A bedspread is a neat way of making your bed look tidy during the day. Some people also use them as an extra layer of warmth at night.
There are four main types of bedspread on sale in the UK:
1. Polyester bedspreads
Polyester bedspreads are manmade and they’re usually the cheapest bedspreads. They come in a big choice of styles including ‘faux fur’ which is thick and fleecy, velvet which feels soft and satin which feels smooth and silky. They’re usually washable and durable but not as breathable as bedspreads made from natural materials. If your bedspread is just to look pretty then it doesn’t really matter what it’s made from. However, if you plan to use it as a blanket then there’s a chance you’ll get too warm in bed with a polyester bedspread.
2. Cotton bedspreads
Cotton bedspreads are more breathable and they come in a fairly good range of styles. However, they’re usually a bit more expensive than polyester. If it’s described as polycotton then it’s a mix of manmade polyester and natural cotton. You probably worked that out for yourself. Some people think polycotton is a good compromise of breathability and durability.
If you find yourself getting too hot in bed (Ed:“oooooh matron”) then cotton is a good choice.
3. Wool bedspreads
Wool bedspreads are also a bit more expensive than a polyester bedspread but they are naturally good at keeping you at a pleasant temperature. They are usually quite thin and you have a limited choice of styles.
4. Ultra posh bedspreads
Ultra posh bedspreads are made from other natural materials such as alpaca wool or silk. Some of these cost more than my first car although, to be fair, it was a very cheap car.
Onto our top five!
Here are five of the best bedspreads you can buy in the UK. We’ve included a mix of cheap and luxury bedspreads. We made our choices based on things like customer reviews, specification, value for money and brand reputation.
Prices are mostly for king bedspreads and are correct at the time of typing.
1. Catherine Lansfield Canterbury Bedspread – £39 (4 colour choices)
I would take a look at the range of bedspreads from Catherine Lansfield if you want a pretty bedspread and you aren’t obsessed about it being made from 100% ‘natural’ materials. Personally, I think they look a lot more expensive than the price tag suggests.
We’ve picked out the hugely popular Canterbury Bedspread, which comes in two sizes and four colours/styles. It’s had more than 2000 reviews and has an average score of 4.6/5.
It’s partly manmade and partly made from natural cotton, which means it is polycotton. The advantage of synthetic (i.e. manmade) materials is that they’re less wrinkly and more resilient to washing than cotton. The downside is that synthetic materials aren’t as breathable as cotton.
Good choice of sizes and styles
They come in a couple of sizes – 220 x 230cm which is best for king size beds or 240cm x 260cm which is best for super king size beds. Some people use the 220cm x 230cm bedspread with a double bed, but it’ll hang over the edges a bit more.
There are loads of other bedspreads from Catherine Lansfield at around the same price for people who prefer a velvet bedspread. Some also have matching curtains, duvet covers and pillowcases so you can live the dream.
Pros: low price and good choice of sizes. Multiple colours and patterns with matching curtains available and it covers the whole bed
Cons: partly synthetic materials
Our Value Rating: *****
(This is our own opinion of what you are getting for your money. Five star means ‘exceptionally good value’, four star is ‘very good value’ and ‘three star is ‘good value’. If it’s less than three stars, it doesn’t make the grade!)
2. Battilo Home Faux Fur Bedspread – £30+ (12 colour choices)
This faux fur bedspread from Battilo isn’t actually described as a bedspread but you can use it as one and it’s great value. The price varies significantly depending on which colour you choose.
It comes in three sizes, including one which is 150cm x 200cm. That means that it will hang over by about 30cm on each side on a double mattress, 25cm on each side on a king size mattress or about 10cm each side on a super king size mattress. It will leave your pillows and the foot of the bed uncovered, whereas most bedspreads cover the whole bed.
It only comes in a whopping 12 colours but this bedspread gets terrific reviews of 4.6/5 from customers.
Keep in mind that sleeping underneath a faux fur bedspread will add a lot of warmth. It’s made from polyester, which isn’t as breathable as natural materials.
Pros: low price, good choice of colours,
Cons: doesn’t cover the whole bed
Our Value Rating: ****
Similar faux fur bedspreads to consider:
Dunelm sell a faux fur bedspread for £90 which is a grey bedspread which is 235cm x 140cm. That means that it will overhang by about 40cm on each side on a king size mattress or 20cm each side on a super king mattress. If you’re using it on a double, it will overhang by 50cm on each side so you’ll need to have a fairly high bed. Reviewers speak very highly of it and you can put this one in the washing machine.
John Lewis & Partners describe their faux fur bedspread (£95) as a ‘throw’ but you can use it as bedspread too. It’s the same size as the Amazon faux fur bedspread but is more luxurious and costs about four times as much. It comes in six colours including as a teal, mustard or pink bedspread. It gets glowing reviews.
3. John Lewis & Partners Moda Bedspread – £60 (3 colour choices)
This Moda bedspread is great value, considering that it comes with the John Lewis & Partners reputation and a choice of three colours.
