The bed is the first thing you see when you walk into a bedroom and the duvet cover is doing most of the work. Get it right and the whole room looks pulled together. Get it wrong and even expensive furniture looks unfinished. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what actually makes a duvet cover worth buying, and it goes well beyond colour. The weight of the fabric, how it sits once the duvet is inside, whether it creases into something that looks relaxed or just looks neglected. These things are not small. We’ve been looking at covers in percale, washed cotton and linen, across different weights and weaves, because the right answer depends entirely on the room and the person sleeping in it. What we’ve pulled together here are the ones that look considered rather than convenient, that improve with washing rather than fading into disappointment. A good duvet cover is quiet work. These do it well.