Linens & Stuff

Hey everyone,

I'm moving to London from DC in two weeks (getting pretty nervous at this point) and I have a stupid question about linens to bring.  I know that London flats are typically furnished, but does that come with bed linens & stuff?  If not, what size sheets should I bring (I have a queen bed right now, but I do have some old full sheets too that I could take).  I really don't want to take the wrong sheets & blankets and then have them take up extra space.  Should I bring pillows too?  I'm guessing that I need my own towels.

Thanks for the help!

Any Steeler or Penguin fans over there?

Aaron

A furnished flat would not include bed linens... and even if it did, I'd bring my own!
Just to let  you know, there is no size of bed here known as 'queen size'.  Some expats have found that American sheets do not fit British beds, but I buy all my sheets in America (i like the prints better than the prints available here), and they fit my double bed just fine.

I brought my own pillows and linens anyway because I'd be too grossed out to use them if they were already here. But like Broxi says, they probably won't provide them. Our rented house here is "furnished" and it's just furniture and oven/fridge/curtains etc.

Linen/pillows aren't that expensive here anyway so you can easily pick something up cheap to save packing space.

Sorry, we're only Eagles/Flyers fans over here. It's the law.  

My full size American sheets fit our double bed here just fine. I brought them over just 'cause I didn't feel like having to buy more when I already had so many but they are surprisingly heavy in a suitcase!! In my experience, linens and towels are not furnished and like Broxi and Lynne said, I'd want my own anyway!  Though you can always go to someplace like MFI or Matalan or even IKEA and get cheap ones.

I brought my very expensive queen size sheets and queen size matress cover.  They are a little big for the uk full size bed we have but they work just fine.  The fitted sheets have elastic almost all the way around them and I think that is the reason they work on the smaller bed.  The thing I was amazed about is that the mattress cover stays tucked in just fine.  I just couldn't bear to leave them behind when I spent such a fortune on them just a year before I moved over.

Where is a good place to buy linens/ sheets / towels in London.  I went to selfridges but was a little overwhelmed and expensive too.

I bought my bed linen at John Lewis.  No, it wasn't cheap but even in the US, linens aren't cheap. 

I bought all my linens from John Lewis.  They have just about every color sheets you could imagine, I think they had about 6 shades of white!  They were about £60 for a set for a full bed.  I am not sure if that is better than Selfridges or not.  

Decent linens are expensive everywhere.... I love John Lewis and Karin is SO right about the colour selection - it's excellent.... We bought some cheap ones from MFI for the spare room since that bed doesn't get used much and so the linens aren't subjected to constant washing, etc. and they're perfectly fine - though I don't imagine they'd last long if I had to wash them every week.

thanks for the quick replies.  It looks like Ill head over to John lewis.
Why do all the stores in this town close at 7.  How am I supposed to do errands if I leave work at 6?

Interesting thing about how they label the bed linens here, what we consider a queen size bed, with linens, would be called a king bed here, so remember that if you have a queen size (american bed), you want to look for king size sheets over here. To make it more confusing, if you have an American King size bed, (super king size over here), you may have trouble finding a duvet and sheets that are big enough. I tend to buy my linens back in the US, just because it's alot less bothersome,,lol.

Shops are open later on Thursdays. 

I brought my very expensive queen size sheets and queen size mattress cover.  They are a little big for the uk full size bed we have but they work just fine.  The fitted sheets have elastic almost all the way around them and I think that is the reason they work on the smaller bed.  The thing I was amazed about is that the mattress cover stays tucked in just fine.  I just couldn't bear to leave them behind when I spent such a fortune on them just a year before I moved over.

I brought over my very nice queen size sheets...a little big for a double but they work just fine! Definitely bring yours over. Also, one tip, since our bed (rented/furnished place) was not that comfortable I bought an egg crate foam cover for the top of the mattress (it made a huge difference!) at Target when I was back in the states a few months ago....very cheap about $8.99 vs £30 we spent for the first one over here.

Best of luck on your move!

Jules

Yeah... Now that I think back on it, I should have brought my sheets.

For comparison (and to quote Schott's Original Miscellany):

UK Single                             2'6"x6'3"            75x190
     King Single                        3'x6'3"             90x190
     Three Quarters                  4'x6'3"           120x190
     Double                           4'6"x6'3"           135x190
     King                                  5'x6'3"           153x190
     Super King                        5'x6'3"           183x190

US Twin/Single                   3'3"x6'3"           100x190
      Twin/Single extra long  3'3"x6'8"           100x203
      Double/Full                   4'6"x6'3"           135x190
      Queen                            5"x6'8"            153x203
      King                             6'6"x6'8"            200x203
      California King                6'x7'                 183x213

California King: Less of a bed, more a padded room!