It’s massive at 260cm x 250cm meaning that it covers the whole bed including the pillows and foot of the bed (and probably the dog too). It is suitable as a super king bedspread with about 35cm overhanging on each side. If you use it as a king bedspread it will overhang by about 50cm on each side but it would probably drown a double bed a bit too much.
It’s a shiny synthetic material which isn’t as breathable as a natural blanket or bedspread made from wool or cotton. However, it looks classy and you can chuck it in the washing machine rather than having to take it to the dry cleaners (or just never washing it, which is what we would end up doing…).
Customer review scores averaged 4.6/5 from about 100 reviews.
An upgrade option
If you’re feeling flushed and want a shiny-looking bedspread which is made from natural materials then you’ll need to cough up about £300 for a genuine silk bedspread.
Pros: big name and respected brand, reasonably priced and large size
Cons: only one size makes it too big for a double and it’s made from synthetic materials
Our Value Rating: *****
4. Soak & Sleep Cotton Bedspread – £80 (3 colour choices)
If you plan to sleep underneath your bedspread (rather than just using it as something to look pretty during the daytime) then I would take a look at these cotton bedspreads from Soak & Sleep.
Cotton bedspreads are usually more expensive than synthetic or polycotton bedspreads but it is a naturally breathable material so you’re less likely to wake up in a sweaty puddle (Ed: ewwww!).
The downsides with a cotton bedspread are that they’re not quite as resilient as synthetic materials. Some hotels use synthetic bedding or semi-synthetic bedding as it copes better with endless washing and it doesn’t wrinkle as much.
Although this is a cotton bedspread, it’s not actually entirely made from cotton. It is a quilted bedspread, which means that it is two layers of cotton with a layer of cotton and polyester sandwiched in the middle.
It comes in three different colours including white, grey and stone.
It also comes in several sizes. Soak & Sleep suggest which bedspread is suitable for single, double, king size and super king beds whereas a lot of companies just give the bedspread size without any guidance.
This bedspread scores 4.8/5 from customers at the time of writing. Soak & Sleep has won customer awards over the last few years and scores 4.7/5 on TrustPilot after thousands of reviews.
Pros: choice of three colours, highly rated brand and several sizes to choose from
Cons: quite expensive and cotton is less hardwearing,
Our Value Rating: ****
…as well as three colours, including this grey.
5. John Lewis & Partners Plain Wool Bedspread – £90 (four colour choices)
There aren’t all that many bedspreads made from wool on the market, but there are lots of throws and blankets. If you can find a wool blanket or throw which is big enough, you can certainly use it as a bedspread.
In my opinion, wool bedspreads look a lot less flashy than most synthetic or faux fur bedspreads but they’re good if you like things to look simple and classy.
This wool blanket/throw from John Lewis & Partners is 190cm x 140cm which means it can be used as a bedspread as long as you don’t want your pillows to be covered up. It will hang over the edges on a double bed by about 25cm on both sides, or 20cm each side on a king size bed.
Wool has the advantage of being a natural material which helps keep you at the right temperature in bed. On the downside, you can’t put a wool blanket like this in the washing machine.
It comes in four different colours and achieves a score of 4.7/5.
The advantage of wool
It’s made from 100% wool, which is a good thing. Cheaper wool blankets are usually made from a ‘wool blend’, which means they are mixed with synthetic materials such as acrylic.
According to Stanton in a 2011 academic publication called ‘Improving Comfort in Clothing‘, wool is a high performing material as it ‘performs well in comparative objective measurements for moisture and thermal properties’.
Kofler et al also studied wool clothing in a 2015 paper. They said that it is ‘a good temperature and humidity regulator giving the wearer a warm and dry feeling during physical activities in the cold’. They carried out some other tests which compared sheep wool (tirolwool, referred to as TW) with polyester micro fibre clothing which is a synthetic material. The test involved 12 sports students walking for an hour.
They found that wool ‘led to a dryer shirt and lower humidity underneath the shirt and jacket’. They also found that ‘Core temperature and skin temperature drop’ were reduced with the wool material compared to the synthetic material.
Pros: wool is good at temperature regulation, good choice of colours
Cons: quite small, only one size and hand wash only
Our Value Rating: ****
Similar wool bedspreads to consider:
- You can get even posher wool blankets which are usually a blend of normal wool with cashmere (£185) or 100% cashmere (£195). These are ideal if you’ve recently had a lottery win. The 100% cashmere blanket pictured below is sold by John Lewis & Partners and is 200cm x 150cm. That would mean you could use it as a bedspread on a double mattress (135cm x 190cm) or use it without any overhang on a king size mattress.
What’s the difference between a throw, a bedspread and a blanket?
You may be trying to figure out the difference between a blanket, a throw and a bedspread, as the three words are used interchangeably on some online bedding shops.
Let me give you my summary, after much reading of contradictory information online…
A bedspread usually fully covers a single, double, king size or super king size bed. Throws and blankets come in all shapes and sizes so they normally just cover the sides of the bed and leave the pillows and foot of the bed on show. A coverlet is similar to a bedspread but it’s usually a bit smaller.