, I mean is white bed linen really the only option?

This is what tempted me to push myself out of my all-white comfort zone. Clarissa’s brand new indigo patchwork bed linen. When I spotted it on her IG feed, I fell in love with the patterns and that deep, intense blue. It’s not white, but I thought that indigo blue could give me a colour hit and all the pattern joy, without going too bright and busy.

The design is made up of lots of indigo dyed linen pieces that were individually hand printed, painted and bleached with different plant silhouettes. The patterns are absolutely stunning, but I wanted to see if plain pillowcases would balance it out a bit for me (remember: I have gone from all-white to this, so I needed a halfway house).

The reverse side of the cover has a single pattern (rather than the patchwork). This is lovely when you fold it back, and I also tried the duvet flipped over so that just the single pattern was on show. While I love this look, I couldn’t bear to hide all those amazing patches on the other side, so I didn’t leave it like this for long.

So after trying the bed linen three ways, in the end I opted for look number 2 – patchwork duvet cover with plain pillowcases (although I did use the pillowcases from the set on our second pillows). Am I converted? I think I may well be! Although I still love the peace and tranquility that plain white bed linen offers, I can’t deny the beauty of introducing pattern, especially when the patterns are as drop-dead-gorgeous as Clarissa’s.

This isn’t a sponsored post, I just think that Clarissa Hulse is one talented lady, and I’ve crushed over her work for over a decade. If you aren’t aware of her designs, do follow her on IG, where you get an insight into how her patterns are inspired by the shapes and colours she sees in nature. And if you’ve fallen for the indigo patchwork bed linen as hard as I have, you can buy it here.